Sick sand sifting starfish

[vaguelyreeflike]

We received a shipment of sand sifting stars, 2/3 did amazing however one arrived falling apart and melting. His central disk and parts of the legs closest to it are fine. I cut off the rotting parts of the legs and he is in a hospital set up with Neoplex and daily iodine dips.

24 hours later he’s still eating and moving around a bit, no clear infection now that he’s in antibiotics.

Anything else I can be doing? I know the prognosis isn’t great but he’s lived longer than any other specimen I’ve treated with rot before so I am hopeful.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Anything else I can be doing?

Providing enough good food and good water quality is about all you can do, to my knowledge.

 

[vaguelyreeflike]

Providing enough good food and good water quality is about all you can do, to my knowledge.

Im hoping itll be enough! I mixed up some fresh saltwater for the QT bucket, and I’ve been putting pieces of algae wafer directly under it for food. Wasn’t looking the best before I left though

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Algae wafers almost certainly won’t cut it unfortunately:

These starfish don’t eat algae in any meaningful quantities. They’re probably carnivorous, but may be detritivorous (see the quotes below). Personally, I’d try putting the star in an acclimation box with a dish of sand for it, and I’d try offering it a bunch of mollusks for it to eat (clams, mussels, oysters, and small but meat-eating snails like Nassarius snails would be my suggestions at this point), and see if it shows interest in eating any of them. If it does, then I’d try offering it more of that item in various sizes and see if it has a preferred food size.

I'd try something like clam, oyster, etc. and/or snail meat (you can find various frozen/live marine snails to try online, including conch meat, periwinkle snails, babylonian snails, etc.)

The quote below is specifically geared toward Astropecten spp. (predatory) sand sifting stars, but there is another genus of sand sifting stars called Archaster that is thought (importantly the diet was inferred, not studied in the research that this diet was pulled from) to be detritivorous (specifically, they are thought to be microphagous detritivores). I have heard but cannot confirm that Archaster spp. misidentified as Astropecten spp. may be more common in the hobby than actual Astropecten spp. are.

So, with this in mind:
- If your star is detritivorous (which may be a very big if), then you would likely want smaller foods than the suggested below (which is designed for predatory sand sifters). In this case, I'd suggest trying to mix something like TDO Chroma Boost into the sand for your stars to find.
- If your star is predatory (which may to our limited knowledge be possible at this point even if it is an Archaster sp.), then the below advice (and my advice above) is more likely to be useful.
- If your star is actually primarily a biofilm eater like Linckia spp. Protoreaster nodosus, etc. (which may also to our limited knowledge be possible for an Archaster sp.), then it's likely to die regardless of what you do or don't feed it at this point.

I’ve heard they climb the glass when they’re looking for food and can’t find any in the sand bed.

Generally, people recommend large tanks and waiting until your tank is established before trying these (or pretty much any) sea stars, and the star survives on detritus in the tank. Unfortunately, even in a lot of these tanks, after they finish clearing the detritus from the sand, they typically starve.

My current advice to avoid the star staving - which may or may not help, I genuinely don't know at this point (it could take someone months to years of testing it to find out for certain, as sea stars can last months without food):
Target feed the star things like clam on half shell, oyster, mussel, scallop, etc. (bivalves); snail, whelk, conch, etc. (sea snail gastropods); and a good quality omnivore food (like LRS Reef Frenzy or Fertility Frenzy). These are - according to the best sources of information I can find - the sorts of foods sand sifting stars consume in the wild, and the star should swallow these foods whole if they aren't too big - you might need to experiment a bit with the size of the pieces offered to get it sized just right, but generally I'd say err on the smaller side.

If you decide to give it a shot, let me know how it goes, and keep me updated on the long term survival of the star!

 

[vaguelyreeflike]

Algae wafers almost certainly won’t cut it unfortunately:

Thank you for the resources, when he was on it he did show signs of consuming it but I agree its probably not enough nutrition in any case. If it’s still alive tomorrow I’ll move some established sand bed and meaty foods in with it to try.
Good to know for the future though

 

[redfishbluefish]

A great food for starfish are clams....the common clam you find in your seafood store. I typically purchase a dozen and throw them in the freezer. When I want to feed, I open one up and cut a chunk off and feed the starfish. As you put it in the tank....I used long forceps....they "smell" the food and move toward it. The remaining clam goes into a small ziploc and back into the freezer for another day.

 

[vaguelyreeflike]

He unfortunately didn’t make it while I was gone for the weekend slowly trying to perfect the starfish-saving regime, the antibiotics definitely went a long way. Next is ensuring diet is proper

 

[Rick's Reviews]

We received a shipment of sand sifting stars, 2/3 did amazing however one arrived falling apart and melting. His central disk and parts of the legs closest to it are fine. I cut off the rotting parts of the legs and he is in a hospital set up with Neoplex and daily iodine dips.

24 hours later he’s still eating and moving around a bit, no clear infection now that he’s in antibiotics.

Anything else I can be doing? I know the prognosis isn’t great but he’s lived longer than any other specimen I’ve treated with rot before so I am hopeful.

It's a terrible decision to make.. you obviously can not sell on to others