Uchin eats starfish

[PeterEde]

Today my longspine urchin decided to eat an appendage off my new sand sifting starfish.
Hopefully the starfish will survive and regro the leg?

 

[GlassMunky]

How do you know it was the urchin that did it?
Did you see it happen or did the starfish just come out of a rock missing a leg so you assume it was the urchin.

Generally urchins are herbivores they don’t attack other creatures.

 

[PeterEde]

How do you know it was the urchin that did it?
Did you see it happen or did the starfish just come out of a rock missing a leg so you assume it was the urchin.

Generally urchins are herbivores they don’t attack other creatures.

The urchin was sitting on it for a few hours.
After googling if urchins do eat starfish the result was a maybe. Well once the urchin moved away the starfish was missing a leg. So 100 % witnessed

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Does the urchin have enough algae in the tank for it? Urchins may occasionally eat meat in nature, but it's typically rare unless the urchin is starving.

With enough good food and water, the star should heal.

 

[PeterEde]

Does the urchin have enough algae in the tank for it? Urchins may occasionally eat meat in nature, but it's typically rare unless the urchin is starving.

With enough good food and water, the star should heal.

There's algea on rocks and back glass I often feed it nori by hand.
Now I'm wondering if it's keeping the astrea stars under control

 

[EricR]

My pincushion urchin ate a small, healthy hermit crab a couple of years ago.
*of course the consensus would be no, some other explanation, but what I witnessed was pretty clear (to me anyway)

 

[PeterEde]

My pincushion urchin ate a small, healthy hermit crab a couple of years ago.
*of course the consensus would be no, some other explanation, but what I witnessed was pretty clear (to me anyway)

Always the outliers.
I've had this urchin since my first live rock. It was⅜ when I first found it. It's now dia of 2 golf balls.
I knew it ate fireworks but didn't think starfish would be on the menu. Especially considering I have plenty of algea and feed it nori.