What do I do - got "upgraded" to Starfish when I ordered snails.

Simon Ashby

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Hi Guys,

I've got a newish (7 months) 20 gals FOWLR (plus one anemone) tank that has been ticking along really well.

I've got 2 x Clown, 1 x BTA that my clowns love, as well as a lawnmower blennie.
I also have 2 x Nassarius snails.

The Nassarius weren't quite able to keep up with Algae, so I placed what I thought was a reasonable order for 2 x Trocus, 1 x Peppermint Shrimp, and 1 x Nassarius to help eat some of the Algae.

My water chemistry is good, but where the tank is there is some sunlight, so we were getting a bit of algae. The Blennie was doing a really good job of attacking the algae, he was basically pigging out and he was leaving detritus everywhere! Like, I'd just vacuum the sand, and there it would be, again.

I brought the extra snails from an online store as my LFS had run out, and hadn't had stock for about 6 weeks, however after I placed the order, the online store I ordered from had run out of Nassarius, so instead sent me 2 x Trocus, 2 x Turbo, 1 x Peppermint Shrimp, and 2 x Sand Sifting Starfish. I'm flattered by their generosity, but I'm particularly worried about the Sand Sifting Starfish, as I'm concerned the tank isn't big enough to keep them fed long term.

Is their anything I can do? Do I add Amphipods and Copepods to the sand? Do I bury small pieces of Shrimp? I can't return them as the shop I purchased them from is 1000km away.
 
Do you have anyone you can give them to? 2x sand sifting starfish in a 20g is bananas. Maybe you can resell them. It's difficult to find anything besides a chocolate chip star in my neck of the woods.
 
Yes I'd see if you can get credit at a LFS or give them to someone from a local club. There's a good chance of starvation and/or killing all of your microfauna in your sand bed.
 
These are not the CUC you're looking for. LFS, or find someone locally. They will decimate your tank of microfauna then die.

A Sand Sifting star can struggle in non-mature 180 gallon tanks.
 

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