Inactive Sand Sifting Starfish

[6raham Parkes]

Hi All

New to forum but have a question for all

I have had my 90l tank running for a number of months now, I have 9 kilos of live rock with gravel and have 4 red legged hermits and 4 snails happily roaming around, i recently purchased a sand sifting starfish, climatised it to the tank as recommended and it moved around great for the first 3 days or so but after the past couple it has stopped moving around and hasnt really buried itself either. Just lieing on top of my gravel. (there should be enough food for it as it had been mucnching its way round fine only a day ago and have added some green algae for it to eat)

Last night i thought id check up on it as i have read they are nocturnal but still it hadnt moved and a couple of my hemit crabs were sat on top of it (not disturbing it as far as i could see)

Could anyone give me some advice on this? Is it dead? I dont want to try and move it or disturb it unless i need too

Regards

Graham

 

[AK77]

Hi Graham,

In general, starfish don't do well in tanks that are smaller than 4-5ft, purely because of the amount of available food for them. Some species are easier to keep than others but in my experience of keeping Linkia Sp. and a sand sifting star in a 180L tank, they didn't last more than a few months.

If your starfish hasn't moved in a few days, then I'd be concerned about its health. Personally, I would lift it of the sand and turn it upside down in the water. Observe if there is any response from the limbs or the tentacles. If there is no movement after a few minutes and there is no sign of life coming from the little suckers either, then I would think its pretty safe to say that its given up the ghost. If that is the case, remove it from the tank to avoid an ammonia spike.

If there is movement, put the starfish back where it was, and maybe slip some food underneath it, to encourage feed. You will most likely have to target feed it indefinitely, with algae waffers or pellet food to maintain its health. Starfish are very slow moving in comparison to snails, hermit crabs and shrimp and often get beaten to food sources. This is another reason why they don't do so well in smaller tanks.

 

[6raham Parkes]

Hi Ak77

Thankyou for your response.

I have done like what you said and he turned himself over (just about) and left him with some food underneath but he wasnt interested in the food and moved away from it as soon as possible?

I'll keep an eye on him for a few days and see how he gets on

Regards

Graham

 

[AK77]

Hi Graham,

Well at least you know its still alive. It probably moved away due to being turned touched. I'd experiment with different foods for it. You could try algae wafers, squid pellets, algae pellets, bloodworm pellets etc.

 

[6raham Parkes]

Thanks Ak77

It does seem to have a little more life in it today and has actually moved around a little more than the past two put together! I will try some different foods to see whether that makes a difference?? Do they prefer meat or would dried seaweed be any good?

Thanks

Graham

 

[AK77]

Most starfish are omnivorous. Personally I'd try algae pellets that are commonly fed to freshwater pleco's or taking a small section of nori seawead, wrapping it around a small piece of live rock rubble or largish, clean pebble and fixing it in place with a rubber band. Put this in the path of the starfish.

If it doesn't respond to these, I'd suggest squid pellets. These are easily available from ebay in 50g bags for a few pounds. Bare in mind that any shrimp or hermit crabs will make a bee-line for these too, so you may need to squish a pellet into the sand to prevent other critters from getting it, or put it directly into the path of the starfish. Hopefully it will get to the food and consume it before the competition.