Sand Sifting Starfish

[jeasko]

thought id post this as am very curious as to what my star fish are doing, I have 2 sand sifting stars that seem to constantly be on top of each other and if they are not they are always close to each other, is it possible they could be mating?

 

[Adrinal]

I think the other one is just lazy

;p

 

[jeasko]

that was my first thought

 

[Lynden]

Possibly. A bigger concern is, how do you provide for two sand sifting stars?

 

[jeasko]

not sure what you mean by provide lynden?

 

[Lynden]

Well it's just the amount of substrate-borne fauna they require for long-term survival is quite enormous.

 

[SkiFletch]

Agreed, these organisms eat a LOT of microinvertebrates and other little organisms that live in sand beds. Just like Mandarins eat all the pods in a tank and starve, many of these starfish eat all the organisms in the sand bed and starve to death... Hence their poor survival rate in captivity.

 

[jeasko]

had these 2 pretty much from dot (just about a year give or take), my substrate is approx 1 inch deep which i dont disturb that often due to these 2, which i was lead to belive would be beneficial to them both, i do from time to time use a gravel cleaner though, but they both seem more than happy and other than being either on top of each other or following each other they do not seem to be doing anything out of the ordinary, which i take as a positive sign.