sand sifting starfish

[Bridges]

i don't know if it is dying or not.all he does is set there and hasn't moved in the last couple days unless i move it any ideas

[profntbtr]

usually theey will move till they find food and stay there as slong as there is food, but a couple days is longer than it would take to eat any amount of food in your sandbed, so i'm sorry, but i think he's dead dude

[Iplantz]

Those are notorious for dying out from starvaion. Can't remeber why exacly though.

[Gseclipse02]

mine moves a lot never stays in one spot

do you have sand or coral ???

[Bridges]

The sand That comes wet in a bag

[glennr1978]

both of mine move quite a bit. I've had them for well over a year, almost 2.

[txav8r]

Is there anything that you can feed a starfish incase he is starving? Like everyone else here, mine moves everyday

[Kristy]

We had one of those in our first 10 gallon(!) tank and we target fed it everyday to try to prevent the inevitable, starvation, but it eventually died, of course. This was one of our colossal newbie mistakes that we learned from the hard way (meaning at the loss of an animal's life). Later read that these need a minimum of 100 gallon tank, preferably 200 gallons in order to have enough sand bed life to live.

There is the risk (probability) of starvation of the starfish, plus there is also the risk (probability again) of turning your "live sand" to dead sand in the process by cleaning out almost all life there while trying to get enough to eat. Really not a great idea to put one of these in a tank unless you have a really, really big reef and then only one.

You should be able to pick up the starfish and tell if it is alive or dead. If alive it will move and respond to your touch. If dead it will smell and be starting to decompose. If dying, it will probably not move or respond to you.

Good luck and just learn from this like we did. Hope you don't buy another one. Try a serpent star or brittle star instead...

[jroescher]

Turn it upside down. If alive, it will turn itself back right in a few minutes.

Mine would move around a lot, then stay put for long periods. Finally lost it during a huge tank crash.

[glennr1978]

You know, I've also read that these guys need large tanks or death is inevitable. However, like I stated previously, I've had 2 of them in my 40g for going on 2 years. If such a large tank is a must, then how am I getting away with having 2 in such a small tank? On top of having small tank, the vast majority of my SSB is covered with LR (over 80 lbs in a 40g).

Not trying to start any arguements here, just wondering how this is possible..

[Joshua]

You know, I've also read that these guys need large tanks or death is inevitable. However, like I stated previously, I've had 2 of them in my 40g for going on 2 years. If such a large tank is a must, then how am I getting away with having 2 in such a small tank? On top of having small tank, the vast majority of my SSB is covered with LR (over 80 lbs in a 40g).

Not trying to start any arguements here, just wondering how this is possible..

You probably have a heck of a lot more life in your sandbed than most of the people these "guidelines" are intended for. There's probably enough of a safe haven under those rocks that's inaccessible to the stars to maintain a population of sandbed life that propogate out into the star's feeding zones. Either that or you're feeding way too much. :p

If that star is dead it'll start falling apart pretty quick, if it's still moving you can target feed it mysis and such.

[Bridges]

Thanks for the help. I picked him up like one of suggested and he didn't move to touch so I guess he did die. Am not going to get another one. Thank you again

[txav8r]

Sorry to hear that. Live and learn I guess.

[Nunzy]

I guess live and learn, been there done that. Sorry about losing that little guy.