Sand sifting star question?

[jfenton954]

I have a 75g reef tank with a small sand sifting star fish. He's not getting to all of the sand bed before it starts turning green is it ok to add more than one?

 

[waucedah_joe]

Most slowly die of starvation. Mine did in a 140g. Yellow headed goby doing the job now and it's great. Can't keep any coral in the sand though because the goby is always dusting them.

 

[BigAl07]

No way I'd add another one. It takes a very large and mature tank to sustain even one long term.

I'd suggest you supplement your Clean Up Crew by adding an assortment of Nassarius snails from ReefCleaners.org | Clean Up Crews and Macro Algae


and

 

[jpsika08]

I have only one and intend to leave it like that, it has been in my system for over 10 months and doing well, they are pretty boring crits if you ask me, you never get to see them, only good thing is that at least you know you have an undertaker in there

 

[Melilot37]

I have one in my 75 that does great.

If you do decide to grab another, they have really good deals on them at frontlineaquatics and site discounts.

 

[BigAl07]

I have one in my 75 that does great.

If you do decide to grab another, they have really good deals on them at frontlineaquatics and site discounts.

Not the best of advice IMHO. It's already been established they need a large mature system for any chance of long term survival.

 

[sk8rdn]

Not the best of advice IMHO. It's already been established they need a large mature system for any chance of long term survival.

Unless you do a lot of algae farming in your display tank... Lol.

...."Fish" Happens!....

 

[cheeks69]

I agree with BigAl this Starfish needs a large well established tank to survive long term since they eat the infauna in the SB they'll pretty much turn a live SB dead and then starve to death.

 

[modulok]

Like other starfish, Astropecten polycanthus efficiently consumes mass amounts of detritus and uneaten foods. This peaceful omnivore will effectively clean even the largest home aquarium of detritus and left over food.

That's from liveaquaria.

Food content: Sand Sifting Sea Star eats detritus along with mainly consuming crustaceans found on the sandy bottom of the marine water bodies, such as, Amphipods, Spaghetti Worms, Copepods, and Tube Worms to name some.
Supplements: You may supplement the diet of Sand Sifting Sea Star with the meaty bits of fish, sea urchins, shrimp, bivalves and other small sized starfish.

From freshmarine.

Mine seems to be doing ok. And I added him a month after I was setup (without the knowledge I have now about starfish). I don't know how much live sand would help, but I added 20lbs when I started. Also added pods a few times.

My friend had one for 4-5 months, but it lost a part of a limb and died shortly after. BUT he did change tanks often and didn't reuse his sandbed.

 

[Ian Eisenberg]

My daughter has one in a nano (14 gallon bio cube) and it has been going strong for 8 months. Of course her pod population is insane.