FT -- Sand Sifting Starfish

G

gouldaz

New member
Hello

Anybody want to trade for a sand sifting starfish? He is 3-4 inches across, had him for 3 months and is very healthy.

I have afforded him a lot of space on my sand bed and he has done well in my 24 gallon. After much debating/reading, I think he might need to go to something bigger.

Maybe I could trade him for some frags or I could trade him and some $$ for some nicer frags or some type of goby/blenny.

Let me know if there is any interest.

- Brian

PM me if interested
 
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I'll talk to my husband when he gets up today.....might be interested. We recently fragged our large toadstool and will have plenty of frags soon and we also have some colt coral frags. I'll get back to you later today. Would either of those corals interest you?
 
I'd be interested in the Colt Coral. I already have a regular tan toadstool, so unless it is a green one or something, I would just be interested in the Colt. Let me know. Thanks
 
I actually dont think I'd be interested in the Colt as they are fast growers right? I dont want it taking over my 24. I'm more interested in shrooms, zoas, rics......but open to any offer.
 
If my husband is interested in the star, I will also see if we have any loose shrooms or some zoas we could trade for it. The colt goes through growth spurts and frags itself like twice a year in my tank. It's going through that phase right now which is why I have frags of it. I've had it almost a year and it went from being a single 4" stalk to a 'colony' that is about 5" tall and 3-4" wide with several branches. At the same time though with 2 growth spurts it dropped about 20 - 30 frags the size of the original stalk and I traded them or tossed a few out. I'll get back to you later when my husband is up.
 
With a 125 gallon like you have a shallow sandbed would be fine. He should be able to find plenty of food. In small tanks, deeper may suit them a little better.
 
In that case, if noone else is interested before then I would be. I wouldn't be able to pick up until next week though. I will PM you.
Frizz
 
Not to spoil anyones party but if you want a functioning deep sand bed DO NOT add a sand sifting star. I made that mistake against advice from people here and it completely decimated my 100G 5" deep sand bed in less than 3 months. There was not one living thing left in the sand. I removed the star and took it back to the store where I got it. It took 6 months of sand donations and numerous bottles of live pods to get it back to where it was previously.
I don't mean to be a pessimist but they do and will eat anything live. If you are just wanting to keep the sand free of detritus get nassarius snails and maybe a fighting conch, both only eat detritus and not pods and worms.
Just my personal experience.
 
There are mixed reviews on them. A lot of people will also say that a larger tank's sandbed will regenerate plenty enough food for the sand sifting star to eat. Seems to have not been the case in your tank. People like them because they keep the sandbed stirred up better than most of the other things out there.

Seems from what I have read it is a personal preference.
 
OK,
now I am a little nervous. My sandbed is only 2-3". My interest in this guy was to help prevent cyno in my more dead areas. A problem that I haven't really had much of recently but has been an issue off & on in the past. So what do you guys think? My tank is big but there is really not a lot of sandy bottom space because of the LR.
Frizz
 
What the star fish will do for you is eat live things off the sandbed. This includes pods and fauna out of your sandbed, which some people do not like. It will also eat food that drops to the sandbed when you feed your fish (shrimp, flakes). This food would normally rot if not eaten and cause problems like cyano. The starfish will not eat detritus, algae, etc.

The starfish will also help to stir up the sandbed, which can also help if you get cyano on your sandbed. I personally would not think you would have problems. I have not had problems in my 24g with a 3-4 inch sandbed. I still see plenty of life, pods, etc. I would think even if your sandbed is covered quite a bot, you would have room in your 125 -- especially if he has done ok in my 25. They are pretty craft and can scoot between rocks and curl up under the edge of rocks.
 
My 100G was a little over 1 year old when I added the sand sifter and had tons of life in the 5" southdown DSB at the time. You couldn't move a piece of anything without a dozen mini brittle stars, red worms or pods popping out everywhere. Like I said after 3 months it looked like the Gobi Desert with absolutely nothing moving in it. The Star got fat though! I was warned beforehand by several locals but chose to ignore their warnings. It probably still is not what it once was to this day even with cups of sand from everyones tanks.
 
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