Killing Starfish. Help?

[minesinger]

I'm confused and need some advice. My 75g tank has been up and running with 5 Chromis, a Yellow Tang, a Clown, a Firefish Goby, and about 60 assorted snails for about 3 weeks now.

A couple days ago I added 2 Sally Lightfoot Crabs and a Sand Sifting Star. The Crabs are doing great.

The Star on the other hand, was in the tank for about 8 hrs. Then around 9:00 the other night he came up out of the sand and died about 5 minutes later. Thinking I had a bad star or something I took him back to the LFS. My water checked out perfect and they gave me another one, I broght him home and he did the same thing. About 8 hrs in the tank and he emerged from the sand and died.

I spent about 40 minutes acclimating both stars. My water still tests with 0 ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate, Ph is about 8.2. I'm not sure if I'm missing something or mabey I'm not supposed to keep starfish? Help? Thanks.

 

[taillonjohn]

the sand sifting star eats stuff in the Live Sand, meaning, the sand bed should be mature enough to have plenty of fauna to feed the star because that is all it eats.

But then again, the star can take up to several months to starve to death, so if yours are dying after 8 hours, might be something else. So maybe others will chime in

 

[minesinger]

Almost half my sand was purchased from my LFS as "straight from the ocean"

I don't think they both would have starved in 8hrs.