Sand sifting star

[Dustin Hale]

Is a 60gl reef to small for a sand sifter considering the liverock .doesn't seem like theres a lot of room for it to roam

 

[The steven liu]

I think if your sandbed is deep enough and if you have a mature reef with plenty of rock and dirt in the sand for the star it should be fine

 

[Javeo]

NOt at all, sand sifting stars will soon starve in most tanks. They eat any benificial infauna within a DSB so making the DSB pointless. In a shallow sand bed they will starve even faster.

 

[The steven liu]

At work we have a sand star living with less than 1/2" sand and it is thriving. So I would still say it is all right. You will hear many different opinions on this forum but it all comes down to your judgement and your luck. Sometimes you'll get a healthy greedy star that eats anything and survive happily in a small tank and sometimes you'll find a star with very particular taste and fade in larger systems. We can only tell stories from our own experiences, but as far as the result, it will vary from person to person, tank to tank, and animal to animal.

 

[Monkeyfish]

Steven - How long has the star been in your system? From my understanding, given optimal conditions, sea stars are virtually immortal. Keeping a star for a few months or even a few years isn't what I'd call a success with an animal that could theoretically live forever.

IMO - pass on the sand sifter. If it survives you'll hardly ever see it and it'll deplete the sand-bed of beneficial organisms.

 

[The steven liu]

yeah, pass on the sand sifter, and get a chocolate chip! just kidding. Yeah I agree with monkeyfish on seastars being immortal. I lived in Belize for 6 years and go diving in the barrier reef all the time, residents on the beach would pick up palm size seastars and throw them around to get them out of the way. The government was not smart enough about the creature and sent a team to molest them in the 70's to "control their population" and the result is a doubling of the stars. Anyways, I always thought it's funny that people are so careful with not having stars expose to air or they'll die, because we do that all the time picking them up and throw them around and they still thrive and breed like weed down in the Carribbean. My point is, they are really tough and isn't all that difficult to keep unless something is seriously wrong with your water.

 

[Monkeyfish]

 

[Monkeyfish]

Not arguing with their relative ease of care, but they still need something to eat.