Sand Sifting Starfish diet?

[JEFFR259]

Morning Everyone!

Put a sand sifting starfish in my tank to help turn over the LS. He's doing a good job, but I need to know if I need to feed him. If so, what would his diet consist of?

Thanks!

 

[Packersfan21]

They eat micro organisms in the sandbed and often starve and die in home aquariums. Nassarius snails do a much better job w/ cleaning the sandbed. They eat detritus as well and can be fed frozen chunks of meat.

 

[JEFFR259]

I have 10 Nassarius, but they don't turn enough LS and the starfish churns lots of LS....

 

[JEFFR259]

Now I'm confused ...I have done some searching on other boards and I have read they eat goodies bigger than micro-organisms (krill, shrimps (prob mysis), etc). Unless the SandSifting starfish I have differs from the other SS Starfish that I've read about.

Not discounting your knowledge Packersfan21, I just have no idea what I should feed.....and now I'm worrying I bought something I can't feed and it's going to die a slow emaciated death

BUMP for more info!!!

 

[ROB2005]

You can feed them, but only when they are out of the sand as it is pretty hard to find them when they are below it. And while he is down there, he is having field day on the microfauna in the sand, eventually depleting the sand bed and dying a starving death. There is not much that can be done.

 

[Patrick12]

SS starfish will eat what they can get from the sand and you can supplement their diet as well with mysis shrimp. They will eat your LS out of house and home though and it will very likely be alot less live sand and more dead sand with a SS starfish......unless you have a large sandbed. 1 SS star needs about 1 square meter of sand to sift through. Who has that much sand?..... people with large systems. I had one years ago and it did really well for about a year and then just started to deteriorate as he ate himself out of food and by the time I noticed the issue and figured out what the problem was, my supplements to his diet really didn't help much, so I pulled it. Hope you have better luck.

 

[JEFFR259]

Sheesh, not looking good for the SSS's cause! Maybe I'll let him do his thing in my tank for a little while and then take him back to the LFS so he can move on to greener pasteurs!!

Thanks for the advice everyone!

 

[greenbean36191]

Their diet depends on which species you have. There are a few dozen similar species sold as sand sifters. Some are extremely specific and only eat a few species of infaunal organisms like very small snails and crustaceans. Others have such a broad diet that their stomach contents are used to sample benthic diversity. Very few of them will take supplemental feeding though. and even fewer of them will be able to find enough food in captivity to survive.

 

[JEFFR259]

GBean-

Would you be able to assist me in ID'ing him if I put up a couple pics of him here tomorrow?? LFS sold him to me without specificity (I guess partially my fault for not asking..) of the type.

 

[greenbean36191]

Nope. They all look the same to me. It would probably take a specialist to tell you which species you have and what it eats.