sand sifting stars and peppermint shrimp

[texasbornnbred]

Purchased a sand sifting star with a peppermint shrimp already existing in the tank. The shrimp immediately climbed on the star's back. Can the shrimp cause any damage to the star? I know the shrimp is capable of eating aptasia.

 

[AJSTITAN14]

No but putting it in too small of a tank for too long is a death sentence. Peps will inspect anything new that comes into the tank.

 

[texasbornnbred]

Thank you. Have a 20 gal. ELOS tank. LFS said it would be fine. Is that true?

 

[olemiss reb]

Thank you. Have a 20 gal. ELOS tank. LFS said it would be fine. Is that true?

LFS lied. I'd try to bring it back or give it to someone with a larger tank, it is going to deplete the microfauna from the sandbed and stave.

 

[AJSTITAN14]

+1 We get a lot of "I had my sand sifting star in my nano and it was doing fine for a year and then one day it melted" stories here. These stars can live on nothing for many months without any external sign before they finally fall to starvation. Well, a starving star will crawl all over the place looking for food. This is usually reported as "he was quite active, always out on the rocks and glass".

 

[Guygettnby]

keeping a sand sifting star is a bad idea. the LFS lied to you as even in a large tank the star would eventually die off from starvation. so in a 20g tank it will not live very long at all. take it back and never buy another one again, it is best left in the ocean were it can live.

 

[RLeclerc]

wat can u feed them?

 

[Guygettnby]

wat can u feed them?

there is really no way of feeding them. they eat the microfauna and such from your sand bed until they completely strip it of all good and bad critters, then they simply waste away from starvation.

again this is an invert best left in the ocean were it can actualy stay alive long term.