sand sifter star

[fishman]

I have a 125 SW with CC. Have a friend that gave me a sand sifting star as he just bought it and his bristle stars were eating the sand sifter. Have had him in the tank now for 4-6 months and has been doing great. Saw him for the first time the other day and he is VERY skinny. Also I turned him over and his suckers and such on the underside of him is falling off. Any idea as to if he is dieing or not? Don’t know why? Im careful with my feedings so he may not be getting enough to eat…any ideas?

 

[Fishboy-from-NY]

Yeah, you are not feeding them properly, I throw some cyclops Eeze in my tank every night and feed them algae sheets, along with pieces of krill since they hunt at night for their food.

 

[PhishPhreak]

Just be careful when vacuuming your cc. My friend's father cut off their sifter's foot while doing so and killed it. Poor thing!

 

[seaham358]

How much sand sifting can it do in a tank with CC? Its my understanding they mostly eat snadbed cirtters, pods ect. If I had to guess I would say it is not eating enough in your tank.

 

[SquishyFish]

SS stars are pod and infauna eaters. It really wont matter how much food out put in the tank. If there isnt a large enough infauna population, he will starve to death. Thats the problem with keeping them in smaller tanks. (anything under 100gal). The tank doesnt have enough of a foot print to support the infauna needed to keep them alive.

And CC with a SS star is a very bad idea on so many different levels.