Sand sifting starfish staying out of the sand at night

[Scatcat]

I'm a little concerned about my sand sifting star fish. He stays in the sand during the day but comes out at night and I'm noticing that he is staying out at night more and more. He is currently on my live rock right now. I have turned the lights on yet. I have heard that they can starve I am willing to feed him if he needs it. He cruises on top of the sand alot during the night. Thank you for and advise on this.

Rachel

[JohnNLuc]

It sounds very normal what your starfish is doing. Even though I know some will give me hell for it I do own one as well and at night he climbs the glass and does all sorts of weird things but come day time hes back buried in the sand eating pods im sure. That is what your starfish is probably doing he is looking on your LR for food due to the fact hes a scavenger. Many say if your tank is too small the star will deplete the population of pods quite quickly and starve himself to death so if thats the case and your tank is small you might want to try target feeding him. HTH

[Scatcat]

Thank you glad to know he is normal. I think it's cool to see him pop out of the sand from nowhere. He is quite small and I plan on trading him in when he gets to big.

Rachel

[JohnNLuc]

Good idea. I had two of them and found that I went from having loads of pods on my glass and rock to having just about none. I took one back to the LFS and in return they gave me a red marble starfish and i've watched the pod population grow and everything prosper in my tank.