Hi Everyone,
I am excited to have come across this site it seems like it is a great community to become part of. I was given a starfish on January 3rd that was brought home from Dayton Beach. I didn't know the extent of work it would take to get a tank set up for this poor guy. Quickly to keep him alive my
LFS advised me to get 5 gallon tank to set-up to get him in. Along with that tank I purchased Pre-mix ocean water and sand - Clams on half shell , Krille, Mysis Shrimp and Brine shrimp. I quickly realized this was very bad information and that this tank is entirely to small for him. ( I've had to do water change every few days to try and keep ammonia down. ) So to me it seems like money wasted. I went got a 55 Gallon Tank 2 weeks ago that has under gravel filter system w/ Power head 402, Aqua Clear 300 Filter, Heater, 12 lbs of live rock and 5 Damsels. This tank seems to be doing well. Back to the STARFISH He is still in the 5 gallon tank and at first seemed like he was recovering and was very active seemed to be eating. His injured arms seem to be healing(regrowing). As of lately he has been burying himself in the sand alot but not flipping around like he used to but he does move move 2-4 times a day. He isn't taking food as I put it in and I am concerned from what I've read that he may be staring to starve himself. The last thing I wanna see is this little guy die cause I cant get him adequate food. So here I kinda have a theory and need some input -
So the 5 gallon tank with the starfish has been cycling with starfish for a week and half longer than the 55 gallon tank and has sand but Im sure there is not enough for this Astropecten Articulatus AKA Royal Starfish. Wouldn't be better for him to be in the bigger tank that is in my belief cycling quicker? I was recommend Crushed coral but he seems to be a sand sifting starfish I feel like I've gotten so much bad advice and have made wrong choices in trying get this setup for him and now I may have to take steps backwards please help with any info that you can to guide me. Here are some Photos:
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