Sifting Star Fish not sifting..

Welcome to SWF  :)

How old is your tank?  what else is in it?

get rid of it they are pretty  much useless and it will starve and die but first it will consume all the useful life in your sand bed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by naclfish 

get rid of it they are pretty  much useless and it will starve and die but first it will consume all the useful life in your sand bed.

That is what I always hear so I have always avoided them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hngsb 

Hi ALL,

Im very new to this forum. 

I have a 55 gallon tank with 45lbs of live rock and 50 lbs of live sand. 

I have a sifting star fish that isnt sifting? 

Ive been watching him for 2 days now and not once has he fully submerged himself in the sand.

WHY? any suggestions, thoughts comments or theories? 

He is active though he moves around the tank about 3-4 times a day.. 

Thanks,

Hannah

Quote:

Originally Posted by naclfish 

get rid of it they are pretty  much useless and it will starve and die but first it will consume all the useful life in your sand bed.

This is not necessarily true. There are ways around them starving and keeping your sand bed alive, but it takes work. They're actually excellent sand sifters, but with that comes the bad side that they eat the good stuff as well, but this is true of most sand sifters. I have actually successfully gotten mine to eat left over fish food at the bottom of the tank. I have also "re-seeded" small areas of the tanks sand to make sure that they do not deplete of the good stuff in the sand. For this reason, they can be a pain, but if you want your sand pretty and white, they're excellent.

That being said, I don't believe that sand sifting starfish belong in anything less than 100+lbs of sand. I actually have two in my 155, I've had them for over 2 years now and they're fine, but I feed them and make sure they don't deplete the sand bed.

I hardly see mine completely burry themselves in the sand because they have been trained to know that if they stay out, they'll get fed.

I just got one for my 225G...I agree with btld....they should not be in smaller systems.

I have not "trained" mine yet though...LOL...

BTLD.....I'd like to hear more about your training and reseeding of your sand if you don't mind  :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by meowzer 

I just got one for my 225G...I agree with btld....they should not be in smaller systems.

 

I have not "trained" mine yet though...LOL...

 

BTLD.....I'd like to hear more about your training and reseeding of your sand if you don't mind  :)

Training (this may not always work, but it's worked so far for me, keep in mind, these guys used to be in my 40G together):

Every time I fed, I dug them out of the sand (you can usually find where they are fairly easy) and squirted reef plankton, rotifiers, oyster feast,  very small shaved salmon and other small foods (you get the idea) right onto the sand and on them. They then realized that the top of the sand has food so they don't need to dig. They now just graze along the top of my sand, and when I feed, I make sure they get food on the sand next to them. All filtration and powerheads must me off for this to work and you have to VERY GENTLY squeeze the turkey baster onto the sand to make sure you don't kick everything up all over the place.

As for the reseeding, this is going to be tough for you:

Every once in a while I will buy 1-5lbs of LS for someone's tank or refugium from my reef club. Occasionally I'll get it at the store, but there's only one tank at one store that I trust to get it from and if the owner isn't there or there are two many customers in the store, they won't give it to me. Sometimes I'll steal sand out of my other tanks or the refugium. I do this every 3-6 months depending on how I feel the sand looks. 

There's really no way to keep them from eating stuff in the sand, even if they are fed, but I have noticed that by training them and feeding them, they don't eat nearly as much out of my sand bed. It is my belief that in 100+G with a mature sand bed and fish to produce waste, they should be just fine.

Thanks....and you are right.....the reseeding would be impossible for me :(   LOL

BUT I am fairly confident that with my 4" DSB, and the amount of fish I have, I should not run into an issue regarding depletion of available food for the star.   I never would have gotten one if I was worried about that  ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by meowzer 

Thanks....and you are right.....the reseeding would be impossible for me :(   LOL

 

BUT I am fairly confident that with my 4" DSB, and the amount of fish I have, I should not run into an issue regarding depletion of available food for the star.   I never would have gotten one if I was worried about that  ;)

 

I have to reseed because my sand bed is 2 1/2", 4" in a few spots, but really only 2" in most. The 180 is getting a 4-5" sand bed. I'm actually dumping all the sand from all the tanks into the 180, plus all the sand from this tank will slowly be added so that I don't get any spikes. I seeded this tank with all the sand from the 40G, that was a nightmare, I'm not looking forward to doing it with 3x as much sand. I figure if I get as much "seeded" sand into the 180, I'll be better off. I'm so not looking forward to this move, LOL. At least it's only next door, so I can take my time.
 

The reseeding isn't completely impossible, you have more than one tank right? If so, just trade a few scoops of sand every few weeks. But honestly, you should be fine.