Sand Sifter Curiosity

[salvatore]

Four month old 110g fowlr, ammonia and nitrite zero, nitrate 10ppm.
Coral Beauty Angel
Magenta Dottyback
Four damsels
15-20 turbos
10-15 blue/red leg hermit mix
sand sifting star
kenya star
Within the past week the SS star has begun showing signs of stress. One arm is almost completely gone, and another is missing pieces. The research ive done says these are signs of water condition problems, but Im not sure where to begin in finding a remedy.
What else needs to be checked to determine what could be wrong with the water conditions? Is it possible it's depleted the life in the sand bed (4"-6" dsb) and is starving?
Any help is appreciated.
Picture of the star is here: http://palmisanonet.com/images/aquarium/fish/039.jpg

 

[beth]

What kind of substrate are you using?

 

[salvatore]

sand bed (4"-6" dsb)
You mean other than that? Not sure what you're asking outside of whether its sand or cc.

 

[aileena]

There is not much that you can do but wait and see. My sand-sifter totally disintegrated under similiar water conditions as you have. Never found out why or got an answer as to why? Its one of those very peculiar things I guess.

 

[beth]

Sorry, didn't see the "dsb". I assume you have sand, in that case, and not cc, correct?
I can tell you that stars will not fare well in courser sands, and definately not in cc. What food source do you have for the star, or had for it?

 

[salvatore]

Yes its sand, no cc at all.
I feed the other stars shrimp pieces, which they cover and consume. During the four or so months we had the ss star, it never went near any food I put in the tank.
It was motionless for a day or so, and there were trace amounts of ammonia, so I pronounced it dead and removed it. Did a 25% water change last night and will test again this evening.
Thanks for your help, though.

 

[fmarini]

Hi:
since you tank is so new and your DSB is also soooo new i would suspect your star stared to death.
Any idea why these guys shift sand and burrow thru the sand? they are looking for food, any idea what the food is? your sandbed infauna. All those nice copepods and worms you paid lots of money for. In essence this starfish has most likely wiped out the infauna populatin and self destructed due to preservation. These stars do not eat cube, chunk, shrimp, nothing but sandbed infauna.
Sand shifting animals are a bad idea in small tanks since they are too efficient at eating. If you must have sand shifting use a mopping cuke, nassarius snails or fighting conch. They only touch the top layers of sand.
You might wann consider buying a few infauna starter cultures to add some life back to your sand bed. Like those found at indopacific sea farms (www.ispf.com) and www.inlandaquatics.com
Your kenya star is a savenger and will eat the shrimp and chinks of food
frank

 

[salvatore]

Frank, thanks for the information. The SS was purchased by my girlfriend in the very beginning (the lfs convinced her it wouldnt hurt), and she enjoyed it too much to want to take it out.
I did my homework on them when she brought it home, and after finding out how detrimental they were, quickly converted the wet/dry to a refugium and seeded it with an order from IPSF.
Now that the SS is gone, I'll probably re-seed the display with some sand from the refugium, and make sure no other purchases are as unhealthy for the dsb.
Again, thanks.