Sandsifting Star

cofishguy

cofishguy

Member
Hi, just wondering if anyone can answer a couple of questions for me. I have a well established 80 gallon reef tank. I have had a sand sifting star in this tank for almost 2 years. About 4 months ago I noticed that one of the tips to one of its arms was basically cut off. Other than that, it looked pretty healthy and in fact healed nicely and even grew back that tip. Well about 2 months ago I noticed a couple of small white specks on my aquarium glass. When I examined them closer they appeared to be small starfish. I was pretty excited as I had 2 more starfish in my tank. In the past 2 months since that first sighting of the new starfish, I have noticed several more. I have counted as many as 10 baby starfish as they more noticable as they get bigger and more defined
Anyway, my 2 questions are as follows:
1. Is this normal to get this many baby starfish out of the situation (starfish arm tip being cut off)?
2. And is this too many starfish for my size tank?
Thanks in advance for any replies.
Ken
 
spanko

spanko

Active Member
What you are seeing are probably Asterina stars, not baby sandsifters. Look like this?
 
cofishguy

cofishguy

Member
actually that picture looks very similar to what I have seen in my tank. I say this because some of the "baby" stars have more than 5 arms...which I found odd!
Where do these kind of stars come from? Are they hitchhikers?
Ken
 
spanko

spanko

Active Member
Yup hitchhikers. For the most part not a problem. If you have an abundance of nutrient they could get to plague proportions. If you don't like them they are fairly easy to suck out with a siphon tube at water change time.
 
cofishguy

cofishguy

Member
Thanks for the information. As I mentioned I have seen only about 10 or so on my glass at one time and I am sure there are probably others in the sand/rockwork etc. But I will keep an eye out.
Thanks again
 
spanko

spanko

Active Member
If you have seen ten you probably have a hundred. Got a magnifying glass? Use it to look around on the rocks. They blend in fairly well but you can spot the. They reproduce by fission, dropping a leg off. That is why they look so weird, some 5 legs and others with different numbers.
Actually the correct term is probably regeneration, not fission.
 
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