What to feed sand sifting sea star??

[frosty]

Right now I have a sand sifting sea star and I am afraid it's not getting enough dentritus to eat. We don't have as many fish as we used too because we took back our flame angel and naso tang cause they were becoming too aggressive for our reef tank. So now there's only a clownfish and a spotted dragonet. We are going to get more fish soon but I was just wondering in the mean time what else can I feed the sea star?.

 

[dogstar]

I dont know how big your tank is but SSSF need alot of healthy live sand to feed on the micro funa that lives in the sand so it does not get depleated and the funa can replenish itself or the starfish starves.

 

[gtiguy]

Originally Posted by frosty
Right now I have a sand sifting sea star and I am afraid it's not getting enough dentritus to eat. We don't have as many fish as we used too because we took back our flame angel and naso tang cause they were becoming too aggressive for our reef tank. So now there's only a clownfish and a spotted dragonet. We are going to get more fish soon but I was just wondering in the mean time what else can I feed the sea star?.
Your naso became aggressive? I have a naso with a yellow tank and if anything the yellow tang is somewhat aggressive towards the naso, but never have i seen the naso act aggressive towards any other fish thats weird, but i guess it varies (my yellow tang picks at hermits and lobsters go figure lol ) ....Be careful with your spotted dragonette as well bc once he eats all the pods and stuff in your tank they starve very fast.....
but i have a sand sifter star as well, and it needs a very populated sand bed of living organisms (pods etc...) I dont feed it anything unless it picks up food that wasnt eatin from the days feeding...I had one in my old 30g and once the food supply was gone or it might have been from the switch over to my new tank and less situated sand, it litterally started to disolve away leg by leg...

 

[ophiura]

Yup.
They do not eat detritus...they eat the creatures in a sand bed that DO eat detritus. In all but larger tanks with lots of sand surface area, they will starve in about a year, by slowly disintegrating from the arm tips.
You can try anything meaty, but the odds are it will take no food

 

[frosty]

OK, so there's not really anyway of feeding my SSSF, i suppose. I'll try brine shrimp. I also got an order of like 1000 cope pods so it must be doing alright. Also my dragonet eats brine shrimp like crazy so i'm not too worried about him. Yes my naso was very aggresive as it seems eveything in my tank gets aggressive as i have a Cleaner shrimp that picks off about 2 snails a week. The guy is huge and he messes with my peppermint shrimp also. I also noticed my peppermint shrimp jumping on snails, not to sure if he's killing them or what but i'm getting sick of eveything becoming aggressive in my tank. Even my clown will bite me if i stick my hand in the tank before it's fed. Why is everything becoming aggressive in my tank?? Any Ideas? I feed eveything brine shrimp. The shrimps will even have some flakes here and there.

 

[frosty]

I was just looking into what a sand sifter star eats and it DOES eat dentritus. I don't want to mention the name of the website but I bought the star as part of a dentritus attack pack. It may also eat pods etc. but it also does eat dentritus. Oh well I guess I will just have to get some more fish.

 

[ophiura]

I ASSURE you this star does not, in general, eat detritus.
These sites are trying to SELL you a star and therefor it is sold to you as something you need. This is not necessarily intentional. Historically these stars have been sold in clean up crews and stores just don't know any better. They are counterproductive to a sand bed and eat the critters that DO eat the detritus.
I've studied brittlestars, and know many seastar experts. Let me assure you they do not eat detritus. If they ate detritus, they would not starve to death as most do. They would survive in nearly all tanks, even small new tanks. They would probably readily adapt to eat other foods. They do not. Most information that you will find about seastars on commercial websites is at least moderately, if not completely, wrong. They are using outdated and not scientifically sound information.
I encourage you to TRY and spot feed it but note that very very few will take to this. In fact, I haven't heard from anyone that has said yes, they SEE it consuming what they have tried to feed it.
Also, note that brine shrimp by itself - especially if frozen, is not a suitable diet for long term. It is a nice treat, but it is nutritionally very very poor. Try also mysis shrimp or other frozen foods. At the very least you need to soak the brine in selcon, zeocon, or similar supplements.