[hags08]

I have two sand sifting starfish's in my 90 gallon tank and i am worried that they are not getting enough food. Occasionally they try to climb up the glass in my aquarium and i don't think this is their usual behavior. I also have sand that is three inches deep. Is there any kind of food that i can give them or what can i do?

[c-c]

Hey Hags,
I have several star fish but am not sure what is your sandsifting type. My choc. chip. not reef safe star is in our fish only tank. He grazes over live rock and also goes up and down the tank walls eating pods, algae and other microbs. He likes to hang out uder the filter return. I also feed him pieces of fish etc. Once I placed a cheap 3 dollar large long tentacle Atlantic anemone in the tank and he sat over it and ate it on the second day. :mad: He is very greedy with a voracious appetite.

Then I have two very nice reef safe serpent stars who mainly eat detritus on the bottom. They hang out on the sand bed and never climb the tank walls, nor the live rock. I have seen the clarki steal silver sides out of the hermit crabs' claws and take it back to the stars as if they were feeding their anemone. You could try to place some meaty foods (bits of clam or shrimp) in its path and see if it would accept it.

[hags08]

Everywhere I have looked it is just simply known as the Sand Sifting Starfish. Its scientific name is Astropecten polycanthus. I also don't have live sand and I don't know if this is a problem. I tried placing food near him but it didn't accept it. Thanks for any ideas

[Krazy]

Sand sifting star-fish eat micro-fauna in the sand and the little critters etc, 1 star could eat your tank dry, 2 is overkill. They die over the period of months as they starve...

I would seriously bring them back to the LFS and trade them for a serpant star which is a good scavanger that wont slowly perish in the tank...