sandsifting star question

hey guys ive had a sandsifting star now for around 14 months. it has always stayed in the sand durring the day and came out every night. Now for the past 2 days, it has been hanging out durring the day attaching himself to the glass. I really love being able to see him and all my guests think its pretty neat. my questing is could this change in his routine be a indicator that he feels threatened or mabey his environment isn't to his liking. I would appreciate any suggestions.

 

hes running out of food. i would try giving him some algae wafers or something. lift him up put it under him.

any time a sand star come out and goes on the glass or rock it means its exhausted most of its food supply in the sand and wants to find more

 

Unfortunately, sostoudt is probably right, your starfish is starving. I don't know about feeding him algae wafers, but you might try something like putting small chunks of diced shrimp or krill under him and see if he eats it. Read this thread, it has some great info on sand sifting stars, not to mention a big argument/discussion about them:

Reef Central Online Community - What Killed My Sandsifting Star?!

Cheers,



Don

 

hey pago theres a guy on that forum that has the same name and picture as you, talk about coincidence lol

 

+1

The starfish will eat some of the algae, but he really likes going after the critters (fauna and worms) in your sand bed. Thought the algae may help delay the death, its likely to happen relatively soon. You can also try feeding small pieces of cutup shrimp that can settle in the sandbed for him to eat. They are just hard to keep as they require a tremendous amount of food over time, and most systems just can't produce that. Hate to be the bearer of bad news.

 

LOL I noticed that too, quite a coincidence, indeed!

 

Starfish will eat algae only as a last resort. They are a detritus feeder. Everyone loves 'em, and puts them in a CUC but they're not real useful for cleanup unless you overfeed with meaty foods. Otherwise target feeding will be required. They do take a decent sized tank otherwise to support them with the natural detritus from the function of the tank.

 

The ones in the studies mentioned in the link I posted didn't eat algae, period. They all ate molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms, with a few worms and unidentifable stuff added in for good measure. From Mike's post, and his research:

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de Juan, S., J.E. Cartes, and M. Demestre. (2007) Effects of commercial trawling activities in the diet of the flat fish Citharus linguatula (Osteichthyes: Pleuronectiformes) and the starfish Astropecten irregularis (Echinodermata: Asteroidea). J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 349: 152-169.

90% of the gut content of the sand sifting stars was comprised of 3 species of mollusks though it included more than 25 different species of infauna

"The starfish A. irregularis mainly preyed upon infaunal molluscs, which confirmed previous studies on this species (Christensen, 1970; Franz andWorley, 1982; Beddingfield and McClintock, 1993)....Some authors reported that annelids and crustaceans were usually avoided by this species, and carrion only constituted a small proportion of its diet (Christensen, 1970; Beddingfield and McClintock, 1993)."


Wells, H.W., M.J. Wells, and I.E. Gray. (1961) Food of the sea-star Astropecten articulatus. Biol. Bull. 120: 265.

"Most members of this widespread genus [Astropecten] live more or less buried in sandy bottoms, where they ingest large numbers of sand-dwelling animals. Eichelbaum (1910) and Kisch (1958) have reported on the food of Astropecten irregularis from northwestern Europe, Hamann (1889) recorded the food of A. auranciacus from the Mediterranean, and Caracelles and Parodiz (1938 ) reported on molluscs recovered from the stomach of A. cingulatus from the Argentine coast. A large portion of the food of these species consists of shelled molluscs."

"Astropecten articulatus is indeed a voracious predator on the inhabitants of the sand bottom community... A total of 91 species was represented in the stomachs examined. This aggregate contains two ectoproct bryozoans, two polychaete annelids, eleven arthropods, three echinoderms, fifty-two gastropods, four scaphopods, and seventeen pelecypods."

Small gastropods made up about 60% of the ingested animals by number, but crustaceans were roughly equal by mass.

"From all indications, Astropecten articulatus appears to be a non-selective feeder, its stomach contents reflecting the faunal composition of the offshore sand bottoms frequented by it. Indeed, this species can serve the marine biologist as a convenient tool for the study of bottom fauna, as a dredge which samples indiscriminately the abundant minute animals that live in sand.
This generalization evidently applies equally well to other species of Astropecten that inhabit sand."


Ganmanee, M., et al. (2003). Feeding habits of asteroids, Luidia quinaria and Astropecten scoparius, in Ise Bay, Central Japan. Fish. Sci. 69: 1121-1134.

"As reviewed by Jangoux, studies on the feeding biology of primitive asteroids such as Luidia and Astropecten species have often been done during the last three decades because it is easy to examine their stomach contents due to their intraoral feeding. Both the Luidia and Astropecten species are typically carnivores/ predators, but the former prefers to ingest large epifaunal benthos such as echinoderms while the latter prefers to ingest infaunal benthos such as small gastropods and bivalves."

The diet of Luidia was 60% mini brittle stars, 12% gastropods, 12% crustaceans, and the rest being made up of various worms, fish bits, pieces of other sand sifting stars, and unidentifiable junk.

The diet of Astropecten was 64% gastropods, 33% bivalves, and the rest mostly crustaceans.


McClintock, J.B. and J.M. Lawrence. (1985) Characteristics of foraging in the soft-bottom benthic starfish Luidia clathrata (echinodermata: Asteroidea): prey selectivity, switching behavior, functional responses and movement patterns. Oecologia 66: 291-198.

"Luidia clathrata show a strong preference for the infaunal bivalve Mulinia lateralis in Tampa Bay, Florida.... Individuals may shift from intraoral macrofaunal feeding to intra- and extraoral detrital feeding during periods of low macrofaunal availability."

McClintock has done numerous other feeding experiments with Luidia too, but I'm too lazy to actually go get hard copies from the library.


Lemmens, J.W.T.J, P.W. Arnold, and R.A. Birtles. (1995) Distribution Patterns and Selective Feeding in Two Astropecten Species (Asteroidea: Echinodermata) from Cleveland Bay, Northern Queensland. Mar. Freshwater. Res. 46: 447-455.

"Astropectinid sea stars are specialized soft-sediment carnivores that may have significant effects on the densities of their infaunal prey (Christensen 1970)."

A. zebra's diet was 87% mollusks and 10% crustaceans. The rest was worms, foraminiferans, and unidentifiable stuff.

The diet of A. velitaris was about 75% mollusks, 17% crustaceans, 4% foraminiferans. Where mollusks were scarcer, a higher percentage of the diet (30%) was crustaceans.

"Crustaceans were proportionately better represented in the stomach contents of A. velitaris than in bottom samples."

Between the two species 140 species of prey were identified. Average prey size was 1-1.5 mm and maxed out at 5 mm. There was a strong preference in both species for smaller prey.

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Cheers,



Don

 

whats this algae arguement about, my algae wafers i still support my wafer feedings since wafers are 30% fish meal most of the time. feed it what it will eat is what i say!!!

 

Can't argue with that. If he'll eat it, go for it!