Sand sifting star and fire blood shrimp

[tonya0926]

I've had my shrimp for a while and just introduced the star. He buried himself in the sand but my shrimp keeps going over to where he is and never really left his side of the tank before. Is this normal? And is he going to try and eat him tonight? Also in 3 weeks I will be introducing a tuxedo urchin. Will this cause any problems? All creatures are fed well.

 

[DannoOMG]

Unless you see him picking at the starfish hard it shouldn't be a problem? When I mean picking I mean to the point where you see him arch his back and it looks like he should be going "UGH" on every pull.

At least that is what the skunk shrimp did to a clam my boss got from algae barn. Died shortly after. Shrimp knew it was a goner.

 

[MaxTremors]

Probably senses the inevitable disintegration of the starfish. By the time you bring one home, it’s already starving, and unless your tank is massive and mature and you at least seeded the tank with some real live rock, it will likely continue to decline. It’s just the reality of keeping starfish, they are an invert category that should just be left in the wild. I do hope that you’ve got plenty of algae and that your tank is mature if you’re planning on adding an urchin, they fare much better than starfish, but still need mature tanks. You should definitely try to feed the starfish some krill or shrimp, it may not take it (the usually eat worms and all the microfauna in live sand), but if you want it to have a chance of surviving, it needs to eat.