Something eating my sand star ?

[Kamden Uelton]

Feed him something nutritious like Squid, I bought a Phataria Star that was nearly dead (barely moving) and I brought him back to health with daily feeding of Protein Rich foods (Shark, Squid,Salmon).

 

[cobast]

Occassionaly when my two sand sifters surface I push some food - prawn, fish or squid, under them and they're not interested. They just walk away. Unlike when I had a chocolate chip who was always up for such a feed.

 

[tastyfish]

Interesting comments. It's worth noting that the diet of Astropecten polycanthus is pretty much unknown, but is thought to be mainly small molluscs, possibly worms etc

Nearly everything published about this species (and all references to detritus consumption) seem to come from the aquarium hobby suppliers, which is not the best source of data. Scientific study about the feeding habits are extremely difficult to find.

Unfortunately we really don't know what they feed on or how they survive in a marine aquarium. However, they seem to only do well in very mature systems with good sandbeds and healthy invert populations.

Sadly, I think the OP's specimen has either ventured into a powerhead (unlikely given location of wound) or more likely is dying. The peppermint will be after the decaying flesh.

 

[Cube reefer]

duplicate

 

[Cube reefer]

Hi, I have a sifter that had a leg taken off. I think it was the large emerald crab (everything has been fine since he's been gone) The leg has since grown back and I've had the star fish for almost a year. He does come out of the sand, crawls over the glass and rocks and back into the sand. I only siphon the sand along the front of the tank, the rest I leave alone. I only have a 30 gallon and I don't over feed anything.

 

[c.poindexter]

Definitely starving as I have been through 2 sand sifting starts when I first started the hobby. They can clear the micro fauna and then they will slowly start to starved it is hard to feed them enough as they typicallly scavenge all day. It is unfortunate.

 

[djreef]

Beautiful fish. These guys have a horrible mortality rate (as do most sea stars). We’ve stopped carrying them altogether as a result of this.

DJ