sand sifting star

urnmyway · #1 01/08/2005, 10:43 PM

i just walked in and took a look at the tank and my sand sifting star is right up against the front glass and has 2 legs in the sand. what is weird is the mouth of the star is on the glass and it is forming like a bubble with veins, it also is tinted a bit green and gets clearer as it gets to the end. i call it a bubble but it could be more like a sack a flat one at that. does anyone know if it is dying or is this some type of reproduction? thanks in advance

original-reefland · #2 01/08/2005, 10:45 PM

no clue.... can you get a picture?

edsreef · #3 01/08/2005, 10:47 PM

It's his stomach! They do that sometimes - it's normal.

urnmyway · #4 01/08/2005, 10:50 PM

that is the first time i have ever seen it do that. now the star has pulled everything back into place and is cruising around. is there any particular reason as to why they do that with their stomach?

Gargausius · #5 01/08/2005, 10:51 PM

Sand Sifting Stars do extend their "stomachs" to feed. They eat a lot mind you, and probably will end up living to be 3-6 months old. You'll need something like a mature 500 gallon or more tank for just one individual to make it in the long run. They are generally found in large sand beds with little to no rocks and little to no corals.

edsreef · #6 01/08/2005, 10:58 PM

Baloney! I've had my current one for over a year and have had them in other tanks longer. As with anything, you just have to know thier needs and provide for them.

romunov · #7 01/09/2005, 03:22 AM

They eat inbed fauna. Once they rid of it they starve or get moved. They can live months upon months with their own energy. They generally starve to death. What a way to go...

MCsaxmaster · #8 01/09/2005, 05:41 AM

Edsreef,

Knowing the needs of any species is certainly the first step. After this we must assess whether we can provide those needs. We know the needs of these stars, and we also know that we cannot provide them. They have a particular diet that we cannot (practically speaking) provide for them. It would be possible (have productive sand bed of several hundred square feed), but no one has the resources to actually make it happen. By the same token, even if I knew how to build a rocket that would get me to the moon (which I don't), I still would not be able to build that rocket because I don't have the $100 million necessary to fund the project.

Cheers,

-Chris

edsreef · #9 01/09/2005, 09:17 PM

I keep mine in the "front" sandbed section of my tank. It is seperated from the "back section" of sand in my tank by a barrier of liverock. The unpredated "back section" of the tank helps replenish the front section, as does the refugium below in the sump and all of the live rock in the tank. My SS Star is healthy and growing and shows no sign of starving; nor did the other I've kept. A side benefit of this is that it keeps the sand in the front of my tank nice and white. I feel that you're implying that I'm ignorant and mistreating my starfish by keeping him and I'm not. You're basing your comments on generalities from mostly inexperienced reefkeepers and thier failures; kind of like whether-or-not it's a good idea to keep an anemone - which I've also done successfully. Or, for that matter, as of a few years back, whether-or-not it's possible to keep live corals in your tank! The reason for my post was to say that it IS possible to keep SS Stars and now I've shared a little information on HOW I keep mine. Reefkeeping is an ever-evolving hobby and we need to continue to share our successes as well as our failures on this site so that others might learn from them!
I'd like to hear from others that have successfully kept SS Starfish in thier tanks. Maybe I'll start another thread on this.

urnmyway · #10 01/09/2005, 09:26 PM

edsreef: i thank you for all the info you have given to this thread. I have had this ss star for close to a year now and like you he only travels around the front of the rock cannot get to any sand under or behind the rocks. the original reason the tread was sarted was to find out what was up with with his now known stomach because i have never been afforded the opportunity to see it do this thank you all again.

MCsaxmaster · #11 01/10/2005, 10:43 AM

You can lead a horse to water...

wmam · #12 01/10/2005, 10:56 AM

I have only had min for about 4 months and he seems to be doing just fine. He moves all over the place including behind the rock and all over the glass. He also sometimes feeds on the glass but not that often. He stays mainly in the front. I only have crushed coral substrate and no sand. He again seems to be doing fine and has growed quite a bit since I first bought him. (I know, I know, I just call it a HE because I do not know how to tell the difference.) When I firts got him he was no bigger around than a fifty-cent piece but now he is as big around as a softball. I don't know why he has growed so much so quickly but he does seem to be quite happy and healthy.