Sand Sifting star missing....nocturnal?

[Porkibear]

I purchased a sand-sifting star yesterday. First couple hours it just kinda buried itself halfway into the substrate. When the lights turned off, it moved from the middle of the tank to the side.

This morning, there is absolutely no sign of the starfish. I've been hoping to catch a glimpse of an arm sticking out of the sand, but again, no sign of it. Hopefully tonight it will come out of the substrate to hunt. Are these little guys nocturnal starfish? Only moving around in the dark?

[crustin]

mostly move at night

[fishylad]

Mine moves around a lot during the day. Not sure how much at night since it is hard to see him. I know that at times I have to look long and hard to find him. Many times I only see the change in the sand where he is hiding. I wouldn't count on seeing it much though

[AZDesertRat]

For your sake, I hope you don't plan on having a fully functioning deep sand bed. If so you need to return the sand sifter ASAP. They will eat every living thing there is in your sand bed and turn it into the Gobi Desert. They don't eat detritus only living worms , pods and other sand dwelling creatures. I had one in a well established 100 G for a couple of months before learning my mistake and it took 6 months of reseeding to get the DSB life back.