what tore up my sandsifter???

[XeniaGirl]

First I have randomly-dying, disappearing fish. Now my sandsifting starfish has had the living you-know-what beaten out of him... er, bitten out of him.
This morning when I turned on my light for my 12g NC, my sandsifting starfish looked like he narrowly escaped an episode in my dish disposer. 2 or 3 of his tips were gone and another one is barely attached. He... looked... AWFUL. The surrogate mother that I am, gave him a good once-over and gently put him back on the sand. He's still alive, and I know that starfish can grow back their arms, but.. still!
I think I have a mantis shrimp... after losing 3 fish mysteriously and now this, that's my only guess.
Let me first say that if I do find this guy, there's going to be NO nice little trip to the LFS. (maybe there will be, since he's just acting on instinct, but the fact is that I'm quite mad at him right now!).
I've searched here on tips for hunting mantis shrimp but the key seems to be: I have to figure out where he's hiding. Aside of just sitting and watching (and hoping that I see him)... any hints?
My only concern is: would he have torn up the starfish while not eating him?... the pieces of the starfish are still in the tank, and thus not consumed.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!

[dobejazz]

Many times stars just start falling apart The most common reason from what I've read is changes is salinity. How do you top off the tank?

[XeniaGirl]

with plain RO water, no salt - as the water evaporates, the tank's water gets more and more salt in it (since the salt, unlike the water, doesn't evaporate). I haven't topped off recently though... and man he looked AWFUL. When I turned on the light this morning he was making a run for it across the front of my tank... made it look like he barely escaped some unspeakable death...

[dobejazz]

Originally Posted by XeniaGirl

with plain RO water, no salt - as the water evaporates, the tank's water gets more and more salt in it (since the salt, unlike the water, doesn't evaporate). I haven't topped off recently though... and man he looked AWFUL. When I turned on the light this morning he was making a run for it across the front of my tank... made it look like he barely escaped some unspeakable death...

I'd try topping off daily. Not topping off regularly causes the salinity to go way high then rapidly drop when you add the fresh water. In my 95 I top off morning and night. The nano's once every day

[Doug1]

I really recommend some kind of auto topoff for any tank(esp nanos ) with sea stars, their ability to move around is the result of some fairly complex bio-plumbing and not all of them adapt well to changes in salinity

[XeniaGirl]

Explain to me more of this auto-top-off-ing, since I'm not familiar with it at all.
I'll try adding a bit of RO water and seeing if that helps, and I'll retest the salinity... but that's so strange, he looks like he got eaten!

[XeniaGirl]

I just did some research on the accuracy of my hydrometer (or whatever it's called - the cheap manual salinity measuring tool) and apparently they're SO inaccurate that it's going to be more useful as a doorstop... so I need to go get a refractometer.
Nevertheless, I topped off a bit about an hour ago and am eagerly awaiting the results. Nigel's (my sandsifter) 4 arms are chewed off so he has only one that's still the original length. Poor guy!
Do the stars normally get affected when the salinity is too HIGH or too LOW?

[dobejazz]

It's the change between high and low that causes the problem.

[frankandmaura]

An auto top off is fairly easy...

Do you have a sump?

[XeniaGirl]

I have the "stock" filtration system that came with the NanoCube, that's it.
Once I move I want to upgrade the lighting and everything else, but for the time being I guess that I will have to do it manually.

[YLChik]

Xenia girl, I don't know much about stars, so I tried to do some research and help you figure out what might be going on... here are a few things I sound when searching sandsifting stars on google
liveaquarias description... most of those ideas have been touche on here,
and wetwebmedia - sometimes hard for me to understand, but always helpful

from Live Aquaria:
The Sand Sifting Sea Star or Starfish, has a thick, beige to brown body with lateral spines (teeth) extending upward along each side of its five arms. With the help of these spines, it moves over the sandy bottom of the ocean sifting through sand for food. The spines also enable it to burrow into the sand to hide or digest its food.

It is very active and effective at moving large amounts of sand as it searches for food. They are omnivores and are great for reef aquariums for eating detritus and left over food. It does well in an aquarium setting if provided with a large, deep (several inches) sand bottom where it can feed and hide. It should not be housed with Puffers. The Sand Sifting Sea Star is very intolerant of sudden changes in oxygen levels, salinity and pH of the water, and cannot tolerate copper-based medications. The drip acclimation method is highly recommended for all Sea Stars due to their intolerability to changes in water chemistry. It should never be exposed to air while handling.

wetwebmedia:
Need help with my sea star, sand-sifter 3/3/07
Hello,

I'm really new to the reef tank world,

and I notice a couple days ago that my sand sifter had cut off part of one of its "legs".

I checked it out and everything else seemed fine.

I just got home tonight, and I notice that it's not missing another part of another "leg".

I don't have a clue what's going on.

It's also on top of the sand all arch up. I'm worried that it might be dying, not getting enough food.
These aren't really appropriate creatures for most home aquariums.>
Please help.. Thanks for your time..
<I'm not sure what to tell you here. These stars typically don't fare very well. I'm not sure how big your tank is but they should be kept in a minimum of 100 gallons, even then the odds of survival aren't very good. Same story for your Flame scallop (Lima scabra) these don't do well in aquariums unless you can provide a significant quantity of very fine plankton, best if you can culture your own phytoplankton.>

Nikki J


Several other posts on wwm had similar info that these guys did best in very very large tanks with DSB. I wonder if maybe on top of being hurt by something in the tank or with teh water issues if maybe he has eaten everything in the sand bed and is hungry as well?

I hope this help you, Good Luck and keep us posted.

[XeniaGirl]

I'll put a little food in there today to see what happens, but at this point I think he's a goner, he looks like he's either been exposed to biting or acid. I think at this point it was the salinity change.
Thanks so much for all the research you did for me!

[Big B]

I had a sand sifting star that went out the same way. After the research I did, I decided that mine probably starved to death. I am not sure how mature your tank is, but mine was not nearly mature enough. Sadly, my critter paid for my ignorance. I also place some blame on my lfs. I would think this is the kind of info they should have to relay to me.

Sorry yours is not doing better.

[XeniaGirl]

I just checked on him a few hours ago and he's barely alive... I can't bring myself to "euthanize" him by taking him out of the tank while he's still alive, but I can tell that he's not long for this world. Poor thing... I partly blame my LFS but mostly myself. At the end of the day I'm the one responsible for the living things in my tank.

[dobejazz]

Originally Posted by XeniaGirl

I just checked on him a few hours ago and he's barely alive... I can't bring myself to "euthanize" him by taking him out of the tank while he's still alive, but I can tell that he's not long for this world. Poor thing... I partly blame my LFS but mostly myself. At the end of the day I'm the one responsible for the living things in my tank.

You can put him in a ziplock with some water and freeze it. I've heard thats a humane way to euthaize a sea critter