My starfish is acting really strange!

cara

cara

"A MORRAY EEL!!"
Oct 11, 2004
37
0
0
Illinois
Hi. I am in the process of cycling. It has been quite the experience but I'm almost done and only two fish have died and they shouldn't have been in my tank anyway. Okay, to the point. My starfish is a generic brown sand sifting starfish. It has been moving all over the tank like normal but two days ago it started climbing the walls and "standing up" on the tank floor. It would arch itself up and you could see all the way underneath it to the other side of the tank. Is this super strange behavior or normal for a star? The water is going through some crazy changes? Is it going to die? Should I put it in another bowl with water and sand in it?
 
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I'm not sure what your star fish is doing but he should NOT be in the tank wile it is still cycling. If you can ,get him out and have the LFS where you purchased him hold him untill your cycle is over or have a friend keep in in a established tank. I'm also not sure but I don't think a new tank can support a sand shifting star either as there would not be much detris or small fauna to eat.
 
Hey Raki!

My tank is almost done cycling. I only have a week or so left to go. Do you still think I should take the starfish out?
 
Marine creatures are very sensitive and just cannot tolerate anything but near perfect conditions. If someone advised you that it was OK to add inverts to an uncycled tank- they were wrong and this starfish is paying for it.
What are your water parameters as of today?
Best thing would be to return it until you finish cycling.
 
My sand sifter does something similar to that when he climbs the walls and then slips off and lands on his back. I assume its normal as there is no other way to turn over really, but he stands up and flips back over onto his....belly(?).
But I have to agree there is probably not enough in the tank for yours to eat at such an early introduction.

BC
 
Really?

What do seastars eat? I have four fish and a cleaner shrimp in the tank as well. I thought they eat the stuff in the sand and the waste from the fish. I must be confused.
 
Serpent stars and brittle stars eat small bits of leftover food- you can target feed them larger chunks and they will appreciate it. Other species eat other things, from algae to biofilms. Do you know the species of yours?
They will stir up "stuff in the sand" and poop and get them circulating in the water column to be picked up by your skimmer, but they need to eat food appropriate for their species.
 
type of starfish

I have a basic brown sand sifting starfish. It has darker brown stripes. It's a pretty basic one. Someone told me to feed it pieces of shrimp. Is this correct?
 
Is it like this??

p_86408.jpg


or this ...

p41255b.jpg



Good reference site...
http://www.starfish.ch/reef/echinoderms.html#brittle
 
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