Sand Sifting Starfish Climbing Aquarium Glass

Sand Sifting Starfish Sifting Substrate

CAUTION IS ADVISED WHEN DECIDING TO ADD A SAND SIFTING STARFISH TO YOUR AQUARIUM

There is a lot of contradicting information on these sea stars on the internet. The LFS recommended one for us to clean up our substrate and we felt it was doing a great job. We did minimal research when we brought it home and found it listed as easy to care for and suitable for our set up. NOT the case!

The poor starfish starved to death in our tank which upon further research it turns out that this is actually very common for this species. They also eat the beneficial food in your substrate, so if you have a smaller tank like ours (38 gallon) then the beneficial food doesn’t have time to replicate for it.

Check out these links on Wet Web Media for more detailed information:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/marsiftfaqs.htm
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/sndsftstrfaqs.htm
Find more results on wet web media by going to the bottom of their home page to the search box and select www.WetWebMedia.com.

A trait we found so endearing about our starfish is when he would climb the glass and then jump down and turn over. It is very possible that this behaviour was a sign of him starving and looking “outside the box” for more food sources.

Kaizen Reef name: Sir Sneaky “Starfish”
Common name: Sand Sifting Starfish
Scientific name: Astropecten Polycanthus

Physical description: Our sand sifting starfish has a reptile, scale kind of pattern of different shades of brown.

Diet: A variety of foods and detritus it cleans out of the substrate. Our substrate had a lot of algae growth and the LFS recommended getting this starfish to help keep it clean, he does an amazing job keeping the substrate in pristine condition.

Important dates:
9/13/09: Added to tank

Personal notes: Before we upgraded our lighting this starfish would climb up the side of the aquarium and then when he got to the top he would jump down. Sometimes he did this multiple times in a row and we always interpreted it as him ‘playing’ while he was taking a break from his cleaning work. Now he has a much bigger mess to clean up with higher output lighting (more algae growth) and more fish waste so we assume that is why he doesn’t have time to ‘play’ anymore.