Who’s Been Eating My Sand Sifting Star?

[Pelagic One]

Hello R2R!

I woke up this morning to see my sand sifting Star has been sadly gnawed at...so who may be our possible suspects?

‘No new additions to this three-month old 100 gallon tank, but there was a new piece of very live rock (tunicates, sponges, etc) added to the sump three days ago. The current inhabitants who were added in stages after cycling in February include:
- Chromis, blue/green (8)
- Oscellaris (2)
- Cardinals, bangai (2)
- Anthias, lyretail (1)
- Tang, yellow (1)
- Tang, sailfin (1)
- Wrasse, yellow (1)
- Crab, emerald (1) [3/4-inch]
- Shrimp, blood red (1)
- Urchin, long spine (1)
- Snails, nassarius, cerith, turbo and bumble bee

Should I just leave the Star in the tank to hopefully heal itself, or will it just continue to be victimized at this point? I’m obviously not sure of next steps, so I would really appreciate some good advice, please.

 

[Tahoe61]

I do not see any obvious suspects on your live stock list.

While a larger tank, the tank may be too new to support a sand sifter.

Wait and watch closely and check at night for possible offenders.

 

[Pelagic One]

Thank you for your response. I’ve tried to not get into a “tank too new” situation with these beautiful creatures, which is why I’ll resist the urge to introduce a mandarin goby for at least a year; but the substrate was looking like it needed some detritus sifting.

The Star has been in the tank for five weeks now, and has seemingly been enjoying the heavy feeding, as it’s been seen throughout the substrate in all parts of the tank.

 

[Tahoe61]

Then I would go on stake out at night. The starfish could have been compromised when you purchased it, not uncommon in this hobby unfortunately.

 

[chris k.]

I caught my urchin eating my starfish

 

[Pelagic One]

I caught my urchin eating my starfish

Ok, so I wasn’t sure that was a possibility, so I’ll be more watchful of our urchin. It’s already torn up my starter zoa rock and gave a chalice frag a nice sized hickey.

 

[Tbyram]

+1 for too new of tank. I had one and after about 3-4 weeks it did the same thing. When I researched it I read that they will drop/shed their legs to limit the food needs when sparse.