I have not seen my sand-sifting star for almost a week...

[RioReefr]

Usually my sand-sifting star disappears for 2 days, then I see it pop through the sand and moves some place else. But, its been almost a week and have no clue where it is. Did it die and get eaten by my 5-6 hermit crabs?
When they are about to croak, is this what happens....they go into the sand and never come back up?

[Uncle99]

Once these stars "clean" the sand they usually "melt" away and are consumed by others. Stars, not including brittle and serpent, are best left in the sea as they generally do not live long in captivity.

If just hiding now, which is quite possible, unfortunately it is just a matter of time, although I assume there are always exceptions in the hobby.

[ROB2005]

These stars really never do well in captivity. Their needs are beyond the scope of even the most studious of aquarists. As said before, best left in the wild where they can eat to their hearts content.

[rvareef]

I've had good success with them, but usually when I see them surface its when something has happened to the tank, like stirring up sand, dosing, water change etc, so seeing them all the time might not be a good sign.

[WVfishguy]

Funny anecdote about sand sifting stars:

I had a huge bristle worm overpopulation in my 75 quarantine tank.

Everyone, said, "You must be overfeeding." "They are natural, leave them alone." "They are eating something, or they would not be there." etc.

But they were not simply numerous, they were ridiculous. Not dozens, but hundreds. I finally purchased some worm traps, but work was pressing and I didn't get the traps in right away.

Then the tank crashed. I think there were only a couple fish and no inverts, so it was no big deal. I did a good cleaning, replaced water, etc. and was good to go.

But I never figured out what they were eating. The two fish were fed very lightly.

Then I remembered the two sand sifting stars I took from a customer tank two months previous. I could tell by the way they were acting they were starving, (crawling up the glass, etc.) so I took them home and promptly forgot about them.

Apparently, dead sand stars are good bristle worm food. But when they are gone, all the worms die, and the tank can crash. :headwally:

[RioReefr]

It has now been a week and still no signs of it. It was definitely getting smaller in size, and 2 of the 5 arms where starting to get stubby. I would estimate those 2 arms were 1/2 the size of the other 3. The last time I saw it -- it fell off the glass and had a bit of trouble turning itself back over. So, I stuck my hand in and pushed it over. I saw it moving along the sand when I did that, so at that point I know it was not dead.

I am more concerned if I should try to find it -- if it has died. Will it pollute the tank if it has died OR will the hermit crabs just eat it up?

[WVfishguy]

In my case, bristle worms probably took care of it. With bad results.

[Uncle99]

CUC will clean him up.
Probably more dangerous digging up the sand.
It's amazing (and not very responsible) that LFS sells these things when they know they will die shortly.....now I can understand why countries are banning the export of marine.

[Tastee]

My LFS told me you can train stars to eat pellet food. Not sure if I believe them.

Has anyone had any success doing this?

[fisher99]

I used to have that seastar and like every 3 days would drop some sinking pellets for it to pick at, and he went right after them.