What to feed sand sifting starfish

[RoyalGramma001]

Hi everyone, when I bought my starfish I did not realize that it would starve to death in a small aquarium. I should've done more research. What should I feed them to keep them alive?

[Snow_Phoenix]

7 minutes ago, RoyalGramma001 said:

Hi everyone, when I bought my starfish I did not realize that it would starve to death in a small aquarium. I should've done more research. What should I feed them to keep them alive?

I'm not sure if they can be target-fed anything. If I'm not mistaken, they sift through the sand in search for microfauna and feed on that. They can also deplete the sandbed very quickly of the microfauna, which is why they eventually starve. 

[mitten_reef]

return to where you bought him from for some store credit?  Nothing wrong with admitting that you can't properly care for the animal.  

[mndfreeze]

Take it back to the store and exchange it for something else non-starfish that you researched first.

[RoyalGramma001]

On 8/18/2020 at 10:08 AM, mitten_reef said:

return to where you bought him from for some store credit?  Nothing wrong with admitting that you can't properly care for the animal.  

my lfs doesn't accept returns.

[Hazy]

I’ve heard you can give them pellet food designed for herbivorous fish like tangs and angles. You just give em a pellet whenever they come to the top of the tank 

[Tired]

I don't think there's any way you can feed them, otherwise more people would have them. Maybe you can try Craigslist or a local reefkeeping forum.

[mndfreeze]

It really bothers me that importers still bring in all these animals that are known to not really survive in tanks.  Flame scallops are also notoriously bad with insane death rates, but somehow I can find them at all 10 local LFS stores in large amounts.

 

#saveourstarfish

[RoyalGramma001]

11 minutes ago, mndfreeze said:

It really bothers me that importers still bring in all these animals that are known to not really survive in tanks.  Flame scallops are also notoriously bad with insane death rates, but somehow I can find them at all 10 local LFS stores in large amounts.

 

#saveourstarfish

Wasn't aware of these facts and I'm super salty that the lfs lied to me definitely will never get a starfish again.😡

[DISQUALIFIED-QQ]

In the past I've attempted to stick a steak of frozen silverside I cut using scissors and burying it in the sand bed. After that, I hope it works.

[Tired]

My only thought would be to scatter some sort of fine powdery food, like reef roids, across the sandbed around it. But given that they're made to eat constantly, I'm not sure that'll do much good. And they will definitely eat most if not all of the beneficial stuff out of your sandbed, so they aren't even good for your tank.