Who's eating my white burrowing sand star?

[davelin315]

The other day I noticed that one of my burrowing stars lost a leg and thought nothing of it, but progressively over the next couple of days, he was completely eaten away. I can't figure it out, as I have another star that seems to be absolutely fine, and I know I don't have any harlequin shrimp hiding in back, so can anyone name the culprit?

Non-coral Residents
2 Yellow Tangs (Zebrasoma flavescens)
2 Pacific Blue Tangs (Paracanthurus hepatus)
4 Firefish (Nemateleotris magnifica)
1 Dusky Jawfish (Opistognathus whitehursti)
4 Yellow-Tail Damsels (Chrysiptera hemicyanea)
1 Domino Damsel (Dascyllus trimaculatus)
1 3 Stripe Damsel (Dascyllus aruanus)
1 Royal Gramma (Gramma loreto)
1 Clown Tang (Acanthurus lineatus)
1 Coral Beauty (Centropyge bispinosus)
1 Flame Angel (Centropyge loriculus)
1 Cinammon Clown (Amphiprion rubrocinctus/melanopus?)
1 Chromis Reef Fish (Chromis viridis)
1 Blenny (Cirripectes variolosus)
2 Cleaner Shrimp
2 Fire Shrimp
1 Coral Banded Shrimp
1 Colobocentrotus atratus - shingle urchin
1 Star Fish (species unknown)
1 Black Brittle Star
1 Morula spp./Drupa spp. Snail
A bunch of left handed hermits
A bunch of black legged hermit crabs (look like blue leg, but black and orange instead, and much larger, around the same size as left handed hermits - native to Hawaii)
A few tiny tiny green hermits (native to Hawaii)
Various Turbo and Astrea Snails
1 nessarious snail

[ August 04, 2001: Message edited by: davelin315 ]

 

[MiNdErAsR]

Consider it a blessing. Those white burrowing sandstars cleanse your sandbed of that pesky infauna

we try so desperately to keep.

That's a lot of critters in your tank. How big is it?

IMO

 

[jmeader]

Start looking for a fair sized crab hiding in your tank.

 

[monkeyboy]

IMO if something was eating it the missing legs would not have shown up. I think it's dying due to improper acclimation or some kind of stress. Usually when they start dying the just fall apart and it can be slow, like in your case.

Wow, got enough fish? That tank has to be at least a 6 footer, 200+ ?

BTW i agree w/ minderaser that the starfish is unnecessary and somewhat detimental long term. Get a blue lynkia! HTH

 

[davelin315]

The missing legs didn't show up, I saw it one day with 5 legs, the next day with 4 1/2 legs, one of which was all torn up, the next day with 3 legs, and then the next day, there were two pieces of leg left, and the entire center had been eaten away. As far as crabs, there are no crabs besides the hermits I mentioned. Also, the star has been in my tank for around 5 months, and the last addition was a few mushrooms, nothing more. And, I don't use a DSB, I only have about 1/2 inch of substrate, and I have so many shrimp, copepods, and worms coming out of my tank it looks like a pit of snakes when I feed the fish. By the way, it's a 125, and I do have lots of fish, but that's the way my 4 1/2 month old likes it! That's my excuse for buying and buying and buying to my wife, "It's not for me, it's for the baby...."

If I ever figure out how to post pictures I'll set up a link.

[ August 04, 2001: Message edited by: davelin315 ]

[ August 04, 2001: Message edited by: davelin315 ]

 

[monkeyboy]

jmeader you can stop looking, i can't find where the missing legs showed up either... Sorry, no idea where i got that one from but i still think it's deteriorating (sp), the legs are probably feeding the sandbed here and there. Can't rule out a hungry critter though, check out the tank at night and see if anyone shows up!

I think my brain is defective...

 

[davelin315]

Don't worry about the defective brain, we all get that from staring at these intense lights all day, it's kind of like staring at the sun........

Anyway, I do check my tank out quite often at night because I work an on call shift from 7PM to 7AM from my house 3 out of every 6 nights, so when I'm bored and trying to stay awake, you can find me sitting in front of my tank peering into it and oohing and ahhing about worms that swim in spirals, spawning shrimp and fish, and other interesting night life (obviously, not mine

). Other than that, pretty much the only thing that moves on legs at night is the banded coral shrimp.

What kind of factors do you think might be contributing to its decline if its not being eaten up by the fishies or legged creatures? The water parameters are all excellent (ph 8.3, undetectable nitrates-nitirite-ammonia-phosphates, calcium 350-400, etc. etc.). My guess is still somebody ate him, but I just can't figure out who and was hoping somebody knew who had a tendency to eat starfish so I can ground him.

 

[jmeader]

Somehow I missed the part about the missing legs showing up. Still can't find it.

 

[jmeader]

If the star wasn't at least twice as long as the CBS then the CBS is a definate suspect.