sand star fish and snails?

[emilsanto]

will the sand sifting star fish eat my snails
thanks

 

[Krish]

I've never heard of them doing it before, but don't quote me on that. I'm not positive if it will be ok or not

 

[shallowreef]

No, I highly doubt it. I used to keep them both in my 90 and i never saw them getting eaten but it deffinately didn't look like my population was decreasing. Not until i added the baby sharks at least.

 

[Skimmy]

they wont eat your snails, but they will decimate the population of microfauna in your sand bed, then unfortunately probably starve to death in several months...
personally, i dont put ANY echinoderms in closed systems, just too risky for one reason or another...

 

[ronj]

i feel bad for my sandsifter for that very reason.. i have had him a little over a year now.. i bought it before i really knew anything about them... i hope he makes it...i thought about taking it back, but those small tanks that the lfs has are worse conditions for it...

 

[sihaya]

they wont eat your snails, but they will decimate the population of microfauna in your sand bed, then unfortunately probably starve to death in several months...

Yep, exactly. And it's a horrible thing to watch too. They just kinda fall apart chunk by chunk.

 

[emilsanto]

the reason i ask about them eating snails is i was going to buy some of the snails that stay in the sand bed. i dont think the spelling is right but nassuari
snails

 

[steve-s]

Nassarius snails would make an excellent sandbed addition. The problem with this type of addition is not from the star but vice versa. The snails will be competing for the same food resources as the star. If you have not yet purchased the starfish, the snails would be a much better choice. If you already have the starfish, do not buy anything that would directly impact the scant food sources left to it.

Cheers
Steve

 

[emilsanto]

i thought it might be a better choice to get the snails i will do that any ideas on how many i should put in a 125 gallon
thanks

 

[steve-s]

It may seem like an odd recommendation but do not base the addition of these inverts strictly on tank size. You need to guage the amount of "need" there is for each type added, need being food sources. There's nothing worse than adding a good clean up crew only to have empty shells decorating the tank months later from lack of food.

I would start off with about 10 nassarius for now and see how that goes. If the sandbed in particular is a concern, also see if the LFS (or online) has cerith snails. If so get the same amount. They will not compete with each other for resoures within the sandbed. The nassarius will feed primarily on detritus and foods from feeding fish while the cerith will eat only algaes. Do not buy Ilyanassa obsoleta aka mud whelks.

Cheers
Steve

 

[ronj]

also, be careful about adding hermits in the crew..i bought a bunch of snails only to watch hermits eating them right out of their shells and then taking their shells

 

[steve-s]

NO HERMITS...

LOL

Cheers
Steve

 

[ronj]

were you in a bad relationship w/ one or something!!!!! LOL... you seem pretty angry at the mention of them

 

[steve-s]

LOL, not really no. I have uses for them although not the same as others. They're more or less part of the food chain at there best...

Cheers
Steve

 

[ronj]

i gave all of mine away when they started crawling all in my polyps