help??

[365seasons]

Our tank has been set up for a little over two months now. We have about 45 lbs of live rock, and only an urchin, and a sand sifting starfish. Everything was looking perfect, water is testing fine, but now we seem to have hit a problem ( I think?)

There was a pea sized white shell that showed up the other morning in it, and we thought nothing of it. Now there is little....parasitic looking things running all over the glass. You can hardly see them, only when you look REALLY closely, but I'm not sure what they are, if they are dangerous to our critters, and how to get rid of them....
I don't know if the shell is related to the parasite things, or where they stemmed from.

If anyone could shed some light on this, or let me know if possibly a shrimp or something would take care of them, or chemicals, that would be wonderful..

Hopefully someone can give us some help here.


Thanks so much.

[Rbacchiega]

It's probably pods that you're seeing on your tank. Which are harmless. The shell might have come from the rock itself. Anyway to grab a picture??

[Keri]

copepods, isopods or amphipods, good things to have, don't get rid of them
looks like this?
http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/bugs/munnidisopod/variant/medium


I'd rehome the sandsifter tho, noyt a good candidate for a smaller system, they eat all the good things out of your sandbed unless you have a Very large system and then they die :(

[Myka]

I'd rehome the sandsifter tho, noyt a good candidate for a smaller system, they eat all the good things out of your sandbed unless you have a Very large system and then they die :(

I agree. The sand sifting starfish is a poor choice for a small tank, and even poorer choice for a newly setup tank.

I also agree that what you are seeing are different pods. Beneficial live foods for your critters. The shell I bet was either mixed up in your sand, or was on your live rock and fell off. Is there anything living in the shell?

[naesco]

Yes, not a good choice as it will starve to death in your tank.

[365seasons]

Thank you!
I hope they are beneficial. I'm not sure if they look like those little things posted.
They're too small to tell.
Just little white squirmy things.

There was nothing living in the shell when we pulled it out. I have a feeling that they may have come from our live rock, as we also found a dead crab that is about an inch and a half...it just kind of showed up one day.

Our tank is a 60 gallon, is that still too small for a sand sifting??

[365seasons]

As well, we have been putting lots of nori, as well as algae pellets in the tank for the two critters...
Is that still not enough for the starfish to survive off of?


We're new to saltwater, and the guy at Ocean City suggested the starfish for a beginner tank. =( :cry:

[tang daddy]

As everyone has said the sand sifter is too large for a tank your size but if you want to keep it just know that it may starve to death..... The shell you found of the crab may be a molt as crabs do that often like shrimps shed to grow.

so you may still have a crab in your tank if you ever get a chance to see it make sure it doesn't get too big as some will eventually prey on fish!

[naesco]

Return the starfish to the LFS for a credit and buy some food or something.
Lose the LFS and get a recommendation for a responsible, knowledgeable LFS from someone on this board.
What critters are you feeding?
In a new tank, there is not sufficient food in the sandbed to be able to allow jawfish, stars cukes and others to survive.
Similarly, there would not be enough pods to allow fish like mandarin to survive.
And, an aged aquarium is necessary to have some SPS like acros to survive.
As the tank matures lots of minute food develops.

[Rbacchiega]

This surprises me because normally Ocean City is a great place to go.

Sandsifting stars...can be good in that they will help with the sand bed, but in a tank your size, it will quickly eat all thats there and head towards starvation. I could see someone adding it to a well established tank. I used to have a 33 gallon with about a 6 inch sandbed that I would add dirty filter sock gunk to in order to keep a small group of sandsifters alive (4 of them)...but that was when I was feeding a trio of Harlequin Clown Shrimp...

Anyways, back to the topic at hand. I would try and return the starfish and see if you can get a credit. If not, post it on here and I'm sure someone would take it off your hands.

[tgoeujon]

i must be lucky. the sand sifter star was my first addition to the 55 with a 2" sandbed and hes goin on 2 years old. i never even realized there supposed to be difficult?