Starfish ate my Nemo?!?!

[Anemoneee]

Can someone please ID this starfish for me?
Also does this starfish hunts live fish? Because my friends think it ate her clownfish and want to get rid of starfish.
If I were to adopt it, do I need to quarantine this star fish before I put into my display tank?

Thank You all

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[tailgamerllc]

Looks like a sand sifting starfish. I have 2 of them in my 125 g tank and haven't had any problems with them eating any fish. I have a couple of smaller clowns and a royal Gramma.

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[Sk8r]

I've not seen that one before. In general the starfish you have to worry about is the green serpent star. Starfish are mostly scavengers, and many are carnivorous. Some pick on coral, some on bacteria films, some on algaes. In general they are not good tank residents, knocking over corals, eating things you bought as display, and generally being a pest. I see the id above, and sounds reasonable. If you have a use for him, cool. But I'd trade this fellow back to a friendly fish store or give him to them, if that's the terms. Saves him, saves you, if the habit of this fellow is going to knock things about and become a problem. The one thing I doubt a starfish of his shape is capable of doing is Nemocide. Likely the clown died and the starfish moved in for a meal.

[Anemoneee]

Thanks guys, her small Nemo was bullied by the big Nemo and just sitting in the sand bed most of the time. Maybe that's how the starfish got Nemo. Poor thing got eaten for sure, just don't know if it was alive or dead.

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[Sk8r]

No healthy clown spends time on the sandbed. It was a goner, and likely dead when the starfish moved in. Crabs, snails, worms, all are helpful tank undertakers. You will rarely find a body at all, unless your tank is new and cannot support a large clean-up crew.

[Sugar Magnolia]

That's a sand sitting starfish. They eat the micro-organisms in the sand bed, depleting them, then slowly starve to death. It did not eat your friends clownfish. Those sand sifting stars should never be offered in the aquarium industry.

[Uncle99]

Originally Posted by Sugar Magnolia

That's a sand sitting starfish. They eat the micro-organisms in the sand bed, depleting them, then slowly starve to death. It did not eat your friends clownfish. Those sand sifting stars should never be offered in the aquarium industry.

Love this, perfectly stated.

In addition, as it moves over your sand if you have some LPS fleshy type polyps on the sand, you may find a mark on it that looks like the star arm.

Oops, he is sorry.

[billdogg]

Originally Posted by Sugar Magnolia

That's a sand sitting starfish. They eat the micro-organisms in the sand bed, depleting them, then slowly starve to death. It did not eat your friends clownfish. Those sand sifting stars should never be offered in the aquarium industry.

Originally Posted by Uncle99

Love this, perfectly stated.

In addition, as it moves over your sand if you have some LPS fleshy type polyps on the sand, you may find a mark on it that looks like the star arm.

Oops, he is sorry.

^^^This^^^

Unless you have a very large, well established system it will quickly devour all of the beneficial fauna in your sand bed and then, over a period of weeks to months, starve to death. It didn't get to the fish while it was alive although it may have snacked a little once it was dead.