bad hermit, bad!
 

put in a new sand sifter star at about about 11 last night, just looked in my tank and my big anemone hermit is just polishing off the last tip of the stars remaining leg :eek: :eek:

hermits only eat dead or dying things so it's probably not to blame. how did you acclimatize the star?

btw your tank is about 75 gallons to small for a sand sifting star.

I had a blue hermit that would nab sleeping cleaner wrasses. He got one so quickly, I couldn't save the fish. Second time, I was ready-he made an abrupt exit to Wais.
But super fast! I couldn't believe how quickly from the time the lights went on to the time he grabbed that wrasse!

umm. nope, these hermits don't just eat dead/dying. They are big anemone hermits, i watched them fight and eat each other.

I had 2 sand sifters in a 55g and it was fine, so what is wrong with one small sifter in a 20?

How long were they in the 55G and what happened to them..?

Generally these stars strip your sandbed of all live and then starve to death.
Unless you have a very large tank/sandbed they won't last long term.

maybe you should do some more research.


http://www.wetwebmedia.com/sndsftstrfaqs.htm

yes i know they can be bad for a sandbed if it isn't adequate.

my stars died before when i moved tanks and had amonia spike at 8ppm