Starfish?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:56 pm

I bought some of that fishnet stuff for my crabs today and it came with a starfish. Will they eat the starfish if I put it in the tank? Is it good for them, like does it contain calcium? I put it in the tank, but I'll take it out if anyone says it's bad. They're all dug under right now anyway..lol. I thought it would be a nice surprise for them when they come up. I also got 2 turbo shells in a pack of mixed shells at Walmart...go me!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Mar 04, 2005 5:02 pm

I threw in a starfish once to see if they'd eat it, and they didn't even nibble at it. That surprised me totally. I thought a starfish would be super tasty to the crabs, but apparently mine did not like it. I'd say leave it in there and see what they think.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Mar 04, 2005 5:27 pm

I don't see why it would hurt them (unless it is dyed a color) - they would probably encounter starfish in the wild. I put pieces of sand dollars in my tank and slowly but surely they have been eating them (it has been a year and there are still pieces!).

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Mar 04, 2005 5:57 pm

I put a starfish in mine and it made it smell like nasty, stanky fishey grossness. The day after I put mine in there I freaked out because the fishy odor was SO strong. I thought one of my crabbies had died. I checked out all of them and not one was gone, so I took a whiff of the starfish and almost threw up my lunch. The starfish are now stinking up my sister's bathroom.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Mar 04, 2005 6:07 pm

ya i don't think the starfish will hurt ur crabs, as long as it's not dyed. but it will definetely smell really really bad! when the dried starfish gain moisture, which they will in a crabitiat, they start to rot and smell reallly nasty. so..just a heads up!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Mar 04, 2005 6:24 pm

Well, I guess I'll leave it in there for now until it starts to reek. Thanks for the advice everyone!

Gorthaur · Post by **Gorthaur** » Fri Mar 04, 2005 7:20 pm

I got a starfish with fishnet too, and I put it in the crabitat. Within two days it disintegrated into a smelly powder, so I think it might be a bad idea to put yours in your crabitat.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 3:21 am

I had some of the starfish that you get with the netting and it was fine for a bit, but it molds very easy and suddenly... I would toss it...

Robin

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 1:01 am

I got some starfish that came in a package and are suppost to be used for crafts. They said they were all natural and they deffinetly don't appeared dyed. I dipped them in boiling water for a few seconds and then let them dry just in case. If they stay too long they get really soggy and fall to pieces I found out. Anyways, after some time to sterilize I tossed a few in. Figured they would look pretty and Aphrodite and Pandora love to drag stuff around, so maybe they would with the starfish. I wake up the next morning and the starfish is missing an arm! Apparently they REALLY liked it. And they didn't seem to have any ill effects from eating it.
I notice though they haven't eaten them much lately. Just drag them around. And so far, no fishy smell. Perhaps the other starfish got wet. They get soggy and might have made the smell then. If they stay dry or just get a slight bit of dampness, they do fine.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 2:41 am

The starfish are an rusty orange color. Some have patterns to them. They are also skinny. I'll take a picture of one tomorrow and post it, much better then my generlized and crappy description

And I think you can get the starfish at Michaels Arts and Crafts

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 8:50 am

Mine has 5 "arms," is a natural color (like tan-ish) and then has some short spiny things sticking off the top, almost like it's wearing a crown. When I described it to my Mom, she knew what kind it is (she used to be a big sea shell buff) but I forget. I haven't taken it out yet, just on the odd chance the crabs will nibble on it. They're all dug under though, it's been a week today. I might try taking it out and saving it for when they come back up so I don't get and mold/soggy issues with it before they even know it's there. Thanks everyone for all the wonderful advice. My plan now is to reintroduce it after they're done molting (or just messing with my mind) and let it there for a few days to see if they like it.

You can kind of see it in this picture I took of my tank as soon as I put the netting up the other day. I know my tank is a little bare right now, I figured with evryone dug under, I would take out the cork log and some of the extra shells that nobody seemed to like so the crabs don't have more obsticles to avoid when they dig back up.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 12:24 pm

Sorry it took so long, but you can see the starfish from this pic:

The other one is in the center-bottom of the pic and you can only see one arm, and it only has 3 left. They ate the other two. Like I said, they haven't touched them for a while. So they are more decor and drag toys now.

I've seen those starfish sold at Wal-Mart in the craft section. They are sold in a bag of starfish or mixed starfish and shells and sold near the plastic fruit.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 1:37 pm

Is that wood in the picture that you are using for substrate????

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 2:58 pm

It's repti-bark and it's not in there anymore. I just switched to playsand last night.