starfish, sand dollars & mushroom coral

Jax · Post by **Jax** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 1:45 pm

Hi everyone,

I recently ordered and received some starfish, tiny sand dollars & little mushroom coral for my crabs. I'm not sure how to go about cleaning them though...should I just throw them all in a pot and boil them for a few minutes?

I'm also a little worried about the starfish smelling...I think that was a concern for someone on here recently? Let me know your thoughts or if there is anyway to avoid this!

Thanks

suebee · Post by **suebee** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 1:51 pm

If you boil the star fish you wont have any left.. as far as starfish and sand dollars you just need to make sure where you got them from didnt use alcohol to dry them and air dried them.. some places also bleach sand dollars. As long as you know that they were not soaked in alcohol and not bleach but naturally sun dried you can put them right in the tank. Same with the coral..

Jax · Post by **Jax** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 2:08 pm

ah thank you suebee! I definitely won't boil then...I'd like to keep my starfish around!

I ordered from deltona shells...anyone know how they dry them out? If not, I guess I'll go ahead and e-mail them. I was less then impressed with their shells, btw, lots of little holes in them. Many of them will not be used for the crabs at all. Oh well.

Thanks again

Jax · Post by **Jax** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 2:11 pm

Oh darn...the website says
"ALSO, THEY HAVE BEEN TREATED TO USE AS A DECOR PIECE. PLEASE KEEP ALL STARFISH OUT OF WATER. THIS WILL REMOVE THE PRESERVE AND ROT THEM."

I guess thats no good for the crabs. I should read before I get all excited and order things...

Mike120 · Post by **Mike120** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 5:59 pm

back in the early days of crabbing, I put a little starfish in the KK ( :roll: ) and it was half eaten when I woke up the next day.

So I doubt yours would have lasted long...

Jax · Post by **Jax** » Sat Apr 16, 2011 10:27 pm

Well I meant keep them around for the crabs to eat and not have them disappear in water if I had tried to boil them. Either way... they're useless to me now.

Anyone know of a place that sells ones without preservatives or anything else harmful?

suebee · Post by **suebee** » Sat Apr 16, 2011 11:26 pm

i get them from time to time in my dollar store when a friend of mine drys them out.. I have starfish as one of the 1.00 items right now but im out of the sand dollars..

Jax · Post by **Jax** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 12:43 pm

Oh darn Suebee... I just ordered from you and must have missed them. I'll have to look out for them next time. BTW, I was so excited when I received your food and other items this week! So thank you : )

suebee · Post by **suebee** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 3:21 pm

Good to know, let me know what your crabs like best!