Sand sifters

[aquazen]

What are good fish, inverts, etc. for sifting through sand? While I'm at it, are there scavenger type fish that tend to vacuum up leftover food at the bottom of a tank, like cories and loaches for freshwater? TIA.

 

[hackteck]

i'm getting a sand sifting goby and a sand sifting star maybe one of those or both

 

[aquazen]

I understand that for a sand sifting goby, you need a refugium to produce copepods in. Is that not the case? Otherwise, I'll go out and get that Twin Spotted Goby in a heartbeat!

 

[jaiden]

There are sand sifters and sand shifters. Some things go through the sand bed devouring everything and then starving to death.

Personally, I'd recommend a bunch of nassarius snails and some hermits. They work great for me and rush out to grab anything that falls to the bottom. I also have a ton of pods, tiny starfish and bristleworms from my LR which all compete for the stuff. I'd prefer to do without the bristleworms, but I guess they do the job just fine.

 

[localhost]

I posted a link the other day to a site that had instructions on training a goby to eat prepared foods. Mine luckily will it them with no problem. He will swim up and eat out of the water column instead of picking it up off the sand.

 

[Fluff]

I'd agree that nassarius snails are a good choice. They would behave like loaches in cleaning the sand as well as keeping it turned and aerated.

 

[tcarola154]

I have a diamond watchman goby... and my sand is always very clean. He eats live brine and frozen mysis whenever i put it in there too... so he always has plenty to eat

and i also agree... nassarius snails do a great job too, every time i drop food in the tank they pop up right away and find anything that hasnt been eaten

 

[demodiki]

Tonga fighting conch. The best investment I ever made as far as clean up critters.