Sand sifting needed

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Swimzebras

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Jan 29, 2011
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I have a three inch live sanded in my 45 gallon tank. I have about eight nassarius snails, but they aren't doing an adequate job of stirring the sandbed, so I was wondering if there are any great sand sifters that won't poison my tank or bury themselves in the sand and die never to be seen again?
 
Diamond sandsifting(watchman) goby! They are great! I have the longfinned sandsifting goby at the moment and he is also very similar but i like the diamond ones because they have the nice orange spots.

The sleeper gold head gobies look nice too but i have never had any luck with them...they always die on me. Has anyone had any luck with these?
 
8 nassarius snails is a lot for a tank of that size IME. they will need meaty foods to hit the bottom.
how old is your tank and what does the sand bed look like that you think you need it moved?
in the beginning, all tanks go through an ugly stage. this subsides over a period of months, without adding sand dwellers.
here is a picture of some new clams in a 3 month old tank of mine. notice the sand bed (nothing sifting the sand)-
img_1230896_0_a1a806d7817557607618f1da965f2b2a.jpg
 
Yeah a picture says a thousand words. Take a pic of your sand bed! You could always add some hermits to remove any edible debris sitting on the sand. You have a few more choices as well like sand sifting stars and sand dollars.
 
i wouldn't suggest a sand sifting starfish. it will die in smaller tanks with new sand beds. there is just not enough food for them. i have never actually seen a sand dollar on any stock lists from indo, florida, or australia.
i wonder if they would live in closed systems? i'm guessing not, for the same reasons as the sand sifting star. have you seen these at the LFS cylias?
 
My sand just looks gross, mostly I'm worried about nitrates and stuff building up and then being released, I want them all out so that they can be removed, the sand just doesn't look like it's being stirred enough, I put two layers in at separate times nag they still haven't been mixed, my tank is a few months old.
 
I have seen them at my LFS once. They had them in a shallow tank with sand sifting star fish as well which is why I brought them up. Since I've never had luck with star fish I stayed away, but I do wanna try again someday. Not sure what part of the oceans they came from.
 
Get a sand sifting star. I had one in my 46 gallon and he was fine, and was in there for over a year. I also had one in my 35 gallon for about 6 months. Then I put them both into my 120 gallon and they are both more active and have gotten much bigger.

Try it out if you see that he starts starving give him back to the LFS for a store credit.

In my 46 gallon bow front I had 5 nassarius and one sand sifter for my sand.
 
Reef, and I suppose I could try a ss star, its just all the stories I've heard of them burying themselves and dying, and how would I know it was starving?
 
When they are starving they will surface and bend up like a horseshoe (they do this sometimes without being hungry though) but will stay this way for a long long long period of time. It is very rare for them to die. If you do not see him for a week at a time then you may have a problem. They surface fairly frequently and even take swims around the tank and LR. Mine have been at the top of the tank on the inside of the aquarium. They are cool to watch and have for your sand. For $12 cant go wrong.
 
Well it takes months before they starve to begin with. If you have fish that are currently being fed and producing waste they will not starve.

But, if in a month or two you see him starving give him away or bring him back to the LFS. For $12 it is not a huge deal.
 
Well they will bury themselves but they also will cruise the top of the sand looking for food. To reduce the risk of it starving if you see it on the sand you could place some food near its arms and it should start moving towards it.. and take the food into its mouth.
 
Well they will bury themselves but they also will cruise the top of the sand looking for food. To reduce the risk of it starving if you see it on the sand you could place some food near its arms and it should start moving towards it.. and take the food into its mouth.

You will notice them surface when you are feeding. They have very keen senses when it comes to food. If you are using sinking pellets they will never starve. Your SS and your CUC hit the sunken pellets on the sands surface almost immediately.
 
Awesome, they don't sound bad at all! I'll be sure to get one asap
 
When they are starving they will surface and bend up like a horseshoe (they do this sometimes without being hungry though) but will stay this way for a long long long period of time. It is very rare for them to die. If you do not see him for a week at a time then you may have a problem. They surface fairly frequently and even take swims around the tank and LR. Mine have been at the top of the tank on the inside of the aquarium. They are cool to watch and have for your sand. For $12 cant go wrong.

Actually, if you do your research on these, you will see that it is not at all uncommon for them to die. In fact, they frequently die in a matter of months as a result of starving to death from having consumed all the available microfauan out of the sandbed. It is extremely rare for them to survive for more than two years. For $12 you can go wrong, these need to be left in the ocean where they can survive long term, not imported into the hobby where they cannot and end up dying of starvation.
 
Oh, ok..........then what would you suggest for good sand sifting?
 
Wy Renegade said:
Actually, if you do your research on these, you will see that it is not at all uncommon for them to die. In fact, they frequently die in a matter of months as a result of starving to death from having consumed all the available microfauan out of the sandbed. It is extremely rare for them to survive for more than two years. For $12 you can go wrong, these need to be left in the ocean where they can survive long term, not imported into the hobby where they cannot and end up dying of starvation.

Now if you were to feed them pellets they wouldnt starve would they or are they in need of more than that?
 
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