??? about Sally Lightfoot Crab

[bigeyedfish]

I am interested in getting a Sally Lightfoot Crab for my tank.What do they eat? Do they stay off the LR? After bad experiences with both burgundy and blue leg hermits, i wold like to get soemthing that will stay down in the sand and clean up the detritus instead of eating my coralline algae. Anything besides a crab you all might recommend for this??

 

[sinner's girl]

Sally's a great eater, at least ours is. Of course it also ate the leg off my choc. chip star... but i don't know if they will eat coralline algae.

 

[salty rick]

The Sally's that I have in the past picked at the brown and green algae on the sides and live rock. I never noticed it destroying coaline algae or corals. However, I don't recall ever seeing one feed off the floor. I would think that a lawnmower blenney would work concerning the cleaning of the sand floor of a tank.

 

[rmd8110]

I've never seen my sally even touch the sand. But I've never seen them eat anything they shouldn't be eating either. I love mine! very cool.......

 

[mlm]

Another thing you can get that they sell at this site is the Fighting Conchs. They only stay on the sand and the do a great job. I have 4 in a 55 gallon. I could maybe get 2 or 3 more.

 

[bhav_88]

Maybe try a cucumber... They won't get up on the rock. Sallys eat off of everything.

 

[cyn]

I have never seen my Lawnmower on the sand. I was having problems with the sand looking grungy and got a diamond goby. He does a great job on the sand! One word of advise about them though.. Make extra sure your reef structure is stable, the really like to make a 'nest' under the rock.
HTH.
cyn

 

[dshurett]

You might also try Nassarius snails. I call them little Hoover vacuum cleaners. They burrow in the sand as well as come topside when food is present.

 

[bigeyedfish]

How bout a scooter blenny? They look really cool and seem to crawl around the sand. I'm just wondering if he'll eat the crap on the bottom i want him to. thanks for the suggestions so far.

 

[gabbys125reef]

My Sally eats off of the rock probably 50% of the time, she loves when I get buildup of detritis on the sand, she pigs out all day. She does eat off of the rock but doesn't eat the coraline algae. My blue and red legs don't seem to get along, the blue are meaner. I see a lot of the blues in the reds shells, oh well, survival of the fittest.
<a href="http://www.geocities.com/reeftank125" target="_blank">www.geocities.com/reeftank125</a>

 

[stupid_naso]

As far as I know, sally lightfoot is known for eating algaes from lr, though they don't eat coraline algae. I guess in a way it only eats nuissance algae.
I got a sally lightfoot about three weeks ago. The first couple of weeks it stays on the rocks, eating all the time. These past couple of days, I've noticed that it does not work as hard as it was. It spends time walking around on the ls, looking for algaes on the sand or even left over food.
And I do believe they are reef safe. Well at least SWF.com believes so .
I hope that helps...
stupid_naso