Live Sand Dollars?

[jdinger29]

Has anyone kept these? I saw a few when I was in Florida this spring and I really thought they were neat. I realize that I would probably never see the thing but it would be kind of neat to know it was there. I have never seen them advertised anywhere so I assume they aren't easy to keep or are unavailable...

 

[alyssia]

I have heard they are EXTREMELY hard to keep.

 

[n_sarno]

i'd like to know as well

 

[teen]

i had a few in my tank, and they didnt make it. imo, they should be left in the ocean.

 

[fedukeford]

they are one of those animals that just should be left in the ocean, same as sand sifter stars, both starve to death and are EXTREAMLY hard to keep alive for long periods of time

 

[gsd]

TYhey do not do very well in most aquariums. They do require a large sand bed with lots of micro fauna and they do like a current across them as well. Thats one reason you normally find large beds of them on and around sandbars where there is a decent bottom current, not mormally a good thing in a home aquarium as it tends to strip up the bottom too much.

 

[jdinger29]

Thanks for the great info! I will just have to enjoy them when I am at the beach...

 

[arsen_36]

what do they look like? i've only seen dead ones never any live ones.

 

[whitey_028]

What do they eat,why are they so hard to keep? I would like to know... I think they would be great sand sifters if we can keep them in our tanks,do they die of water quality or starve to death?...Info would be greatly appreciated. Questions, questions, questions, inquisitive minds want to know.

 

[gsd]

Live ones are the same except they have a fuzzy coating which resembles felt or velvet on them and they can be a brownish to purple color....The ones you see that are dead are usually scrubbed clean and bleached and sold for souviners.

 

[teen]

the ones i had were like a greenish brown velvet.

 

[whitey_028]

I still would like to know why we cant keep them in our tanks successfully.Or can we?I want more info lol

 

[teen]

they just die for some reason. there better left in the ocean where theres a constant supply of microfauna for them to feed off of.

 

[ophiura]

They are very very difficult to keep. Some even need silicious over calcareous sand and are very picky about particle size availability. They burrow at an angle into the sand, so you need quite a deep sand bed.

 

[whitey_028]

thank you ophiura!! That is the information i was looking for...