need help please

milomlo

milomlo

Active Member
I really need some help about my sand bed. I know I already have a couple of posts about this but no one is really responding. Maybe because of the holidays who knows.

29 gallon
I currently have
10 Cerith Snail (this is what I think they are)
5 turbo snails
13 hermits (blue, scarlet, zebra)
Fish I have
2 clowns
2 firefish
1 tail spot blenny
I did purchase a sand star on Saturday, but I think it is dead. When I got home on Saturday with it 2 of it's legs had fallen off. So I am not sure if it is living or not.

I need something more for the sand. I have moved the powerheads around and I still need something I think.
I was thinking a serpents star or a cucumber or maybe a horseshoe crab. Really I need some input. What is goo to get? :help: Should I get a fish for the sand? My blenny stays on the rocks he doesn't go to the sand at all. My firefish swim mid tank and my clowns at the top.
Maybe a LMB or some sort of goby for the sand???
 
milomlo

milomlo

Active Member
Oh also. Someone told me about mini brittle stars. Would these be good and where can I get them?
 
pfitz44

pfitz44

Active Member
Stay away from the horseshoe crab... when it grows, it will outgrow your tank, and it will starve to death, as there will not be enough waste fo it to eat. I would add a goby.... ive seen some of them at the LFS eating sand, and shitfing it threw there gills.... I don tkno wwhta type though, as i have CC, and i bet that would hurt a little.....
~Fitzy
 
scsinet

scsinet

Active Member
There are several other web sites that sell the mini stars, bristle worms, etc.
I can't post links to other sites, but search google for "detrivour" and you'll find some places that sell what you need.
 
jmick

jmick

Active Member
You seem to have a decent clean up crew and water flow in your tank. How much/often are you feeding your fish? Instead of looking to add more in the way of a clean up crew you should perhaps look into feeding less or looking into a better skimmer.
 
milomlo

milomlo

Active Member
thank you! I will look that up. Would worms of some sort be good? I never thought about that. Bristle worms as you stated are those good for keeping the sand mixed up and eating stuff in the sand? Maybe I could get a couple of those and a couple of mini stars??? Who knows
 
milomlo

milomlo

Active Member
Originally Posted by Jmick
You seem to have a decent clean up crew and water flow in your tank. How much/often are you feeding your fish? Instead of looking to add more in the way of a clean up crew you should perhaps look into feeding less or looking into a better skimmer.
Well I do probably feed entirely to much I guess. My fish just always seem hungry. I have a CPR Bak Pak, but it doesn't seem to pull much out.
Here are some pictures I took. Hopefully you can see the sand bed good enough.




 
milomlo

milomlo

Active Member
Originally Posted by team2jndd
sleeper banded bullet goby will clean that up in no more than a week
Can I have that goby with the two firefish and the Tail spot blenny?
 
team2jndd

team2jndd

Active Member
I have had several and they never bothered other fish. They might chase them from their personal hideout but they never attacked anything. However, when they get too large they might outgrow your tank and if you have any small shrimp it will eat them.
 
milomlo

milomlo

Active Member
Originally Posted by team2jndd
I have had several and they never bothered other fish. They might chase them from their personal hideout but they never attacked anything. However, when they get too large they might outgrow your tank and if you have any small shrimp it will eat them.

Well I do have peppermint shrimp and I plan on getting 2 cleaner shrimp. Will it eat these?
 
rainfishy

rainfishy

Member
My personal opinion is that your sand looks fine. I think it is unhealthy for the sand in the system to get stirred up to much, because it disturbs the good bacteria in your sand. Besides the way it looks, is there another problem your trying to fix with your sand?
I love your new firefish; they are beautiful!! :jumping: :cheer: :jumping:
I don't think you should add another fish right now, wait a month or so till your bacteria catches up with your fish bioload (as always after new fishies
)
 
littlebuck

littlebuck

Active Member
if it was me to dig in ur sand a little bit. I would get Nassarius snails. 5 fish in a 29 gallon tank is way to many. IMO Also you have no snails that go in the sand. Get like 10 -15 of those snails and you will be all set. they are cheap like a $1.00 each. plus they will eay letover food that is in the sand.
 
milomlo

milomlo

Active Member
I do have 10 snails that bury themselves - they may be the Nass. snails (they have a little antenna thing on them that sticks up when they are under the sand).
I went to get 10 more of those and they guy told me to get the sand sifter starfish. I didn't really want to get another fish. I was hoping for snails or some sort of invert that would help it.
Rain - Thank you for the compliment on the firefish. They are lovely. I am pleased with them. I originally wanted to buy a purple firefish. But I sort of found this deal for the two red/white ones and they are lovely.
 
littlebuck

littlebuck

Active Member
i have about 10 in my tank. honestly you sand looks pretty good. One thing you have to look at with 5 fish and the otehr snails all that waste. Is that what you are talkngi about like poop on the sand?
 
milomlo

milomlo

Active Member
Not really anything inparticular it is just looking yucky. I got the 2 fire fish Saturday and the sand was already looking bad. That is the whole reason I went to the store was to get stuff for the sand and they LFS told me that the star would fix it. Now of course I find out different.
Here are some pics of just the sand. One of them is one of my snails that is out right now. Maybe you can tell what it is.
You can see alot of brown/rust color on top and then under the top level it is green



 
littlebuck

littlebuck

Active Member
well a sand sifting star should help. I dont know my sand get a lil brown on it once in a while. you are not gonig to keep it totally white. try to get like 5 more of those snails. for snails in my tank i have 10 nass, 6 turbo and 1 huge zebra turbo. and 2 hermits. Also you can look at a sally light foot crab i have one and it picks at the sand all the time and also my fire shrimp.
 
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