sand sifters

almarktool

almarktool

Member
i am sure this topic has been discused more than a few times and just wanted to get the latest and up to date opion on this:
DSB sand siffting star fish? yes or no
DSB diamond gobies? ( i would think no ) yes or no
DSB horseshoe crab ? yes or no
Thanks
Mark
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
I'm sure everyone will have different opinions. Here are mine:
1 - No
2 - Probably not. A large DSB could be OK.
3 - Absolutely NOT!
 
saltyrich

saltyrich

Active Member
IMO, no to all of those. I would go with smaller things that are equally as effective. Nassarius snails, cerith snails, queeen conchs, and fighting conchs.
 
ed r

ed r

Member
For a DSB to be effective the infauna population must be thriving. All of those creatures you listed will eat the sand dwelling critters. Their stirring action is not a real problem. It is what they will eat. If you add them the DSB will not work as well.
 
kpogue

kpogue

Member
I don't have what you would call a "real deep sand bed" it avegs. around 3-4". I was thinking about getting SWF.com's cleaner pkg $179. It has 3 HS crabs and some stars and others. I have quite a bit of natural life going on in the tank. Tube worms, etc. Would this be an unwise buy? What would you suggest?
 
steamboat1569

steamboat1569

Member
I ordered a horseshoe crab from this site a couple of yrs ago. It all but ate all the copapods and amiphopods. Just about wiped the entire population out. They are voracious eaters.
I don't know if you have seen an adult HScrab, but they get huge. The ones they sell at these places are babies.
I think that 3 of them would really do some damage to your DSB.
 
nm reef

nm reef

Active Member
Some people manage to keep all 3 of the questioned species with success. But all of them tend to thrive on eating the diversity in a well established DSB.
Personally I have a DSB for the diversity it provides my system and for that reason alone I would avoid any creature that would deplete my DSB.
For clean-up crew I basically stick to an assortment of snails & crabs plus one rather large brittle star.....combined with as much active diversity in my DSB as possible....pods/worms/mini stars.
But thats my system and whats been working for me.....folks use many different approaches to maintain diversity in our individual systems....myself I prefer to have as much diversity in the micro fauna as possible....and some creatures that appear to look kewl have a tendacy to munch some of the life I prefer to keep!:cool:
 
P

pa reef pig

Guest
Will a Mandarin wipe out my pods or will there be enough of them to keep him happy and not cause the extinction of all critters in the tank?
 
anthony812

anthony812

Member
i dont think a mandarin will wipe out your pod population if you have a large tank and in my opinion sand sifting animals are deadley in a small tank because you gotta remeber in a small tank there aint as much life as there is in say a 100 gallon just chill on the sand sifting star to me i think you should get snails or some couch to stir your sand
 
barracuda

barracuda

Active Member
My DSB is set up sinse May 2nd. I used 140 lbs of Bio Active live aragonite sand. How do you know if you have these copepods and other creatures? 'cause i don't see nothing.
 
ananda

ananda

New Member
Did you use any live sand from an established tank? Do you have live rock in there? Worms usually come in LS, pods from LR.
The "bio-active" sand does not have most of what makes live sand "live". It is supposed to have bacteria, but it has no pods or worms of any sort. Further, while the stated shelf life is one year, the "effective" shelf life is probably much shorter: what are all those bacteria eating while the bag sits on the shelf?
To determine if you have worms or other critters in the sand, take a look at the edge of your sandbed. There should be some resemblance to an ant farm, with little tubes made by the worms. Also, you can take a red-filtered flashlight and look at the tank when the tank is dark -- wait until after the lights have been off for an hour, to give the critters time to come out of hiding.
 
steamboat1569

steamboat1569

Member
The way I check for pods is that I take a flashlight around the edges of the substrate as stated above. Usually you see the critters scurrying about. I notice flatworms, small bristle worms, amphipods (copapods are almost too small to see).
At the present time, I have a crushed coral bed, and these critters are very easy to pick out.
 
alf3482

alf3482

Member
DSB sand siffting star fish? yes or no
DSB diamond gobies? ( i would think no ) yes or no
DSB horseshoe crab ? yes or no
IMO in the reef tank NO on all three.
the first two will depleat you SB infuna population and the HC will grow to 2' in size. they are bulldozers in the sand so they will tip over corals on the SB. HTH JMO
 
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