would a saddle valentini puffer be ok to Detritus??

[nimo1969]

I was going to get some Detritus (fancy serpent ,sea star,sand sifting sea star ,cumcumber ) They are wonderful in tanks . There job to clean up to maintain top layer of sand and eat unwant food .. Not sure if puffer would eat or kill ??? If so what our idea would help ???? please help ..................
nimo1969 :notsure:

 

[sgdeb]

Detritus IS the stuff these guys will eat; this is a standard detritus cleaning package...
I have a saddle valentini - inverts are not it's strong point. Altho I think the serpent could survive with my Toby, the star seems very fragile --- and cukes hardly survive, even for most experienced aquarists! (I have NO IDEA why in the world a cuke would be included in a standard detritus package.)
Perhaps getting the serpent separately (they arrive rather LARGE and impressive --- mine is in a reef, but I have considered putting it in the 45 with the toby). I wouldn't put a star in with the Toby; I've seen it go after an urchin that happened to get stuck upside down and vulnerable.
A suggestion for sand cleaning is the nassarius snail or the tongan super nassarius snail... These snails are real sandsifters, going in and out of the sand hungrily.
If you sandbase is deep enough, perhaps look to a sand sifting goby...?
BTW, I bought the same package... the star lost all it's legs within a week, the cuke was dead in a day or 2. Thank goodness for the 14 day guarantee!
Good luck.
Deb

 

[fishieness]

how big is your tank? It may not even be large enough to support a sand sifting star.....
and yes, most nudis and cucumbers are very hard to take care of. They often get sucked into a powerhead because of how lightweight they are.

 

[promisetbg]

Atlantic spotted cucumbers are fine,we sell them to almost everyone here.They are not lightweight,and go no where near powerheads{which should be protected anyway}
Sandsifting stars and gobies are a bad idea in any tank.They will eat all of the infauna from your sandbed...then starve.
Starfish should not be kept with puffers,they can pick at and kill them.
I have a couple bluespot puffers{ tobies}...and my cleanup crew is:
A few large turbos..regular and mexican type.
2 electric blue hermits
5 red legged mexican hermits
1 atlantic spotted cucumber
2 coral banded shrimp
1 diadema urchin
1 fighting conch