Best sand sifter for sand bed

[likwid]

Well I bought a Randalls Goby and all he does is sit on my sand, never actually sifting or moving it around in any way.

Any other ideas?

[ColinD]

Hardest worker in my tank


Colin

[mike31154]

Dunno about 'best' but here's what's happened in my tank so far.

Got a sand sifting starfish which spent a lot of time buried (good I guess) and not really moving all that much (not so good).

My female Maroon clownfish does a fantastic job of moving sand around below her BTA.

Gained a number of Cerith snails when I acquired a used 60 gal and they spent all day in the substrate then laid eggs on the glass during the night. They're quite small so I'm not certain how effective they are in a larger tank.

Also got a horseshoe crab from the used 60 gal and he was quite industrious. Large enough to make a difference too. Unfortunately, he didn't last. No idea what caused his demise. Not the most intelligent of critters, he'd go on these upside down swims and fall into my BTA, get stung, go limp and recover once the BTA released him as unpalatable.

At some point my population of Cerith snails declined as well. I think there might be one left. I see that most of my blue legged hermies are now sporting Cerith shells so who knows...

This brings me to my latest addition, a White Spotted Hermit Crab, cringe... This guy is a fair size and apparently not entirely reef safe. Probably not recommended for most tanks, but he can dig a mean hole and spends 90% of his time stirring around in the substrate. It's the other 10% that poses potential problems. I've been keeping a close eye on him since I do have a number of corals I don't want him messing around with and so far so good in that regard. I'm fairly sure he's the culprit in the disappearance of my sand sifting starfish since I observed him tearing away at it on more than one occasion. I figure one or two more molts and he's gonna have to go since he'll just be too big & destructive. Too bad since he's colourful & highly entertaining to watch. Leaps off tall live rock, faster than a speeding Cerith, smarter than a Horseshoe crab.... Then I'll just have to stir the sand myself.

[Red Coral Aquariums]

Originally Posted by ColinD

Hardest worker in my tank


Colin

Valenciennea puellaris excellent sand sifter but will jump if frightened.
Kevin

[likwid]

Originally Posted by Red Coral Aquariums

Valenciennea puellaris excellent sand sifter but will jump if frightened.
Kevin

Ya, red coral didnt have any of these in stock when I went in, so I bought a Randals Goby instead, which was a mistake as it does nothing at all for my sand.

[Red Coral Aquariums]

Let me know when you are back in town and I will take the Randal's back on trade for an orange spotted.
Kevin

[X-Treme]

Originally Posted by Red Coral Aquariums

Let me know when you are back in town and I will take the Randal's back on trade for an orange spotted.
Kevin

Wow....That is a REALLY cool thing to do. Talk about going above and beyond. We need a "Red Coral" up here.

[IMSURE]

I have a tiger tail sea cucumber, and it is doing pretty good job and should be a good choice. That is if you can take the risk of it poisoning other tankmates if it dies. I had mine for over three years, so far it is still doing okay.

I also have a pink spotted goby. It shift a lot of sand at first (first few months), moving sand from one end of the tank to the other. Sometimes it moved sand from under the rocks, and toppled the rocks over. It stopped shifting sand all together a while ago. Now that I have it for 6 years, it only eats the fish food from the water column.

From my experience, they only shift the sand if the surface is not cover with slime, hair or other types of algae except diatom algae.

[Gordon H]

We have two in our tank and they are unbelievable. They work from morning till night cleaning and sifting the top 1/2 inch of sand all around the tank. They have moved a fair bit of sand from one end of the tank to the other, but never onto the rocks or corals. We previously had a problem with Red Slime algae. Not anymore. These gobies really are the hardest workers in the tank - and their fun to watch too!

[i have crabs]

Originally Posted by mike31154

This brings me to my latest addition, a White Spotted Hermit Crab, cringe... This guy is a fair size and apparently not entirely reef safe. Probably not recommended for most tanks, but he can dig a mean hole and spends 90% of his time stirring around in the substrate. It's the other 10% that poses potential problems. I've been keeping a close eye on him since I do have a number of corals I don't want him messing around with and so far so good in that regard. I'm fairly sure he's the culprit in the disappearance of my sand sifting starfish since I observed him tearing away at it on more than one occasion. I figure one or two more molts and he's gonna have to go since he'll just be too big & destructive. Too bad since he's colourful & highly entertaining to watch. Leaps off tall live rock, faster than a speeding Cerith, smarter than a Horseshoe crab.... Then I'll just have to stir the sand myself.

i have one that lives alone in a 67g tank the only thing he hasnt tryed to destroy was green cromis which where to fast for him forget about reef safe in any kind of way he will kill all corals, inverts and fish also mine is bigger than a baseball and got that way quick although he hasnt got any bigger in the last 2-3 years prefect animal for stirring the sand in a large fuge or remote deep sand bed but dosnt play well with others