Detrivore kit from Inland Aquatics

[shrimpchips]

There's nothing on that site that you can't get from another reefer - all of those organisms I have in my tank. As for the "assorted amphipods, copepods, etc", you're not really getting any of the specific burrowing detrivores per se. You could just be getting whatever zooplankton is crawling about their holding tanks.

I'm sure lots of people use these detrivore packages, but it seems that it's nothing that you couldn't carefully introduce (so as not to introduce pests) from any other local source.

[MitchM]

Tony and Shrimpchips,
Yeah, that's why I was wondering if anybody had ordered from them. They have been in business for quite a while and are still selling the detrivore kits. I was wondering if people were happy with what they received.
There's also Indo Pacific Sea Farms in Hawaii.
http://www.ipsf.com/
They have sediment beds that are constantly exposed to open reef waters.

Mitch

[Myka]

I also think you are bang on here (see bolded), but the critters listed in the link you provided are not the critters you are referring to as sand-dwelling critters for your DSB. I like your thought process, but you're not finding what you're looking for in the link you provided.

Originally Posted by MitchM

As I understand it, there are hundreds of sediment dwelling worms that are very grain-size specific with regards to their preferred environment. One example is Rhepoxynius abronius. Although this amphipod is limited to the west coast of North America, I don't see any reason why there wouldn't be similar type organisms living in the more tropical type areas that our corals come from.
If these type of organisms live only in specific size sand sediment, I can't see them existing at all in live rock, no matter the quality.

Even though live rock can appear to make a dsb "live", I think that there is room for improvement with regards to diversity.

Mitch

[MitchM]

Myka,

I agree. The list seems limited. It may just be that to try to inventory ALL the different life contained in a sandbed would be challenging..
If you could even identify it all.
Inland Aquatics seems to have a good reputation south of the border though.

Thanks,
Mitch

[shrimpchips]

The problem with what you're looking for (organisms that are highly substrate specific) is that you won't get diversity - their specificity of environment just won't allow for a wide range of creatures to be housed. Instead, you should try to hit up as many generalists as you can to increase species diversity in your sandbed/clean up crew.

My suggestion would be to collect sand from as many different sources as you can to get the maximum number of varities of sand dwelling creatures that are easily housed/cared for in small closed systems.

[MitchM]

That's probably what I'm going to wind up doing - getting one shipment from Inland and one shipment from Indo-Pacific (I'll have to set up somewhere south of the border for a pickup).

Mitch