what species of Starfish/snail/sand sifter of any sort?

[Fishward]

Hey all,
I'm fed up with gobies jumping out of my tank, so im moving to starfish to stir up my sand bed. anyone have suggestions on species? what to avoid? am i makeing a huge mistake here?

[muck]

Id grab a conch or a few (depends on tank size) instead.
Most interesting creatures and do a pretty good job of keeping the sandbed clean.

[intarsiabox]

I'm not sure of their real name but I usually see them in dealers tanks listed as "white sand sifting starfish" for around $15. I've heard they can do too good of a job though and desimate your sand of all life. I'm not sure if this is exaggerated or not as I don't have sand in my tank so have never owned one.

[Fishward]

Well that's what I want to avoid. I want the sand bed to still be alive. I just want something that will eat the algae, turnthe sand, but not eat everything else. Will aconch do that? Or are they indiscriminate feeders like some starfish?

[intarsiabox]

Conchs will do a great job and only go after algae type material including diatoms as far as I know. They work so well in fact that you may end up having to feed them nori or algae pellets for koi. Usually if you see a conch on the glass of your tank it's because they have cleaned up all the algae in your sand and are starving.

[kien]

I assume you have considered putting a covering of some sort over your tank so that they can't jump out.. so was there are reason why you opted not to implement a cover?

[Fishward]

Originally Posted by kien

I assume you have considered putting a covering of some sort over your tank so that they can't jump out.. so was there are reason why you opted not to implement a cover?

I did have a lid in place for thelast one but after grazing for 20 minutes, it jumped into it. Looked really stunned, disappeared into the rock andeas never seen again. :-(

[Fishward]

Do you suggest a fighting conch? Are there other suitable species readily available?