Live Sand Dollar\Reef Safe

[BriGuy]

I know this will cause a few chuckles out there, but hey we are all friends right? So since I can't find any good information out there on this topic, post it here and let the insults fly. Have a friend at the coast and he found a live Sand Dollar and is going to try to bring it up to me. The question is if the little makesth trip, will this just kill off everything in my tank or what? Not sure if they are reef dafe or not, since there are no reefs that I know off of Padre Island. I have a 29g BioCube, and right now the little guy is about an inch in dia. Thoughts, comments, jokes, would love to hear it.

Thanks,
BriGuy

[Gilbert]

i would like to know also.

[lhoy]

I would be surprised if it lasted a more than a month in a tank!!

Here it is direct from wetwebmedia:

Collecting Sand Dollars... Best Left at the Beach. - 6/7/07
If I bring live Sand dollar from the beach, and quarantine it, can I put it in my reef tank?
<Greetings, Mich with you tonight.
Can you or should you? Sand dollars generally don't do well in home aquariums typically starving after a few months. They require a lot of sand, approximately 10 sq ft of surface area for a sand dollar 4 inches in diameter. They also need a sand bed at least 4 inches deep, and can be suffocated by fine sediment and aragonite sandy muds found in some reef aquariums. Subtropical sand dollars will not survive at normal reef tank temperatures either. Generally, I think it's best to leave the sand dollar at the beach. Though I am glad you mentioned the quarantine part! Mich>

[BriGuy]

Thanks for the information, that is what I expected. Will tell the friend to let the little guy go.

Thanks,
BriGuy