Sandsifter

[RayAllen]

In your opinion whats the best animal to have in your tank for stirring up the sand. I have cerith snails, cone snails, and hermits but they only do a mediocre job. I have yet to add my forth and final fish to my 39g and was thinking some sort of sandsifter that stays small would be good. Any recommendations? I thought about a star fish as well, but dont have a whole lot of experience with them (actually in my 4+ years in the hobby ive only purchased one star fish)

[Henny]

Have you tried Nassarius snails? Cerith's and Nassarius snails combined do a pretty good job in my tank and fuge.

I only tried a starfish once at my first attempt at SW and it died buried in the sand and ended up pollutining my tank so I haven't messed with starfish since then. It could've have been my lack of knowledge too but I still stay away from them pretty much.

Diron

[LoneStar]

Nassarius snails work good.

Sandsifters will devour anything living in your livesand (except for the bacteria).

[Rychek]

I use a combo of nassarius snails and sand conch in my 90 gal tank. They seem to do a pretty good job.

[joelb]

a sand sifting gobe does a real good job. it will leave your sand bed looking white all day.

[FossilReef]

You could try a sea cucumber, but Nassarius snails will do a fine job as well.

[Gilbert]

Nassarius snails, is the only thing i have to take care of my sand. i have 8 fish in my 55 gallon and feed twice a day. i have never had any cyno problems

[justahobby]

Nassarius snails sift my crushed coral substrate....... or a dragon wrasse if you want to live dangerous. :wink_smile:

[dustint21]

Golden headed sleeper goby! I loved mine when I had him! Now I cant find one at the LFS's! They are cheap too! This is what liveaquaria has to say and a pic!

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h59/dustint21/sleepergoby.jpg

It feeds off the bottom as it sifts through the sand eating mouthfuls of substrate and the food that lives within the sand, keeping the substrate well oxygenated. The Sleeper Gold Head Goby feeds on a variety of live and frozen brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, live black worms, and prepared foods for carnivores, and should be fed frequently

[Bill S]

Nassarius.

[Kristy]

Our diamond goby is the hardest working fish in our tank, hands down. He constantly moves the sand, very busy guy and fun to watch. Keeps our sand looking really white.

[cowboy572]

Nassarius if you want snails. If your looking for a fish I would say a banded goby. There a little hardier than the sleeper goby and and don"t make that much of a mess as compared to the sleeper.

[RayAllen]

Bought a few Nassarius snails today but will most likely be buying a Goby within a week.

[alasg001]

I keep a golden headed sleeper gobie also. Works great but loves to deposit sand everywhere as it swims. My yellow headed jaw fish does a good job of moving sand when he wants also. I also use the different snails mentioned. One sand sifter I have is a conch that buries itself completely in the sand only to emerge to snag something to eat. I bought a some peppermint shrimps and one died b4 I got home. well I decided someone would eat it and dropped it in the tank. Immediatelly the conch came out of nowhere and drug the shrimp down under the sand. Was way cool to watch.

[glennr1978]

I've had pretty good luck with my 2 sand sifting starfish. I've had both of them for well over a year now and they both appear to be completely heathy. They are in my 40g.

[Joshua]

Worms... lots and lots of worms and microlife.