DSB with burrowing fish?

H

hawkeyes

New member
I was doing some reading on DSB's and a thought popped into my head, if someone had a DSB set up for a long time would adding a burrowing fish, like a goby or a wrasse, cause problems with the DSB? Specifically, would there be a danger of releasing harmful gases?
just to clarify, I don't have a DSB, this is only a hypothetical for my own curiosity.
 
I actually don't have a DSB. This is just a curiosity question, to see if anyone has ever experienced this or not. I know you should have something to aerate it, like nass. snails or sandsifting gobies. my question was what if you didn't?

I work at Petland in Iowa City, I think we talked about reef anglers once upon a time
 
That's a really, really good question. I would think that the potential is there, but that the burrowing would mix up the sandbed pretty consistently and gradually.

I mean, if they're always doing it, wouldn't they probably be mixing around small bits of the bad stuff all the time?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12800924#post12800924 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SWaquariast
You should actually have some thing in the DSB(deep sand bed) to keep the sand bed airerated. How deep is the sand.
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Huh?
I might have a wrong understanding of this but i thought
the point of having a DSB was for the anarobic bacteria
now wouldn't having something in there to airerate it defeat the purpose?
 
I have a DSB and I have had no problems with it and I have nothing sifting it right now. I did have a yellow headed sleeper goby. But he died after a month. Hawkeyes whats your name I go to petland frequently.
 
Depending on what size of aquarium you have I would just get a fleet of nassarius snails. 1per gallon or 1 per 2gallons.
 
Aeration on a dsb is tolerably desirable, but only on a very small, slow scale: a burrower doesn't damage the sandbed. (well, unless you get an engineer or diamond goby: they can pretty well rip one up in a smallish tank)
The key to good maintenance is something that works a very small patch and moves on.
 
so there is a potential problem with some fish, but not with others depending on how actively they go after the sand?
 
If your intention is to have a functioning DSB a sand sifting type of fish will decimate the fauna needed to keep the DSB functional. Of course there are many excpetions to the rule and you will hear countless folks telling you that they have a sand sifting fish and their sand bed is fine.

If you have another means of nitrate reduction and you want a sand bed for pure asthetic reasons having a sand sifting fish would be fine. In this instance I woud not go very deep on the sand bed and I would try to keep the sand clean. It would not be a functioning deep sand bed.

The best things to "aerate" a DSB are organisms that do not eat the fauna contained within.
 
it probably depends on how many sand sifting fish you have and how big your sand bed actually is. i think the original question may have pertained to wrasse that sleep in the sand or something along those lines.
 
not too sure about gobies but I have a DSB with a couple of horseshoe crabs that act like little bulldozers, mixing the top of the and all the time. No problems so far. Actually love to watch them work away all day long. SOOO NEAT
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12805550#post12805550 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by trojan9137
not too sure about gobies but I have a DSB with a couple of horseshoe crabs that act like little bulldozers, mixing the top of the and all the time. No problems so far. Actually love to watch them work away all day long. SOOO NEAT
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Not to be a cop, but won't a horseshoe outgrow a 125??

Not to mention I think they eat all the good things you want in a deep sand bed, no?

Not sure on the OT... if you had a DSB with a big ol' hydrogen sulfide bubble at the bottom and added a wrasse or other fish that burrows, then it would be trouble, I would think... but I'm still not convinced that a properly set up DSB will ever get hydrogen sulfide in the first place... would need all the right critters to keep the flow in the upper portion correct and that would preclude any major sand sifting fish or stars that eat infauna... hmmm, I may be able to answer this in a year, because that's about how long before I add a yellow watchman and pistol shrimp and a yellow wrasse to my tank... hope I don't end up taking one for the team on accident :lol:
 
The whole point of having a DSB is to leave it alone and let it do it's thing. A burrowing fish just doesn't sound right.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12807434#post12807434 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cloak
The whole point of having a DSB is to leave it alone and let it do it's thing. A burrowing fish just doesn't sound right.
Click to expand...

Well, truthfully I'm running TWO DSBs... on in the DT and one in the 'fuge... I don't think one wrasse and one pistol shrimp will destroy the DT bed completely anyway... all part of life on the reef after all
 
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