Fighting Conch
- Thread starter pt3003
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WaReefer458
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I have both in a 40g with no issues
I have a diamond goby and a fighting conch who do great in my 80 - 48"x24" and a fighting conch in my 40g breeder that does great. They are both max size. The key is to leave enough room around the perimeter of the rock work so they do get stuck. In my 80g i have two islands. He can go around both islands or through the middle. In my 40 he can get around all rocks. They recommend 1 per 50 gallons. They do an amazing job when they are awake. I've had my guy in the 80 sleep for 6 weeks straight and then spend 5 straight days roaming and eating.
CStrickland
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The issue is whether there's enough food for both. It can take a few months for an animal to starve, but both conchs and sand sifters are pretty much totally reliant on stuff in the sand. IMO a 75 with 1" of sand is pushing it for one of them, I wouldn't do both. Like, if your sand is dirty enough to keep them fed, you have an export issue. Better to fix your husbandry IMO, but people have diff opinions on that.
Also, a CBS can get pretty aggressive. I would look at cleaner shrimp instead, and just for looks really. It's not a tool to clean ur tank.
bat21
New member
Get some nessarius snails. They are essentially mini conchs. I have the same 3 large ones I bought over a year ago. They are carnivores. They dont eat algae, but will eat poop and leftover food. Mine will even eat full blackworms that the fish miss. They just inhale them into their mouths. It's pretty cool.
Greybeard
New member
I've got a 3 inch or so Florida Fighting Conch in my 60g cube. Rockwork leaves him room to roam without getting wedged in anywhere.
Eating machine. Scavengers. Eat about anything. Right now, I've got a bit of GHA, which he munches on like a rabbit. When I got him, the tank was fairly new, not much for him to eat. I got some sinking algae pellets. Drop one near him, he's all over it.
Oh, the comment on 'sleeping for weeks'... yeah, they do that. In my experience, if you'd pick him up and search around a bit, you'd find that he's got a chunk of something buried in the sand, and he'll sit there until it's all gone.
Eating machine. Scavengers. Eat about anything. Right now, I've got a bit of GHA, which he munches on like a rabbit. When I got him, the tank was fairly new, not much for him to eat. I got some sinking algae pellets. Drop one near him, he's all over it.
Oh, the comment on 'sleeping for weeks'... yeah, they do that. In my experience, if you'd pick him up and search around a bit, you'd find that he's got a chunk of something buried in the sand, and he'll sit there until it's all gone.
bat21
New member
It's really a personal preference. I think most people get starfish because they want to look at a starfish. I haven't tried one because I've read so many times how people can't keep them alive. If you like it, then keep it. But I think you need to target feed them a nice chunk of food once or twice a week to ensure they are getting enough to eat.
In my 66 gallon fowlr, I have about a dozen hermits, 3 big nessarius, 6 small nessarius, a cleaner shrimp, fire shrimp, peppermint shrimp that all work on detritus in my sand bed. But I didn't necessarily buy any of them for a detritus problem, I just love having a variety of life in my tank. If you are simply going for a single animal and nothing other than something to clean up leftover food and poop from your sand bed, I would say that a cleaner shrimp would be the most effective. But a 75 gallon sandbed isn't going to be cleaned by any one animal. So why not get a nice variety? You can easily toss in a half dozen nessarius snails and never have to worry about them. Why not start with that and see how effective they are. The other positive thing they do is aerate the sandbed by burying themselves.
That is very helpful along with everyone else. I think I will start with nassarius snails
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