For ahullsb

[juaninsac]

The mandarin won't stir your sandbed to any significant degree.

I like to use small brittle stars (don't get the big green and yellow ones, they catch fish!) and tiger tail cucumbers to stir the bed. They look like this.

Start with a small one. If fed well they sometimes divide asexually. Obviously there shouldn't be any exposed powerhead intakes for them to get sucked into.

 

[juaninsac]

Oh, and by "fed well" I don't mean to actually try and feed it.

They will mop detritus off the sand.

 

[ahullsb]

Cool thanks. So I should probably have a fish or two in there first so it can be fed? THanks for the help. I'm still planning on waiting for you for the anemone, clam, etc. I need to learn patience anyways I guess.

 

[bbehring]

what else do you feed your tiger tail?

 

[juaninsac]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9432049#post9432049 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bbehring
what else do you feed your tiger tail?

They typically won't eat anything you try to offer them. They eat detritus from fine sand. If you have a 55+ established tank with a live sand bed, it should do just fine without any kind of supplemental feeding. In big tanks with abundant food they will occasionally clone and split like an anemone.

 

[kevin95695]

I've seen gobies chomp sand and push it through their gills... Does that help? Where can you get little brittles and tiger tails?

Dude: Yer building a 200k gallon reef. Let that sink in.

 

[juaninsac]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9432743#post9432743 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kevin95695
I've seen gobies chomp sand and push it through their gills... Does that help? Where can you get little brittles and tiger tails?

You're probably thinking about Valencienna spp. "sleeper gobies". They do what you're describing. Problem is they eat anything and everything in a live sandbed, effectively making it a dead sandbed. Same problem occurs with "sand sifter" starfish, usually an Astropecten spp. They absolutely decimate sandbed infauna. Without a really large surface area of live sand to graze from, they tend to pine away and starve to death pretty quickly.

Some cucumbers and some brittle/serpent stars (emphasis on some) perform a lower impact cleaning of the sand. Basically they're agitating and stirring it without eating the desirable animals inside, and keeping the gradient between aerobic and anaerobic areas of the sandbed intact.

Tiger tails are available nearly everywhere. Just ask for them. The one brittle star you want to watch out for is the green brittle star, Ophiaracna incrassata. Catches and eats small fish, and will go after snails, shrimp, etc when it gets big. Any other small serpent or brittle star will do a good job eating detritus and stirring the top layer of sand.

Also look into Strombus spp. snails and conchs. Fighting conchs in particular make great low impact sandbed sifters.

Dude: Yer building a 200k gallon reef. Let that sink in.

I know!

 

[4jlong]

note to self..............

 

[kevin95695]

I love this thread!