my fish are a bunch of slobs

[eddified]

just curious if anyone has any suggestions on a critter that might help keep the surface of my sand free from debris ..... my cleaner shrimp did a decent job before my hawkfish decided to eat them one day so crustaceans are probably out of the question ..... any suggestions?

any informations is always greatly appreciated

ed

 

[drummereef]

Nassarius and cerith snails are my choice for sandbeds. That and enough flow to keep the poopy suspended so the skimmer can get it out.

 

[eddified]

i heard (im not sure) that those spiky balls called urchins help clean something in the tank...do they make a good addition to a clean up crew?

 

[drummereef]

Not really imo. They will grow much too large.

 

[bertoni]

Many urchins consume mostly algae, and can be useful for that reason. Some do get rather large.

How big is this tank?

 

[eddified]

my tank is a puny ap 24g

 

[drummereef]

I would stick with nassarius and cerith snails.

 

[BradsOcean]

diamond goby!!!!

 

[BradsOcean]

oh...and i agree with drummereef, nassarius and cerinth snails

 

[eddified]

i had one of those orange diamond gobies....unfortunately i never got to see its full cleaning potential cuz at that time i was using crushed coral and it passed away sadly before i got the chance to swap substrates to sand....it would trip out every time i would stick my hands in the water and do laps around my tank...i think the stress just finally got to him....but i knew the snails were doing there job as i found him did with a nass snail feasting on its corpse....so do all diamond gobies sift sand? and is a 24 gallon size tank suitiable for such a sifter? i probably have 20 -25 lbs of sand in my tank

thanks to everyone who replied with info

ed