Sand bed cleaners
- Thread starter skriz
- Start date
TropTrea
New member
This can actually be a very debatable subject. There are loads of variables involved and differences in personal opinion and tastes.
Starfish.... Some caution needs be obversed here. some starfish will attack fish when they get larger. Also many starfish are incompatable with clams.
Hermit Crabs... They are good general clean up creatures. However they are laso noted to attack snails in an effort to find a new shell to hide in. I had also heard stories of hermit crabs picking at cam mantels.
Snails.... There are good and bad snails as far as sandbed cleanup. the thing is some of the fancy snails are not always coral friendly and there value of snails varies considerably as substrate cleaners based upon vatrieties.
Cucumbers... there again are several varieties that make good substrate cleaners. Provided you have a fine substrate that they can properly process. However I had heard that they can overly purify the sibstrate and reduce the denrification bacteria in the substrate.
On a personal bases I'd work from what I know wanted to keep in the reef first as far as corals, clams, etc. Then using a good reference guide like "Reef Invertebrates" determone which combination of a clean up crew will work best in that individual situation.
Dennis
Starfish.... Some caution needs be obversed here. some starfish will attack fish when they get larger. Also many starfish are incompatable with clams.
Hermit Crabs... They are good general clean up creatures. However they are laso noted to attack snails in an effort to find a new shell to hide in. I had also heard stories of hermit crabs picking at cam mantels.
Snails.... There are good and bad snails as far as sandbed cleanup. the thing is some of the fancy snails are not always coral friendly and there value of snails varies considerably as substrate cleaners based upon vatrieties.
Cucumbers... there again are several varieties that make good substrate cleaners. Provided you have a fine substrate that they can properly process. However I had heard that they can overly purify the sibstrate and reduce the denrification bacteria in the substrate.
On a personal bases I'd work from what I know wanted to keep in the reef first as far as corals, clams, etc. Then using a good reference guide like "Reef Invertebrates" determone which combination of a clean up crew will work best in that individual situation.
Dennis
skriz
In Memoriam
that makes a lot of sense Dennis. I would like clams and more corals, so I definately don't want anything that will kill them.
A cuke my be a good choice, since there is so much sand, it would be very difficult for one to over purify the sand.
I have some snails and hermits, but the tank is just too big. and I don't want it overrun by a ton of snails and hermits!
A cuke my be a good choice, since there is so much sand, it would be very difficult for one to over purify the sand.
I have some snails and hermits, but the tank is just too big. and I don't want it overrun by a ton of snails and hermits!
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