Sand cleaning animals
- Thread starter Mac1999
- Start date
cloak
New member
How old is your tank? What your describing sounds like Diatoms, which is just a normal part of the process within the first 8 months or so. As long as your parameters are kept within reason and your using a decent water source this brownish stuff will eventually go away on it's own.
If your dead set on adding another fish to the tank and the size allows it, some people have had success using a Diamond Watchmen Goby. These things are known to move a lot of sand around. GL.
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+31+220&pcatid=220
http://www.reefcleaners.org/nuisance-algae-id-guide
If your dead set on adding another fish to the tank and the size allows it, some people have had success using a Diamond Watchmen Goby. These things are known to move a lot of sand around. GL.
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+31+220&pcatid=220
http://www.reefcleaners.org/nuisance-algae-id-guide
Bent
I got nothin'
No, do not get.
They are better left in the ocean. They will decimate the fauna in your sand bed, then starve and die. It can often take 10-15 months for one to starve so sometimes you'll hear people say "I've had mine over a year and he eats frozen just fine in my 20g Long" when in fact the animal is slowly starving.
So, not beneficial to a reef, difficult if not impossible to maintain long term. I would stay away.
IrishFist25
New member
i like Nassarius snails. i have 15 in my 75g and they do an awesome job
cloak
New member
They'll sift through your sand looking for microorganisms to eat, but finding one that eats prepared foods is not unheard of. No matter what you add to the tank though whether it's a Goby, a conch etc, it's not really going to take care of the Silicates in the water which is sometimes the cause of this brown dusting your seeing. What kind of water are you using, RO/DI or tap?
cloak
New member
I don't understand. What could they possibly be gaining from the worms, pods etc in the sand bed that the prepared foods on the market can't provide? I could see something like a sand sifting starfish withering away over time, but not a goby that is in fact eating frozen foods, live foods etc right before your eyes. Waking up and finding an emaciated goby in your tank over a years time just sounds a little odd to me, especially since it was eating other foods beside the micro fauna.
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Bent
I got nothin'
The issue lies in their digestive system and their metabolic system.
They have very inefficient and specialized digestive systems. By that I mean that they are incapable of pulling out all the available calories in a food item because their gut is incapable of breaking down certain nutrients and the nutrients they are capable of only get broken down at a very low percentage.
For instance, let's say that in comparison the human digestive system is extremely efficient and non-specialized and able to process 90-99% of calories consumed. I.E if you are to eat a 1200 calorie double cheeseburger, almost all of those 1200 calories will be consumed. Plus those calorie counts are adjusted for humans. Some of the fiber in the bun will not be processed and not count toward total calories. So, depending on the content, human waste may contain available calories depending on the gut of the animal that tries to process it.
Now, give that same cheeseburger, that supplied 1200 calories to a cow. A cow can process the fibers in the bun that humans can't, so those calories will be used and not wasted, however the calories in the meat, cheese and other items will be wasted and not used because the cow is incapable of stripping them. So now the waste from a human digesting a cheeseburger may have an available calorie count of say 50 calories. The cows waste from the burger will be extremely high because it couldn't process half of it.
So some people will tell you that proteins are proteins and fats are fats and and everything gets broken down to glucose anyway, but when it comes to a specialized feeder like a cow, an ant eater, a giraffe or a diamond goby, they have to eat certain things in order to get the calories they need to give them energy.
So efficiency wise, a diamond goby may only absorb 10% of the calories from a food source that it ingests depending on what It is. So they have to eat constantly in order to not starve. So just because you see an animal eat and poop, does not mean that it's meeting its nutritional needs based on the information above.
Does that make any sense? I feel like I rambled quite a bit lol.
That is a great explanation! Thanks for putting that all into words.
kgeig001
New member
Wow Ben, that made a lot of sense. I'll stick with my Conch snails.
cloak
New member
I think you may be thinking too much.
Does this same issue lie with any other fish out there on the market as well? What's the survival rate with those like?
I just don't see a lot of horror stories regarding these fish due to nutrition on sites like this and others. It's usually a jumping problem.
Bent
I got nothin'
And just by comparison, most detrivores have incredibly efficient digestive systems. They have to in order to survive. They may eat some poop that has quite a few available calories, but their digestive system has to be incredibly efficient in order to extract them.
So, not all poop is created equal. Poop from an animal with a inefficient digestive system will contain quite a bit of available nutrients, but another animal can come along and eat that poop, strip what's left of the nutrients, and create poop itself that has almost no nutrients left in it.
So in other words, the po4 and no3 that leeches into the water column from the poop of a big messy grazer like a tang, is going to be much more than the nutrients that leech from the poop of a cucumber or a conch.
Bent
I got nothin'
I think you may be thinking too much.
Does this same issue lie with any other fish out there on the market as well? What's the survival rate with those like?
I just don't see a lot of horror stories regarding these fish due to nutrition on sites like this and others. It's usually a jumping problem.
I've never known anyone that can keep a diamond goby or sand sifting goby alive long term aside from people with enormous tanks and I've always attributed it to its specialized feeding needs.
I Could be wrong though, I have no citations for my information. I'm merely taking human and mammal information and extrapolating it to apply to fish.
cloak
New member
Not really. They might eat some of the algae in the tank, but the speed in which they do so is incredibly slow IMO. Most of their credit comes from burying themselves in the sand & dragging around those big bulky shells they have, which "allegedly" keeps the substrate nice and clean. All they're really doing is moving some sand around though, which you can do with your finger.
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