Sandsifters

[jack123]

Does anyone know of any good sand-sifting fish or inverts for a 20 gallon reef? Maybe some-sort of Goby? I have 1 - 2 mm Carib-Sea Aragonite as my substrate. Thanks.

 

[WayneL333]

I don't know if I would recommend sandsifters for a reef tank. There was an article awhile back saying sandsifters digested a lot of the beneficial bacteria and organisms within the sandbed of reef tanks.

 

[Marshall O]

I definitely would not recommend a sand-sifting fish for a 20 gallon. They will deplete the available fauna in no time. There is a chance it could live off of prepared foods, but often than not they slowly starve to death. Stay away from sand-sifting stars for the same reason. I would recommend Nassarius snails though. They are by no means a sand sifter, but do stay in the sand bed and come out when food is available or during the night. The act of them doing this and cruising the sandbed will aid in keeping it clean.

 

[falconut]

Not sure what you have in there, but I've seen where people have watchman goby/pistol pair in their nano's and claim they sift pretty good. Maybe a Candy Cane pistol, I believe they only get 1" and host with smaller gobies.

 

[eatbreakfast]

Hectori and rainsford gobies would be fine as sifters in a tank that small. They also will not exhaust the fauna inthat tank because these paricular species will only sift the top 1/2" or so of sand bed.

 

[Dmorty217]

I don't know if I would recommend sandsifters for a reef tank. There was an article awhile back saying sandsifters digested a lot of the beneficial bacteria and organisms within the sandbed of reef tanks.

+1 sand sifters eat the micro fauna and worms that make up a huge part of your beneficial organisms in your tank. I would stray away from gobies and do NOT get a sand sifting star. Think conch

 

[Marshall O]

Hectori and rainsford gobies would be fine as sifters in a tank that small. They also will not exhaust the fauna inthat tank because these paricular species will only sift the top 1/2" or so of sand bed.

AFAIK, both are difficult to get eating prepared foods. I have avoided them for this reason as neither has a good success rate.