Tiger cuke on special grade sand??

[isawill]

Hello,

I recently setup a 135g and I am looking into a cleanup crew.
I am considering adding a tiger tail or other common sand sifting cucumber to it but I would like to make sure the substrate I have is OK first...
I have 2-3 inches of the special grade aragonite...

Is that too big for a cuke?

Thanks

 

[au01st]

I had a tiger tail cucumber with my special grade reef sand. The size was fine, but he ended up picking one rock and sitting inside. He would stretch out at night but would always poop in the rocks. The result was that all the sand was moved into big piles inside what was once nice free flowing rock layout. He lived a year doing this til I upgraded and traded him away. I won't be getting another.

 

[jeffreylesser]

I have had both mixed sand size(some pieces crushed shells etc) and fine oolitic and the cucumbers will sift either. They seemed more active on the mixed substrate.

They will move the substrate and tend to deposit close to where they home in the day time. They are good sifters in my opinion, but some are very inactive for strecthes of time. I have 6 in my 120, and I am sure that 2 out of six are inactive at any given point. I had one in my rockwork not moving for months and it started sifting again. I have heard sea hares will exhibit this same behavior. Almost like hibernation. Maybe they are waiting for the algae to grow back, a sustainable harvest if you will

 

[isawill]

Thanks for the replies.

Would one cuke and one sand sifting goby (diamond) be too much for my 135gallon 72"x18" tank??
I am looking for a good way to keep the substrate clean but I don't want either to starve...

 

[serpentman]

I've got pretty mixed sized substrate and mine has never had an issue. It did split a couple of months ago though so I took it as a good sign.

 

[Rumplestilsken]

Thanks for the replies.

Would one cuke and one sand sifting goby (diamond) be too much for my 135gallon 72"x18" tank??
I am looking for a good way to keep the substrate clean but I don't want either to starve...

I think they will be fine together, though my sand sifting goby is a pain in the ..... If I wanted all of my corals covered in sand I would do it myself!