Sand Bed cleaners/swifters?

[Spick]

What type of fish/snail/crab cleans the sandbed the best? any reccomendations would be appreciated.

[szwedo]

my lfs sells snails called olive sand sifters and they do a good job but there really big and would eat any other small sand sifter like bumblebees. i have a sand sifting sea star and he does a great job. I also have two olive sand sifters(there great but i have never seen them be sold anywhere else)there pretty expensive too($12.99).

[szwedo]

another thing i wouldn't recomend if you have corals near the sand bed is a sand sifting goby. i had a gold head sleeper goby and it was fun to watch and that but it almost killed some of my corals by dumping sand on them. also i had to constantly level out the sb.

[Spick]

Yeah i have tyo brain corals on the sand bed... so a goby would definitely not bwe my choice... i was hoping a crab or snail would do the job though.... maybe a star fish too... my tank is only 25 G... what is the max size i should buy my starfish at?

[Spick]

sorry meant to say my tank is only 35 G not 25 G

[tcobos]

i have several brain corals and a gold spotted golby with no problems

[Poseidon]

Nassarious Vibex, and Cerith snails are both good choices. Avoid the "sand Sifting" stars, they are sifting your sand to find FOOD, like the worms and copepods you NEED for a healthy sandbed. Especially with only a 35 gallon tank.

[REEFVETTE]

Im so pissed now...I have to sand sifting stars and there awsum both doubled in size since i got them about two months ago..... I guess they need to go now since i added a physcedelic(sp?) mandarin.... How many bumblebees can u reccomend for a 20 gallon....

[Poseidon]

0 Bumble Bees

I haven't tried them, but I have read several posts stating they may be aggressive towards other snails. I would stick with the ones that "tried and true" the bumble bees may verry well be fine, but I don't have any experience with them.

[Ninong]

For a 20-gal tank, I recommend:

Zero bumble bee snails and zero mandarins. Bumble bee snails sometimes attack other snails. Mandarins require much larger tanks with at least 75-lbs of live rock per mandarin.

[szwedo]

i did not mean to recomend bumble bees, just using them as an example

[Ninong]

i did not mean to recomend bumble bees, just using them as an example

The online vendors who sell bumble bee snails insist that they are harmless but Dr. Ron Shimek says that they are sometimes predatory on other snails. Of course, the same can be said for hermits, too.

[scubadude]

Im quite fond of the Ceriths because they are very reproductive with laying eggs on the glass and usually near the sandbed and I have always noticed pod populations increasing near the eggs near the sandbed, thus the pods are also stirring up your SB so in essence they complement SB stirring in more ways then one. Also ceriths go inside the SB and on the glass and on the rocks, not as much on the rocks though it seems. I also think the nassarius would be good for a 35g as well.

[Spick]

From all the responses I will take in to go out and buy to Cerith and nassarius snails... now my final question would be how many do i need for my 35 G... right now i have about 20 Hermits, 13 Margaritas and two Trochus.

Thnx again

[Poseidon]

How long has the tank been up? The Nassarious feed on detritus and other meaty waste, so that needs to be there or they will just die off.

If the tank has been around a while 6-8 months at least, I would go 24 Nassarious and maybe 12 Cerith...

[Spick]

My tank has been up and running for 2 months now.... so in that case how many? ;)

[Poseidon]

My tank has been up and running for 2 months now.... so in that case how many? ;)

Skip the Nassarious for now and get more Cerith, you probably don't have the food supply for the Nassarious to stay healthy. Then again, a half dozen would probably do fine.

So... 6 Nassarious and 16-18 Cerith.... That sounds pretty good to me!

[Spick]

Awesome Thnx!