Sand Dollar Care

LOL.....didn't even consider that. Yeah....Puget Sound is cold.

 

I recently had the opportunity to purchase sand dollars from one of my wholesalers. I purchased 2 of them to take home to my own aquarium. I have had them for about 2 months now and they are doing very well from what I can tell. I have a 300 Gallon reef tank with about half the bottom clear for a small horseshoe crab that I already had. The sand used to grow a bit of brown algae within a few days if the horseshoe crab did not roam about but the sand dollars keep it very clean now. They are amazing to watch for me. The sand falls through the openings in the top for them to clean it. It is very slow motion work but they can move a few feet in an hour when they want to. The tank is well established and has about a 6 inch sand bed where they roam. Watching them forage I do not know of any way to actually “feed” one so they have to live off your tank. I would recommend a thick fine sand bed and lots of open area in an established tank.

 

Having dove plenty of sand dollar fields/beds I can tell you they are highly visible in the wild.

 

sand dollars

I've had a sand dollar in my 40 gal reef for about a year now. Before i bought it at my LFS they claimed that they've had this sand dollar for 3 years, never fed it, or had any info about it. I just happened to ask about them and they had 3..that they never sold. I bought it for $12 and took a chance being pretty cheap. It's about 2 inches in diameter and slowly cruises along the sand bed. Being my reef tank is only a 40 gal cube it does get stuck in a corner often and have to move the little guy. It's pretty neat-they cover them selves in sand, some what how urchins do. I try putting food by it or under it. I honestly cant tell if it ate anything being such a slow invert . Anyway, I wouldnt recommend putting it in a 40 gal tank unless you just have sand in the tank and very well established (my reef if about 4 1/2 years old). Maybe 80-100 gal tank that has lots of roaming room seems right? If you do put it in a tank like i have, keep an eye out for it as youll notice it gets stuck in a corner for a couple days..like it got lost or something

 

Awww, sand dollars are too cool.