Best CUC member for sand

Not only did he beat him up, he killed it. Found it half way in his burrow. I have observed the Tang's tactics for weeks now. He would sneak around behind the rocks and surprise the Goby who would make a mad dash for it's burrow with the Tang on it's tail all the way. The Goby was being starved because every time he would start with sand cleaning, the Tang would go after him.

 

tans and clownfish do that alot from my xp

 

aww... that's too bad. I don't have any tangs or clownfish... makes me kinda glad I don't haha

 

IME: +1 on nassarius snails, ceriths, tiger tail cucumber, and "Fighting" conch.

IME: -1 on Sand star, gobies, hermit crabs.

+1's:

Nassarius, ok, they don't eat rotten fish poop, unless they're really hungry, but they burrow in the sand and stir up detritus for the mechanical filters to deal with, they turn over the sand preventing algae. They also scavenge all excess fish food that makes it to the bottom of the tank. this goes a long ways in preventing excess nitrates from rotting food. Over all the best clean up crew member in my tank.

Cerith snails: they also tend to burrow into the sand a little ways during the day. It seems to vary from specimen to specimen (not by species AFAIK, just individuals vary) some will take to the rocks, some burrow about half their shell's depth into the sand. They're not as active burrows as the nassarius, but they certainly do a GREAT number on algae.

Tigertail Cucumber: Very active sand muncher. They ingest sand and pass it through their digestive tract stripping bacteria and algae from the sand, then poop it out the other end as bright clean little pellets. They break down quick - not sure if they have any kind of mucus/binder, or if they're just compacted and mechanically formed... it's neat to watch. As for them being toxic, I've read varying reports... some say Holothuria Sp. are not toxic at all, others say they can release a mild toxin if they're over stressed or die and are allowed to rot. If in doubt carbin in your filtration would most likely eliminate any threat their toxins pose. I've have one for about a year in my tank and one day I saw a hermit crab picking a hole in it, it survived and did not poison my tank.

Fighting conch: cool to watch, just don't pick them up or their foot can slash you. They have an elephant trunk like mouth that probes the surface eating detritus, bacteria, algae, and diatoms. Their locomotion across the sand stirs and turns the sand but they don't really burrow down deep.

-1's

Sand star: I've had mine for about 8 months and it's starting to die. I think. It's not very active, and they actually prefer to dine on pods and other microfauna that's good for your tank. Detritus is their second choice. They move a fair amount of sand, when they move, but will spend hours even days in one spot sucking beneficial microfauna from the sand bed. When mine finally kicks it I will not replace it.

Sand sifting gobies: Yes, they will sift TONS of sand, they will keep your sand sparkling clean... but they're eating pods, which are important to the overall health of a tank. They also have a tendency to move rock work around, cause collapse of rocks, and bury corals. Also, unless you have a good solid top on your tank they will most likely end up on the floor in in an overflow.

hermit crabs: I made the mistake of getting lots of hermit crabs in my tank when it was new. I thought they were so cool I had to have a bunch. Then they killed almost all my medium sized snails. I have 1 nerite and maybe 3 or 4 large florida ceriths left from dozens I started with. The red leg hermits all killed each other and the last one seems to have gone away...but now the blue legs have apparently bred in the tank. There's about 20 tiny ones killing my dwarf ceriths now. They DO eat detritus from the sand, but the loss of snails and constant fighting each other just seems like a waste. They will kill and eat snails before they eat algae and detritus in my tank usually. They also climb onto my corals and steal food from the ones I spend so much effort on target feeding.


Anyways, that's MY experience with CuC for keeping sand clean. Of course keep in mind that keeping the rock and glass clean are also a part of what these guys do. For glass and rocks nothing seems to beat the colonista, cerith, turbo, and nerite snails.

-Doug

 

Doug - Thank you for all the information. I am still deciding what the final crew will be. Great information.

 

+1 on hermits being terribad! Yeah thats a word I use for them. I did the same thing, banished them all from my 46g as i watched them systematicly assasninate every snail I had. The only critter I hate more than my clownfish. I do have some in my 55 they were a wierd indo-hermit thats brown and hairy, half of them are stupid huge right now and i havent seen them mess with my nerites yet but their on notice

 

If you don't have snails, then you don't have to worry about hermits killing them...

I have lots of hermits and stomatella... the hermits don't seem to impact the stomatella populations... In fact, I figure if I got snails, they would out-compete the stomatella, which reproduce in my tank and came free with the LR. I like hermits...

A sea hare will demolish some algae, but you will need to find a home for it after it does... I like mine a lot and will be sad to see him go... he's been in the tank for about 4 weeks and his job is almost done.

Also about the sand sifting gobies eating pods... I can't find any evidence that is what they are getting out of the sand... I rarely see pods in my sand bed, but I see them all over the rocks... that's where my mandarin picks them off too, on the rocks... I figure the goby is probably not going to impact the pod population if I have plenty of rocks (~140 lbs).

 

Did you have plenty of shells i your tank??? You HAVE TO have LOTS of extra shells for hermit crabs. They will fight to the death, just to get a new shell, as they grow out of their old ones. Sometimes to find out that once they've killed the other crab they think, "oh, oops this shell doesn't fit; Well, I'm off to go hassle another for his shell." I've lost 2 of my 7 dwarf hermits from this. Since then, I've gotten more shells. This is the main reason people will have hermits and then find them dead in the tank.

 

At the moment I have approx 50 shells of various sizes for every hermit in the tank. My tank is littered with empty shells. They ignore them. They kill snails that are too small to steal their shell. They do it for sport I think.

 

Hermies do the job

Yes - they will fight another hermit for their next home, but I have yet to have one kill off a snail. Perhaps it's because my snails are huge. I placed some medium and large shells in my tank, and the three mediums were immediately taken. No one has come forth for the large ones yet.

BUT!! When I added another 24 mixed hermits to my tank, they had the turf algae cleaned up in three days. They took care of all the algae issues I had on my rock. And they continue to constantly clean house.

As for my sand issues, I decided to get even with the Tang for killing my last Diamond Goby - I picked up one that was three times the size of the little guy that Mr. Tang killed. Let's see how they play together.