Sand Sifting Starfish

[wazzifam]

Hi guys, I am having a sand algea problem. the clean up crew doesnt seem to be getting to it so I was thinking.

:whstlr: If I add more or another sand sifting star will it help with the problem? mine does a good job just cant fast enough, and the brittle star stays on the rocks. everything else turns their noses at the stuff. crabs trudge through it, and the snails are lucky to make it past a crab to get anywhere, they seem to be eating them... or something in that tank is!! I see the crabs reaching into the snails all the time, pulling out peices of flesh.

 

[lcstorc]

Sand sifting star is not the answer. They eat the microfauna in the sandbed and quite often starve in smaller less mature tanks and almost certainly with competition.
Yes hermit crabs do eat snails. This is a large part of the reason I do not have crabs in my tanks. I do keep sand sifting gobies or jawfish in the tanks to keep the sand stirred up and generally give it a stir before my water change.

 

[BigJay]

I use a sea cucumber to keep my sand bed clean. But its not an algae eater. If the problem is cyano pretty much nothing is going to eat it.

 

[cheeks69]

Fighting Conch or Cerinth Snails will help with cyano but to eliminate the problem you need to reduce dissolved nutrients and increase flow to get rid of Cyanobacteria. Which skimmer are you using ?

 

[BigJay]

shes not skimming. She has two hang on filters. Increasing flow is in the future plans.

 

[Frankie]

How deep is your sand bed? I had a sand sifting star for years before it climbed into the closed loop intake. It did a wonderful job stirring the sand.

 

[wazzifam]

shes not skimming. She has two hang on filters. Increasing flow is in the future plans.

I actually have the visijet 100 protien skimmer that is a Pos. and I have an "exclusive hang on filter by Foster Smith that has a surface skimmer on it. specifics on this filter are as follows.
Bio system power filter & oxy surface skimmer 75 gal. (Breakthrough concept in power filter design, Innovative, built in skimmer adjust to aquarium water level for effective removal of aily organic film and scum from the surface. three level intake system extracts water from the surface, middle and bottom for complete filtration. features efficient three stage mechanical, chem. and biol. filtration.) Is that what your talking about?
im
working on increasing the flow today I hope. gonna cheat and see how it goes. may just help my issue some. gonna add a cascade 300 filter with a flow bar to direct the water movemement. its gotta work till I get a PH.

Im gonna drop that conch back into the tank. I took him out because I wasnt sure if he was a good snail. I thought he was the culprit eatting the polyps. Hell they are all culprits at this point. Guilty until proven innocent. did you get a good Id on it yet BigJay is it a fighting conch in that pic?
my sand bed consists of 2 bags. so about 1 1/2 to 2" deep in sand I would guess.

I have a Worm Goby/engineer goby that keeps some of the sand pretty stirred. In fact He is building a high rise now. but he doesnt venture to the front of the tank or the places the algea is growing like a wild fire. He's been spitting the sand hes moving on top of the nasty sand making algea sandcakes. the scooter blenny doesnt stir up anything unless its the umbrella mushroom hes been teasing. I keep telling him your not a cat. you dont get 9 lives. Your already on 3.

hubby thinks uv sterilizer? yes/no?????

im so scared to stir the sand bed to much. I dont want bad things to happen! LOL Like they are gonna stop now! I know patience patience patience. ROTF with hands behind back.

 

[JoJo]

i would like a fighting conch. i hope you find a solution soon

 

[wazzifam]

the conch? let me get some info on him. I always see him attatched to the other snails. is that what they mean by fighting? I think hes killing them off.

 

[framerguy]

No, "fighting" refers to their resemblance to a warriors helmet. They are completely peaceful and helpful although you need about two square feet of OPEN sand bed to be able to successfully keep one.

 

[wazzifam]

So then what is the behavior of him attatching to any and all snails? like hes sucking them outta their shells.

I feel like the new quote should be "help controll the snail population add a fighting conch!" LOL

hes pretty happy hasnt escaped the tank yet, which I expected to find him on the outside of the glass.

 

[wazzifam]

i would like a fighting conch. i hope you find a solution soon

We found him on the rocks by the shore. Keep a look out!

 

[lcstorc]

Are you sure that is a conch?
It doesn't look like one to me and I have never seen one of mine attached to a snail. My conchs you can clearly see their separate trunk like mouth searching around. Do you have a better pic of it? It may be a bad snail instead of a conch.

 

[framerguy]

Right Lynn, that isn't a fighting conch. They are substrate dwellers and rarely leave the sand.

 

[wonderloss]

If he is attacking snails, he is not a fighting conch. He may be a type of welk . . . I mean whelk.

Also, taking live snails from Florida waters is illegal, I believe.

 

[Surfnut]

I didnt take the time to read all of the above posts, However, your best bet for sandbed cleaning & stirring is a Tiger Tail Cucumber. Just purchase one,.. they reproduce by mitosis, aka they split in two. In a year you'll be selling the extras to your local fish store.

 

[wazzifam]

I did get a tiger snail which I have never seen since putting it in the tank. So there fore, I dont notice a difference.

Here are some other pics of the snail in question. Its hard to know what angle you wanna see him from! He has a horn or eye that comes out, he likes the glass, snails and rock appartently this morning.

What do you think?

 

[naperenterprise]

Does it look like this?

Strombus alatus - Florida Fighting Conch

READ: Conch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[wazzifam]

ummm No. let me look at the link your looking at a sec.

 

[Surfnut]

I did get a tiger snail which I have never seen since putting it in the tank. So there fore, I dont notice a difference.

Here are some other pics of the snail in question. Its hard to know what angle you wanna see him from! He has a horn or eye that comes out, he likes the glass, snails and rock appartently this morning.

What do you think?

I was referring to a Tiger Tail Cucumber,.. Looks like a giant slug. They are one of the best substrate janitors that I know of. Dont think Ive ever heard of a Tiger Snail before,.. <shrug>