Tigertail cukes & Fighting conches

[Playdope]

Hey all,

My sandbed ranges from about 1 inch deep in the front of the tank, and it about 3 inches along some of the other portions of the tank. Will this environment be OK for tigertail sea cukes and fighting conches?

Also wondering about sand sifting stars? Would they work in this kind of sandbed?

Do any of the above specimens tend to shift the sandbed - "make a mess of it" because I'd like to get those that keep it pretty uniform looking.

Many thanks,
Jon

 

[Anonymous]

A conch would be fine. They work a lot quicker than cukes.

Watch out for stars. Too many can turn a DSB-Deep Sand Bed into a Dead Sand Bed.

 

[Anonymous]

One can turn it into a dead sand bed, even in a very large tank. They're voracious predators of infauna. You can read this topic for more info...
http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p ... ght=#53896

 

[Playdope]

What would be the best critter(s) to keep a sandbed super white and clean. Like I said the bed isn't incredibly deep.

I also have plans for a bunch of Astrea and Cerith snails.

 

[Anonymous]

Conchs are the best IMO.

 

[Playdope]

Ok, I think one or two fighting conchs in a 100 was what someone recommended. But here's an article someone directed me to on Reef Central:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showt ... did=388421

For those who cannot load it, part of it reads:
"Yes, they look like prime mature specimens of Strombus alatus, the Florida Fighting Conch. These guys need a lot of sand surface with algae on it, to graze on. Figure about 20 square feet each. They may take algal wafers or nori as food, but by and large they graze on diatoms on/in the sand.
They will also need a sand bed about 4 to 6 inches deep, simply to bury into."

Jon

 

[Unarce]

My sand bed isn't as deep as yours and my tiger tail cukes seem to be very happy and healthy. I used to have just one, but it just recently split.

 

[Playdope]

For those of you with Fighting Conches... are they the kind that dont get more than an inch, or the kind that go upwards of 3 inches?

How long have you had'em?

 

[Newts]

Tiger Tail cukes are the best. I started with three large ones in my 180g 5 years ago and they multiply all the time. I see about 6 to 7 of them out before lights come on, then they hide once lights come on. Occasionally I take one or two out and takes them to LFS for credit. They do a good job. The light brown or tan ones are the hardiest. The black ones don't seem to be as hardy from my exp.

 

[Anonymous]

Conch will eat day and night. The sand bed depth doesn't matter much. Anywhere from a 1/2" and up is fine.

The Florida fighting conchs only grow to around 3".