Best sand sifter?
 

In your experiences...

Which sand sifter is best suited to aquarium life?



I'm going to add one.

sifter gobies.. they never stop sifting!! killing my plates lol

+1 on the gobies. I have a diamond head. Never stops sifting gravel.
Can't keep anything on the bottom cause he will cover it.
Hard worker!!

I'm wondering about hardiness.

I know they sift like champs... But some sift but live short lives in a tank.

The trick is to find a sifter that also eats prepared foods. Many sifters starve to death in aquariums because they refuse to eat prepared foods and don't actually get enough food from the sandbed.

This is my concern.

So in trying to isolate species that are in this category.

Which are more likely to accept prepared?

My diamond back goby sifts like a champ, but eats frozen and pellets, comes over where I feed and grabs his share. He has his area that he sleeps and I can't keep any corals on the sand in this one area as he likes to rearrange his home, otherwise, other corals are fine. Nice thing about the diamond backs is they don't create sand storms and don't move around when sifting.

I agree. Bought mine from a tank shutdown. He eats pellets, frozen and flakes.
I have some mushrooms on the sandbed that don't get affected by the occasional sand/gravel.
Sometimes I have to feed him separately as my foxface is a hog and eats everything faster than the diamond head. As well, the goby is stupid as he will not "see" the food, rather he indiscriminately scoops gravel here and there, whether there is food there or not.

I have a sand sifting starfish. Does a wonderful job. Has been in my 120 for close to 2 years now.

Nassarius snails, conches and serpent stars are IMO the best combo for a ground level cleanup crew

I have had two sand sifting sea stars in my tank for over a year. They keep the sand surface nice and white.

Get a banded goby. Sifts non stop and always the first to eat the flake am pellets I throw in the tank

Any suggestions on cucumbers?


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Ya, avoid them

Yellow headed gobies. I have one in each tank and they sift non-stop.

If its an older sandbed (i.e. lots of stuff for it to eat), then sandstars are good, along with conch & nassarius snails. A lot of sand sifting gobies become PITA due to burying your corals on the sand bed all the time.

Anthony