Pro and cons of clean up crew for sand bed

[machodik]

Dear all,

Some clean up crew I know :

1) sea cucumber
2) star fish
3) sand cleaning Goby

Are the above three species easy to raise ? What we need to feed them ? What are they natural predators ? Will they cause damage to corals both soft , LPS and SPS?

Cheers ,


MD


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Mikereef1]

They are easy to maintain a keep happy providing water quality is good and there's enough food (crabs pretty much eat anything, sand cleaning goby eat the life in your sanded and cucumber eats poop ).Neither of those 3 tend to bother corals at all. Although the goby has a tendency to pile up sand and can eat alot of the beneficial life in the sandbed As for predators of them it depends what fish u stock in there. As long as they are reef safe fish youl be fine

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

[BvN]

A sand sifting sea star also will eat the life in a sand. Most people think they eat detritus but they don't. Sea cucumbers are the best cleaners.

[machodik]

Thanks for the feedback . Great help!

[ca1ore]

I would pass on the sand sifting star. As noted, it will strip your sand bed of all the small fauna. Of course, if you stir the sand you'll do the same. Further, sand sifting stars usually starve to death. I use cukes and nassarius snails. I do have a watchman goby, but he's grown lazy and no longer sifts sand.

[machodik]

Just bought some sea cucumber and sand shifting star I don't know how to feed them . If the star fish die , will they be just easily noted ? As they usually embedded below the sand and not moving . How the eat ? Sand bed are just quite new and I doubt any natural foods in it right now .

[lionfish300]

You need to keep an eye on the starfish. Once there no food it will burry in the sand and die this will cause decay

[CStrickland]

Originally Posted by machodik

Just bought some sea cucumber and sand shifting star I don't know how to feed them . If the star fish die , will they be just easily noted ? As they usually embedded below the sand and not moving . How the eat ? Sand bed are just quite new and I doubt any natural foods in it right now .

I think they pretty much need natural food. The stars fall apart when they die, you'll know.

A clean up crew serves a purpose, they are the janitors of your tank. There needs to be a job for them to do before you buy them. Crabs and snails are good for algae, and some animals will stir the sand around to make it look clean. But feeding them is kind of backwards, like throwing dirt on the floor for a maid to sweep up.