sand sifters ?

[Robert]

Anyone have any suggestions for freshwater sand sifters?

[demon_surfer]

fiddler crabs. but you need to give them a space to get out of the water...floating styrafoam works (sp) but they are VERY good at escaping.

[OrionGirl]

What depth sand do you have? There aren't many FW fish that will go more than about 1 inch down. MTS snails are the first choice, then there are some fish like kuhli loaches. They won't keep it really stirred up, and while many cichlids will re-arrange the sand, they won't really do it evenly throughout the tank.

Rooted plants are a good bet, since they will keep moving sand as they grow.

[RTR]

Pretty much agree w/OG. There are no FW sand sifters comparable w/those in SW. MTS are very shallow diggers (varies with substrate grain size, but never deep). Heavy planting with rooted plants does take pretty good care of the gravel. Fiddler and red-claw crabs are really brackish, not FW, and poor choices in most tanks IMHO. They only scour the surface, which would be better done by shrimp (Amano, Rainbow, Ghost).

The serpentine-bodied loaches do dig through the substrate, but I not convinced there is any cleaning involved.

[Darkangel]

Depending on the other fish in the tank and tank set up you could use the Geophagus cichlids. These are after all the Earth Eaters.

[Robert]

The sand is from 3 to 6 inches in depth. What are MTS snails? My wife likes the khuli loaches, so I'll likely use a group of them. Would Horse faced loaches by a decent addition? I've heard that they like to bury themselves in the sand.

[MP]

If you use river sand (or similar grain size substrate) of this depth, you're asking for troubles. A way too deep for such fine substrates.

[OrionGirl]

As long as you don't disturb the depths, you will be okay, though a shallower substrate would be better in the long run. Layers of bacteria will develop in the depths to process any wastes that make it that far into the substrate. As long as there isn't anything pulling the wastes into the sand, you should be okay. It's not the depth that is a problem, it's when detritus makes it down to that level and the bacteria that break this waste down are disturbed. Left alone, bacteria will process all the wastes into non-toxic forms.

Planting will help. There aren't any fish that will bury themselves that deeply--most only go in about 1-1/2 inches. The earth movers tend to do a bit more than sift--they'll completely re-arrange.

[AikidoGuy]

stingrays work the sand pretty well. mine buried themselves under it and only the eyes were showing.

[OrionGirl]

While I agree that rays will help keep the substrate turned up to some degree, I wouldn't recommend adding them to a tank for just that reason. Rays have special needs, and shouldn't be added to a community tank without careful planning for thier needs.

[AikidoGuy]

yeah what ^ she^ said :D