**Question of the week** | How important are sand sifting livestock to your tank?

[PheonixKingZ]

We all like clean sand... some fish/invertebrates can help keep our sand clean! (Or as clean as can be expected. Some snails can also get under the sand and prevent dangerous gas pockets from forming.

What are your favorite sand stirring livestock in your tank?

They can be fish or invertebrates.

——

I’ll go first:

False Julii Corydoras:

Cherry Shrimp:

Malaysian Trumpet Snail:

 

[PlasticGalaxy]

They're not necessarily "important" to my tank as much as they're important to me...

Corys are probably my least favourite type of catfish that I actually own (crazy, I know) but they're very precious to me and I don't think my tank would be as enjoyable as it is without corys.

And as much as I feel like fainting every time I think I've counted more MTS than before, I quite like how they look and I really don't mind having them around (for now).

To summarise, they're all very important to my tank. Not so much for the wellbeing of the community, but more for how much I enjoy viewing my tank.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Come on guys... I know more of you out there have an opinion of sand sifting livestock!

 

[UnknownFishies]

I don’t have any

 

[Sgooosh]

OTHER...
cory catfish and mystery snails are sooo cute!!! like @PlasticGalaxy said, the tank isn't the same
(they're kinda poop machines tho

 

[OliveFish05]

I would say very important! I adore my Cories, all of them. My Electric Blue Acara picks up mouthfuls of sand and sifts it through his gills, so would he count?

 

[Sgooosh]

I would say very important! I adore my Cories, all of them. My Electric Blue Acara picks up mouthfuls of sand and sifts it through his gills, so would he count?

i think so

 

[Cydeth]

I wouldn't say they are too important for me, I have cory in a few tanks and a couple of types of kuhli in others but I don't treat those tanks any differently when it comes to cleaning.

I still vac the sand the same way in the tanks with and without them, and I don't see that one tank is particularly clean compared to any other.

That's not to say that they aren't, just that regular cleaning seems to keep all my tanks more or less the same.

 

[Utar]

Last night on the phone during a three way conversation between my cousin and his new girl friend, I discussed with her the necessity of clean up crews in an aquarium. I have only met the lady once and she caught the aquarium bug from me.

She wanted an aquarium, but did not talk to me about it. She goes to her local fish store buys a ten gallon combo, get tiger barbs, mollies, guppies, and a betta all at the same time. Gets home sets the ten gallon up on her counter top and adds all the fish. Of course it all turned out horribly wrong and was a total disaster.

When she told me all this, I was aghast. I said girl your fist mistake was not talking to me about it. Anyway we talked about it all for awhile and just hope she is not put off and wants to try again.

 

[MammaBearinTN]

I actually love to watch the corys, so they're important in the sense that I get a lot of enjoyment from them.

Important because they sift through the sand and contribute to hygiene? ha I think my tank would be a lot cleaner if they didn't uproot my plants and let them establish so the plants could actually do their job!