Sand in agressive tanks

[L98-Z]

How do you keep the sand in an agressive tank clean? Snails, crabs, and starfish will typically be killed by the more agressive fish.

[kirkaz]

Clean up crews are overrated, I don't have one, I don't have sand either. I have a combo of somewhat coarse aragonite, and crushed coral, specifically so I can vacuum the substrate when I do water changes.

If you don't have corals, you can keep really big hermit crabs with most predators. They get as big as a baseball and can readily defend themselves from Wrasses and Triggers, I wouldn't keep them with small fish or coral though, but they are great scavengers.

[namxas]

i use #3 aragonite in most of my setups. it "lays down" better than finer grade sand, but doesn't catch all of the junk that CC does.

as for those large hermits, i had a large, mean Dardanus sp. (the size of a baseball) that my 2' snowflake eel had no trouble eating (i thought it'd be a good fit for cleaning up as well). i guess it depends on what fish you keep, but i can attest to them not being safe with Echidna sp. eels.

[L98-Z]

I hadn't thought of the larger hermit crabs. I don't plan to have any corals or small fish, but I did want a zebra eel.

[Stuart60611]

I have no clean up crew and keep an arganite sandbed. I think the key is keeping the sandbed very shallow. Mine is about 1/4 inch in depth.

[LisaD]

I have about 5 large stripe legged hermit crabs I collected on the North Carolina coast several years ago. They are in a 210 with a zebra moray and other fish. My sand bed is very clean, and my tank is pretty heavily stocked. The crabs have never bothered anything in this tank.

eel
<a href="http://s32.photobucket.com/albums/d19/ldarmo/?action=view&current=Fish12-31-08065.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d19/ldarmo/Fish12-31-08065.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>


crab
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d19/ldarmo/Fish12-31-08045.jpg

[sportyrox]

Large hermits just don't get anything so big it'll try to attack the fish.

[jmccown]

I've always had good luck with zebra hermits. I bout 20 about 3 years ago for my 8 foot tank and have about five left today. I just ordered 100 of them this morning for my 11 foot tank that I am setting up. Keeps the fish occupied as well as keeping the tank clean.