Cleaning sand substrate

Amphitrite

I find the best way of cleaning my sand is to use the gravel cleaner in one hand (keeping it slightly above the sand), and with the other hand I use a plastic fork to stir the sand up. This disturbs the dirt in the sand and it's easier to suck up.

Katherine :)

jsm11482

Sounds like a lot of work I'll give it a try. Thanks!

Michael

Don't hermit crabs eat debris off the bottom? Our LFS suggested hermit crabs for our 55 gallon tank. We put 10 in and they went right to work eating debris from the sand.

jsm11482

Will they eat plants? And hermit crabs can live under water??? I've only seen them in cages, on sand.

Michael

Either we were sold a different kind of hermit crab or those land hermit crabs adapt really well to living exclusively underwater ;)

I'm not sure if they eat plants. I wouldn't be surprised, so you probably want to look into it.

jsm11482

I just read a little bit about hermit crabs and it seems that you bathe them by putting them in a container full of water, then they come out of their shell and etc etc. They have modified "hardened" gills which allow them to live outside of water, but apparently they can live completely submerged as well. I never knew that!

Michael

You learn something new every day. I know I do! Still, I wonder if there are different kinds of hermit crabs - some adapted for exclusive underwater living and some not. Wouldn't they be the only creature that could live either completely/permanently underwater or completely/permanently on land if that weren't the case? I'm sure I'd of heard of something like this before!

jsm11482

Lets find out, posted a new topic: http://www.fishforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=5722