Sand Dollars and Sea Biscuits for sand stirrers?

[billsreef]

Hi Ron,

Just had a conversation with a collector down in the keys. He suggested that Sand Dollars and their cousins the Sea Biscuits would make good detritivores in a DSB. Just wondering what your thoughts are on this idea.

[Karim]

Hi Billsreef,
Good question. I would like to know the answer to this one too. I was reading that sand dollars eat crustacean larvae and small copepods as their normal diet and as such would not be suitable.

[rshimek]

Hi

Neither of these would really be good for a sand bed. They are significant disruptors of the substrate and would in short order eliminate much of the life in the bed.

They also require a lot of space to do well. Even small ones need a few square feet of surface.

However, if you had them in a tank, they would probably keep the sand rather clean of diatoms and such, as this is the majority of the food of those that have been studied.

[billsreef]

Thank's Ron. Sounds like it's a good thing my shippment was already packed and on it's way when He was talking about those sand dollars