are sand dollars good for deep sand beds?

[SuperLeet]

are they?

 

[Anonymous]

If I remember correctly, the eat the stuff in the sand bed.

 

[SPC]

Ditto
Steve

 

[davelin315]

Different subject, but along the same lines. I have never seen a live sand dollar. Does anyone have a picture of them they can post? I remember always looking for them on the beach when I was little (cruel trick my parents played on me, taking me to Lake Michigan and telling me to look for sand dollars....).

 

[davelin315]

Emmitt, it's crueler than that. Lake Michigan is freshwater. If ever there was a skeleton of a sand dollar there, it must have been someone else's cruel parents hiding one to keep the hopes of youngsters like myself up by giving a glimmer of hope: "Look, son! I found an old sand dollar skeleton! See if you can find some more while your mother and I have a little vacation from you..."

 

[SuperLeet]

Ill scan a pic in a little, first though, are horse shoe crabs bad too??!

 

[Emmitt]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote

the eat the stuff in the sand bed

...and what stuff you have in your sand bed won't be enought to keep them alive for long

Oh, davelin, while I don't have a pic, I have seen live sand dollars. They're almost round (ball shaped). What you were looking for on the beaches of Lake Michigan were just the skeletons. Sorry about your childhood

[ August 05, 2001: Message edited by: Emmitt ]

 

[SPC]

Yes, they eat the critters too.
Steve

 

[Anonymous]

They have some in a tank at Monterrey--they stand up sideways in the water, partially buried in the sand and filter things out of the water.

Ty

 

[davelin315]

If the above is true, then my guess is they don't eat your microfauna in the sandbed, and instead act like any filter feeder out there. If this is the case, then they sound like a cool addition to a reef.

 

[Styk33]

I have sand dollar skeletons in my tank. I like to frag shrooms onto them to make moving them around the tank easy.

The sand dollars did not stay white for very long when I put them in my tank.

 

[jdeets]

Here's a link to a photo of live sand dollars and some interesting facts.
http://www.mbayaq.org/efc/living_species/print.asp?inhab=143

Seems that their favorite foods are "crustacean larvae and copepods."

I was under the impression that these guys were more coldwater species and that tropical reef tank temps might not suit them. However, I can't remember where I heard that and I may be thinking of something else. Anyone have any thoughts on that one?

 

[SuperLeet]

actually, there are 100s of species of sand dollars. they live in cold and tropic

starfish, sea urchins and sand dollars is a great book on this subject. As for the horseshoe crab, i agree it sifts sand, I have seen monteray crustaceans that filter the water the way you described them, but they are not horseshoe crabs. They are commonly referred to as sand crabs?

 

[Anonymous]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by SuperLeet:
<STRONG>Ill scan a pic in a little, first though, are horse shoe crabs bad too??!</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

You may want to heeds steve advice besides eating some of your fauna the females get to be th size of basketballs. I seriously doubt any LFS can sex them. We have thousands of them down here and you do not see people that live around them keep them. Do not let anyone lie to you they grow fast.

 

[jdeets]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Fishaholic:
<STRONG>

You may want to heeds steve advice besides eating some of your fauna the females get to be th size of basketballs. I seriously doubt any LFS can sex them. We have thousands of them down here and you do not see people that live around them keep them. Do not let anyone lie to you they grow fast.</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

My experience with horseshoe crabs is that they disappear after a while and you never see them again until you find their empty shells while tearing down your tank... They need lots of food and usually can't find enough in your sand bed in a captive system. At least that was my experience.

 

[SPC]

When I was a boy in Miami there were certain times of the year that Horseshoe crabs would come into shallow water to breed. There were thousands of them and it took both hands to pick one up out of the water by their tail.
Steve

 

[Anonymous]

Smae kind of experience in the Indian River and around Cocoa Beach.

 

[Anonymous]

I have had my horseshoe crab for about six months now and he isn't growing to fast. I got him at about 2 inches head to tail and he is now maybe 2.25. He cruises around in the sand most of the time but about every three days or so he comes out and cruises for about an hour or so and then he goes back into the dsb. I have seen him eat everything from the dsb critters to krill, formula one, two, prime reef, brine shrimp and detrius. He seems happy if you can tell by looking.
The live sand dollars we have up here are dark maroon and purple, very hairy, and come in sizes from fist size to pea sized. I know that the ones up here eat crustaeceans and the like so I don't keep one because I have quite a few of the former.

 

[ophiuroid]

There are many species of sand dollars, both tropical and temperate, so the tank temperature is not too much of a problem if a tropical species is obtained. They burrow completely into the sand, usually at an angle, so depth of sand is important. They will also cruise around under the sand. Generally, I would say there is not enough room in the sand bed to keep one of these guys so that they can properly burrow and move, so I wouldn't recommend it. Many need a sand bed with a dominance of a particular particle size, or particular composition (some require silicious, others calcareous). Many are selective or non selective particle feeders, eating detritus, sand grains, bacteria, etc. I would say that they are not the best for tanks, unless specific research was done to find out what species one has, what it requires, and gets very small individuals. Having said that, they would rarely be seen anyway.

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