Sand sifters

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soulpatch

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 9, 2010
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Downingtown, PA
I have a 125 gal tank with a sand bottom. I have 2 oscars and a green terror along with 2 pictus. I was thinking a few more fish while everything in my tank is juvies so that they can grow together. I would like to possibly add a firemouth but I also want some earth eaters to sift through my sand.

I do have some live plants so I do not want anything that would destroy those.

So let me know what would work to pick through my sand and look good in the tank.
 
You are overstocked as is. I would not add anything else, sorry.
 
Malaysian Trumpet Snails would be what I'd recommend.
 
Will those snails eat my plants though...

Nevermind Google was my friend and I got my answer.

Does anyone know of a good place to find these online. My LFS did not have these types when I was there...
 
Nope, although they'll eat dead leaves and stuff. Here's a good link, although there're tons of sites out there about them.
 
Check any of your local shops that sell live plants. The big box stores are likely your best bet (Petco, Petsmart, etc). One of the Petsmarts near me has them in their tanks, and they will give them away to anyone that asks as they are considered a 'pest'. :)

Careful keeping them with the Oscars and Green terror though. If the fish figure out the snails are in the sand they will keep em dug up and hiding in their shells 95% of the time. The snails will slowly starve to death. My convicts were masters of digging up snails if they saw the sand move, even though they couldn't actually eat the snail.
 
Worth a shot with the snails I figure. My oscars so far are a bit out of the ordinary and do not move things in my tank, are not very aggressive towards new fish, ect. The pictus and green terror are like their friends. Bhudda and Paco (my oscars) are more playful then I would have expected.

That said I do not plan on introducing any live bait as treats as I do not want to teach them habits.

I will try out some snails and if they dont go that well then they can find themselves moved to my 20gal with guppies or whatever the god son decides he wants to add to the tank
 
I would've gone with the firemouth as originally stated, as long as you get one big enough to hang with the larger fish you have
 
Still thinking of adding the firemouth but wanted something to sift my sand too. The snails will do that though so going to stop at a place or too today to try to hunt some down.
 
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