What is this on the sand?

[bstout2014]

Hello,

I’m curious what these little brown/black things are in the sand, almost looks like fish poo but it just showed up in the last few days and this tank only has a strawberry dottyback, cleaner shrimp, and two peppermint shrimp. There are also about 6 small frags. Nothing has died and water quality appears to be optimal. Any ideas?

 

[BloopFish]

Do you have any snails in the tank? They can poop a lot in just a day. Also, it may just be a combination of shrimp and fish poop.

 

[bstout2014]

I do have about 4-5 snails in the tank, it’s just a 25 gallon IM lagoon.

I suppose it could be a low flow area where it’s all congregating, it just surprised my how much showed up when previously it had not occurred. I just figured something would have eaten it by now. Are there certain snails or crabs that enjoy it more than others?

 

[BloopFish]

I do have about 4-5 snails in the tank, it’s just a 25 gallon IM lagoon.

I suppose it could be a low flow area where it’s all congregating, it just surprised my how much showed up when previously it had not occurred. I just figured something would have eaten it by now. Are there certain snails or crabs that enjoy it more than others?

Color and quantity tells me its snail poop. Anything that would eat poop will also poop. What you probably want is actually things to stir up the sand. Things such as hermit crabs, pitho crabs, conch snails, nassarius snails or cerith snails. This would make the poop less visible.

 

[bstout2014]

Color and quantity tells me its snail poop. Anything that would eat poop will also poop. What you probably want is actually things to stir up the sand. Things such as hermit crabs, pitho crabs, conch snails, nassarius snails or cerith snails. This would make the poop less visible.

Thanks for your response, I’ll go by the LFS today.