Sand dollar ????
- Thread starter zotix
- Start date
dustin_P74
Reef enthusiast
im pretty sure sand dollars come from colder waters and cant be kept in our tank but i could be wrong tough
yote
In Memoriam
The sand dollar skeleton would probably be alright.But I dont the live ones would live very long.And you would never see it anyway,they bury themselves in the sand.
Teixeira29
Live Rock Fish only
I have never heard of putting a sand dollar in a fishtank! You could try it!
lightcs4
Loving to learn
+1 Dustin! He is absolutely correct, assuming your talking about a live sand dollar. My local club had a cold water touch tank at our last reef expo (very cool for the kids and adults alike). They had sand dollars, which are actually a type of urchin (I didn't realize this, although I may be the only one who didn't know).
I can pick up live sand dollars all day long on the beach where I live. The water temp here gets into the mid 80's in the summer. Sometimes there are so many that you can feel them crushing under your feet as you walk thru the surf. I have seen them as small as a quarter and as large as 7in across.
lightcs4
Loving to learn
I can pick up live sand dollars all day long on the beach where I live. The water temp here gets into the mid 80's in the summer. Sometimes there are so many that you can feel them crushing under your feet as you walk thru the surf. I have seen them as small as a quarter and as large as 7in across.
My understanding is that they still won't do well in our warmer tanks. I keep mine around 80.
dustin_P74
Reef enthusiast
yeah it maybe 80* at the water level at the beach but think about how could it gets off shore about 40-60 feet below in the mid winter, those things are made for cold waterI can pick up live sand dollars all day long on the beach where I live. The water temp here gets into the mid 80's in the summer. Sometimes there are so many that you can feel them crushing under your feet as you walk thru the surf. I have seen them as small as a quarter and as large as 7in across.
well I dont know how fast those things move but to get to 40-50 feet of water they would need to travel about 30-50 miles off shore. The gulf floor drops about foot per mile around here (Tampa Bay area). I have been 100+ miles off shore fishing and only been in 110 feet of water.
Maybe they come to the beach to lay eggs......I dont know. All I do know is they are all over and the temp does not seem to bother them. Last august the water temp was 86 and I remember seeing them at that time
lightcs4
Loving to learn
Here are a couple of interesting facts on sand dollars:
Sand dollars are usually crowded together over an area—as many as 625 sand dollars can live in one square yard (.85 sq m).
It seems there are at least four or five different types of sand dollars or sea urchin, including the common sea urchin (Echinarachnius parma) in Xanadian coastal waters.
Note - this is just a little info I found on the web, nothing I was really familiar with until I did a Google search.
Edit: A little more info: Sand dollars are found in temperate and tropical oceans throughout the world; usually found in shallow, sandy areas. They are from a class of marine animals known as Echinoderms, which literally means "spiny skin." They are closely related to sea cucumbers, sea urchins, and sea stars. In British Columbia there is one species of sand dollar called the Dendraster excentricus.
Sand dollars are usually crowded together over an area—as many as 625 sand dollars can live in one square yard (.85 sq m).
It seems there are at least four or five different types of sand dollars or sea urchin, including the common sea urchin (Echinarachnius parma) in Xanadian coastal waters.
Note - this is just a little info I found on the web, nothing I was really familiar with until I did a Google search.
Edit: A little more info: Sand dollars are found in temperate and tropical oceans throughout the world; usually found in shallow, sandy areas. They are from a class of marine animals known as Echinoderms, which literally means "spiny skin." They are closely related to sea cucumbers, sea urchins, and sea stars. In British Columbia there is one species of sand dollar called the Dendraster excentricus.
Last edited:
messiah023
Reefing newb
You shouldn't harvest anything live from your local beaches or ocean for your tank.
