sand substrate

[aznpanther98]

my question is does anyone have problems with fish eating the sand? i had some young siamese fighting fishes i was raising (last time i'll be raising bettas touble keeping them in separate containers) with sand and they seem to like eating the sand this was some time ago and i remember i could see grains of sand in there stomach and it would go through their system and they were fine lucky me well i took all the sand out and left it bare for a while became my q-tank once i got them out, i was just wondering is it ok for fishes to eat the sand i'm planning on putting the sand back with plants in with it and was worried that eating  the sand would hurt other fishes, might put school of neons frommy other tank or pair of blue rams and some otos

the juvenile bettas that ate the sand i put in a container to let them poop it out and after it was out they had a slight bouancy problem but went away later that day but it would also eat the sand again so i had to check in every now and then and get the sand out b4 they could eat it again

 

[colesea]

Certain fish can eat sand...certain fish can't.  Of the fish that shouldn't eat sand, I would say this is probably a bad thing because you do risk it impacting in their digestive system, and this would probably kill them.

Certain fish like gobies and Dragonfish are sand shifters, in which they engulf huge mouthfuls of sand and then pass it over their gills and out the operculum in order to sieve out the critters they eat.  This is why it is important to keep fish on the proper substrate because Dragonrish or gobies trying to sieve though gravel may get it caught in their throat and choak to death.

Saltwater parrotfish, on the other hand, actually do eat rock that passes though the digestive system and comes out the other end as, well, sand. Nothing is more beautiful, and noisier, to see and hear than a shcool of parrotfish grazing, literally, -on- the reef. When they're startled by a predator, the whole school poops a cloud of sand to smoke screen their escape.

I don't think neons and rams actually intentionally eat sand the way you are describing the betta fry to. Incidental sand, one or two grains, may not hurt them if they accidently ingest it. Fry, on the other hand, I would really try to prevent from eating anything that's not their food. Fry are too small to really bounce back properly should something happen to them internally.
~~Colesea

 

[Somonas]

My africans poke through it and move it around, chances are they swallow some too, and they seem OK.

but african cichlids and bettas are completely different.

 

[aznpanther98]

well the bettas were fine they were about an inch when this happened and i took the sand out b/c they did have a bouancy problem after it comes out
well they grew up fine only one out of 13 actually died b/c i have one of those betta barracks and forgot to put the top back on and well one of them jumped into the others section and i camehome one day and found one dead the other one just had bit of damage but i traded some in and gave some away i got three now two in the barrack and the other in the main tank which was a female anyways
i decided to go with black gravel got them cheap at my friends fish shop and started putting plants in today i don't really have to cycle the tank b/c the filter's been running with snails but i'm gonna take my time putting fish in probally gonna go with some shrimps and otos and my swordtails in that tank... trying to thin out the population in my 30gal  ;D funny thing today i noticed bout my neons they were swimming all together and two or three would chase after one of the larger neons could this be some sort of mating thing?