substrate cleaner?

What critter would dig in and clean the substrate, maybe some sort of invert? that lives in the sand and feeds on fish poop and debris?

i know that geophagus cichlids aka eartheaters, will spend there time sifting through substrate to feed. i had a couple alongg time ago. they were pretty cool to watch. they would spend all ther time just picking up rocks then spitting them back out. i wasnt very patient back then, they were not very nice looking, so i gave them to a friend. and then they colored up and looked real pretty. they were very peacefull also...

here is a artical about them.
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Malaysian Trumpet Snails will plow through and below substrate to clean it, as will Assassin Snails, though not to the degree that MTS do.

Will snail eat algae off large rocks, that plecos won't eat ?

my nerites will they eat the black and brown stuff to but they dont dig though the substrate

Yeah, Nerites will kill any algae, but not substrate. I need some substrate cleaners as well.

Me too, Somethings got to like eating all the crap I have to clean up every few days.

fresh water clams
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I have a few of these in a couple of my tanks and will be ordering more later this month.
They move all over and partially bury themselves in the substrate.

but are they good cleaners?

Spyral wrote:but are they good cleaners?

Well you know that is what they supposedly do and I would have to say yeah, they do their part. That doesnt mean you will not have to syphon the substrate while doing water changes. I still do that with every water change.

I thought clams were filter feeders, drawing in water and nutrients through their neck/siphon then filtering out particles before spewing the water back out.??

Aaron, forget it, I am buying all the clams at Midway! lol