Range: Indo-West Pacific Ocean: Red Sea and East Africa south to the Durban Islands and most islands in the western Indian Ocean; and the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, and from Japan

Size: Up to 7 inches (17 cm)

Natural Environment: Inhabit sandy bottom areas in inshore bays and lagoons,

General Husbandry: Has a temperature range of 72 - 82°F (22 - 28°C) and their natural diet consists mainly of small benthic invertebrate. They feed by taking mouthfuls of sand and sifting out benthic invertebrates and organic matter. Requires a meaty diet, i.e., enriched brine shrimp, mysis, finely chopped fish or shrimp flesh, and other various frozen carnivore foods, with one or two feedings per day. They should be housed in aquariums with a sandbed of at least two inches in depth and not housed with aggressive fishes such as groupers, dottybacks, triggerfishes or angelfishes. Small sinking enriched shrimp meal pellets are an excellent way of keeping them well fed. This is a great sand shifter!

Aquarium Suitability: *