Tinman wrote:Many loaches sand sift , This is for food . ...
In Thomas's video you can see both, the sifting for food at the end of the video on the left - which is performed by the other loach. And the sandspitting from the Aborichthys in this video (spiting from right to left)for purpose of transporting material out of his nest he is building.
Additionally Aborichthys are very effective at building their house, they kind of pump out the sand with some kind of very fast "serpentine-peristaltic" movements and force their entire body into the ground like an extra turbo heavy duty power drill. Its impresssive how sand and gravel is thrown out in a fountain that way, as if a very powerful pump would be applied.
The "fine tune" in it's construction process is accomplished by taking mouthfuls out of the nest, either stone by stone or "sandblast".
Any tank construction must be fixed well, once something stands on sand (or even gravel) it may be burrowed underneath and fall...
I just love those fascinating guys- mine was always busy bioulding something, what an energy bundle it was.