Decor/Accessories

Just because sandfish spend most of their time under the sand doesn’t mean that you can fill a tank with sand, add lighting/heating, a water bowl, and call it “good.” Enclosure decorations play a very important role in a reptile’s mental and physical wellbeing by mimicking their natural environment and providing things for them to smell, explore, climb, hide under, and otherwise interact with. This is called environmental enrichment, and it’s how zoos keep their animals happy and healthy. For a more in-depth discussion on this topic, I recommend reading Environmental Enrichment For Reptiles: What? Why? and How?

Shallow water dish

Like every other living thing on Earth, sandfish need water to survive. They may not need as much of it as non-desert species, but they still need free access to clean water. Provide a small, shallow water dish no more than 1” (2 cm) deep just large enough for the sandfish to soak in if it desires.

Clean this water dish with Dawn original scent dish soap once a week, and veterinary disinfectant like F10SC or chlorhexidine at least once a month. Replace the water every other day or as needed. Most likely the sandfish will kick sand into it on a daily basis.

Caves

For the most part, a deep sand substrate serves well enough as the sandfish’s “hide box.” However, if you bury a cave or hide box under the sand to create a small hollow underground space, the sandfish will gleefully use it….and then quite likely fill that with sand when it tunnels elsewhere. Provide several of these underground caves, though, to create a variety of underground safe space options that can be dug out and won’t collapse. Plain hide boxes like these work well for the purpose, but you can use something more decorative if you want it to be partly visible above the sand.

Logs/Branches

Sandfish don’t climb much, but branches certainly add visual interest to an otherwise plain enclosure. Plus if you bury the ends in the sand, this creates obstacles for the sandfish to navigate around, which is a form of enrichment. Logs and cork flats, however, can act in a similar way to the caves by providing something for the sandfish to dig underneath. Sandfish tend to prefer to hide under something more solid than just sand if given the option. These also add visual interest to an enclosure.at