what eats the poo????

B

butterflylove

fishie fishie fishie
Dec 17, 2004
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maryland
hi there!! i was wondering if there are any animals that will actually eat the fishes poo? i know crabs will, but i dont like those things. i had them for a few months and got rid of them. what about some type of shrimp, i think that would be cool to have in the tank. what kinds are there and where could i get them from? if any one has any ideas, please let me know. thanks tons!
amber
 
Snails and shrimp will sort through fish waste for undigested food, but they don't really eat the waste. Removing waste is done with cleaning and filtration, or plants that will use the wastes.
 
Lobsters are saltwater. there are creature sold as lobsters that are actually crayfish. Shrimp go from fresh to brackish to salt depending on the variety. Some crabs can live in freshwater but truely need at least a light brackish to thrive.

Generally crayfisha dn crabs do not do well in tanks with fish as they are good at catching and eating them. Small shrimp like ghost shrimp live well with fish and eat uneaten fish food, also there are cherry, amano and bamboo shrimp for fresh water. Probably more as well.

Any plant that has roots will use the fish poo as fertilizer. But you still need to change the water in the tank as the plants need a fresh water supply in order to replenish other vital nutrients. Java fern in th eplant I usually suggest for beginners.
 
NO fish or crab or shrimp eats poo. Plants would use the poo, but nothing would eat it.
 
your gravel vac is the only thing that will 'eat' po ;)

even scavengers that might pick through poo to get what is undigested will chose fresh food over that if any falls to the bottom. you have to be obsessively careful with how and what you feed for no food to hit the bottom of the tank.

so 99% of the time anything you add will ignore poo for the food you added.

plants utilize some of the by products of composted poo which occurs naturally in your tank with some time. but they also need things that come in with the water you add during the water change process.
 
Oddball~ said:
NO fish or crab or shrimp eats poo. Plants would use the poo, but nothing would eat it.
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correction! Ghost shrimp will eat fish poo in search of the nutrion in the waste! i have seen this first hand
 
You say the snails and crabs ect will eat the poo, but then thats surely just going to be replaced my there own poo, do they eat that too lol?
 
Snails and crabs reduce that rate at which wastes break down. Basically, it comes down to the trophic levels--matter is removed from the system by being encorporated into the living animal. So, while these animals do produce waste, they also remove some of the potential ammonia from the system by locking it up in their own cells.
 
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