Poop-eating Creatures?

[darkdep]

This may seem like a dumb question.  Are there any aquatic creatures that eat fish poop?  Snails, some kind of bottom feeder, etc?

I mean, in the forest there are things that eat poop.  Just wondered if it happens in the water...

The reason I ask is that I find the poop is quite noticable on top of my black sand; just wondered if there was something to janitor it.

[gvv]

This may seem like a dumb question.  Are there any aquatic creatures that eat fish poop?  Snails, some kind of bottom feeder, etc?

I mean, in the forest there are things that eat poop.  Just wondered if it happens in the water...

The reason I ask is that I find the poop is quite noticable on top of my black sand; just wondered if there was something to janitor it.

Get MTSes - cannot say they eat it, but they do great mixing it with sand  

[zapisto]

ok
most of the creature call scattophage (really dont know in english) are not really it.
actually i only 2 fish who was really poop eater , will try found them back in my not.

the only creature i know who do it well (with help of MTS) is the plants

[squeeker]

Even if there is a fish that will eat the poop from your fish...

That fish will, in turn, POOP.  And it won't eat its own poop.

Bottom line:  Lotsa water changes, or carpeting plants.

[PaleoFishGirl]

ok
most of the creature call scattophage (really dont know in english) are not really it.
actually i only 2 fish who was really poop eater , will try found them back in my not.

the only creature i know who do it well (with help of MTS) is the plants

"Coprophage" in English

[darkdep]

Ok...the MTS are already on their way...we'll see how they do.  And I'll google to see what the heck a Coprophage is :lol:

[goldfish4ever]

What bugs me is people that will buy plecos because they think they eat poop. I heard the lady that works at the Walmart telling some customers that she swears by the plecos for poop eating and keeping the tank totally clean, thereby reducing the need for as many water changes. Well of course - *and I could see my husbands expression changing to "oh my god here we go again"* as I provided them with a little info, including the fact that a common pleco would grow WAY WAY too big for their 10 gallon aquarium really fast. Well I will tell you the dirty look I got from the Walmart sales lady!! As far as  I can tell, the other young girl that frequents the pet section is quite good in knowledge of  fish and their upkeep. Always a bonus at any Walmart, since theyve developed such a bad rep. But this one older lady (cant comment on any of the other workers there in that section because ive never talked with them) falls into your stereotypical walmart worker. = (

As for poop cleaning without doing water changes everyday - try my method - I syphon with a nylon stocking or pantyhoe foot attached with a rubber band to the end of the syphon hose that goes in the bucket. It works great for catching poop, and then I can just dump the clean water back in the tank. I swear by it inbetween my weekly water changes, as everyone knows what poopmachinews golfish are.

[dpatte]

you can clean your fine sand using a standard python-like vacuum tube. The trick is to make sure the syphon runs very slowly.

[Iceman]

But this one older lady (cant comment on any of the other workers there in that section because ive never talked with them) falls into your stereotypical walmart worker. = (

Careful now. My daughter works at Wal-Mart.  

[darkdep]

She's obviously the knowledgable "other young girl" that GF4E mentioned.  :lol:

[Iceman]

Actually, she has never worked in the pet dept. But she knows more about pets, including fish, than I do. Little bugger.

[Julie]

I like the poop eating pleco advice - it really should be the pooping pleco.  

Julie

[Aiglos]

Actually, she has never worked in the pet dept. But she knows more about pets, including fish, than I do. Little bugger.

Obviously a miss management of there personnel; why is she not working in the Pet department?  

Why have someone that knows nothing about pets in the pet department and someone who is very knoledgable in the cleaning supplies section ?

[repeej]

My damn pleco has done nothing but poop in my tank.  There's way more poop in there now then before I got him and the algae level has only increased.  Me thinks the cories eat his poop because it never stays on the bottom for very long.

[darkdep]

Fire him.  My plecos work their butts off.  Course, that's because I NEVER feed them.

But man, pleco poop has got to be some kind of record.  I mean, if I left a poop twice as long as MY body...wow.

[Iceman]

Actually, she has never worked in the pet dept. But she knows more about pets, including fish, than I do. Little bugger.

Obviously a miss management of there personnel; why is she not working in the Pet department?  

Why have someone that knows nothing about pets in the pet department and someone who is very knoledgable in the cleaning supplies section ?

Well we're moving away from the original topic here, but quickly, Wal-Mart Canada has little in the way of Human Resources management. This I found out because a friend in Toronto is interviewing for the overall HR position at Wal-Mart and they said straight up, they don't have the HR stuff, policies and so forth, set up properly in Canada. Hence the new position.

And she works in the food section.  :roll:

[goldfish4ever]

Is it sad to say that I think I would enjoy working in the pet section at Walmart??

[dpatte]

i worked for a year  in  the pet department of a chain.  what a disaster. i quit  when i  coouldnt connvince them that turning  off all  the power in my  departmment every  night wasnt a good idea!

[pegasus]

My pleco is move every second day and plays Molly Maid to all my big tanks. 24 hrs ..work garanty... algea, wasted food and poop recompress in long, very long, turds. Right darkdeep? On the second day he's ready to hitcht a ride back in the net and to clean/feed on another tank. So bottom line... I don't have to clean the inside glass anymore but still have to siphon the bottom of the less harmfull waste that the pleco left behind.

The MTS: I'm new to them but here's my observations. In a small plantless tank use for raising juveniles I had to clean the gravel weekly of the brown poop and to dislodge the methane gas. When I started to remove some of the bigger juveniles I was surprise to see the increase in the MTS population. At the same time, my gravel was getting poopless. The tank, now fishless and is beeing used for raising MTS and apple snail.  
QUESTION... Where's the MTS poop?

BTW I don't want any snails with my egglayers. (Shelldwellers and others)

[luvfishies]

Another thing you could try is to stick a small powerhead in the tank, directing water across the substrate towards the main filter, so the poop gets sucked into the filter.

You'll have to do more filter maintenance, but the sand will stay nice and pretty (poop free).