# Good Detritivores?



## Hypancistrus (Oct 28, 2004)

The dojo weather loach (_misgurnus anguillicaudatus_) will eat every scrap of detritus it can find and keep your tank bottom looking pristine.

For some reason they are very hard to find for sale online but LFS's never seem to be in short supply of them.


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## uncskainch (Feb 22, 2005)

When I had yeast mix from my DIY CO2 system get into my tank, creating lots and lots of gunk, the addition of a whole lot of ghost shrimp worked wonders. They're very busy and will eat up leftover food, plus they're usually inexpensive and readily available. My angel fish and clown loaches eat them, but I pick up a couple of dozen at the local fish store for $5 every few weeks -- they eat a little algae and keep the bottom pretty clean, plus the angel and loaches get some healthy live food.


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## nddonegan (Apr 11, 2006)

OK, thanks for the tips. Ghost shrimp are the only type available in my area so I will give those a try.

How many Ghost Shrimp should I add to a 29 gallon tank?


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## uncskainch (Feb 22, 2005)

From what I've read on this forum, shrimp don't really add to your bioload in any appreciable way so I'd assume you could add as many as you like without creating a problem. I usually add ghost shrimp to my 29 g tank in batches of 20 or 30 (they're 5 or 6 for $1 around here), but I have a few fish that tend to pick them off so I'm usually assuming some losses will take place.


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## shuks (Jul 10, 2005)

Almost any kind of snail or shrimp will eat dead plants, but nothing will eat fish crap or mulm. You will alwayse get detritus collecting on the gravel. The only thing there good for is eating things that arnt fully decayed. If its turned into mulm, or is fish poop you have to siphen it out. I personaly like to leave detritus in there, and mix it underneath the gravel. Your plants will ove it.


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## uncskainch (Feb 22, 2005)

Shuks points out my experience -- my ghost shrimp seemed to eat the yeasty stuff that was growing in my tank after the DIY CO2 container tipped over, but otherwise the way they contribute is not by actually eating the accumulated mulm at the bottom of the tank but rather by eating up leftover food and bits of dead plants before they decay so that you don't get a big build up of decayed stuff in the tank. So they help with the bottom of the tank cleaning, but not because they eat the decayed stuff but rather because they eat stuff that, if nothing was there to eat it, would add to your problem.


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## oceanaqua (Nov 24, 2005)

also ask your lfs if they ghost shrimp fresh or saltwater acclimated, most fish stores sell the salt water kind that will die shortly in a freshwater tank.


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## esarkipato (Jul 19, 2005)

> nothing will eat fish crap or mulm.


Agreed.

In addition, I have 3 _misgurnus anguillicaudatus_ in my cherry shrimp tank, with a pool filter sand bottom. That sand keeps most detritus on the surface, and there is a whole lot of it! I don't think the shrimp or the loaches consume it but, as mentioned, the plants do!


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## Jack Shaftoe (Apr 29, 2006)

kuhli loaches will help


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## 2wheelsx2 (Jan 27, 2006)

Don't kuhli loaches borrow in the substrate? Wouldn't that make a mess in a planted tank?


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## Hypancistrus (Oct 28, 2004)

shuks said:


> nothing will eat fish crap or mulm.


A dojo weather loach sure will. I've seen them do it. With four messy goldfish poop monsters in my tank, I never get _any_ accumulation on my gravel. The dojos vacuum it all.


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## shuks (Jul 10, 2005)

Are you sure your loches are actually eating the mulm and not just stirring it up when lookin for food then letting your filter suck it up? I've never seen or heard of any kind of loach eating crap and mulm. I have a hard time believing that there actually eating it. Would you eat crap out of your toilet?


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## uncskainch (Feb 22, 2005)

My khulis will burrow into the mulm if it builds up and stir it up, causing some of it to get sucked up by the filter. I've never seen anything actually eat fish poop in my tank, but some of the bottom dwellers do seem to move it around a lot and get it waterborne.


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## Old Greg (Jul 17, 2012)

I believe a weather loach may be capable of consuming mulm as may a fish such as a coy or quite a few bottom dwellers, but it is usually done only when such a fish is on the brink of starvation. However it is well known that it is unhealthy for a khuli to eat faeces and if yours is then it is very underfed.

There are actually many species of freshwater aquatic detritivores, but most aren't sold in shops because they are all very small due to the lack of large fish species waste in rivers much unlike the ocean. Some examples of freshwater detritivores that you might be able to find in a local creek are aquatic Earthworms, some varieties of non-parasitic Leaches (surprisingly common), Amphipoda (very small crustaceans), Yabbies (are native to Australia and are very delicious like their relative the crayfish) and Lampreys (be careful because most are dangerous parasites).

I hope I have answered all of the questions.


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

When there were cherry shrimp in my sump there was no mulm. Shrimp eat the stuff. Mulm is not feces, it is mineralized plant and animal waste. The platies, otos, corydoras and black neon tetras currently trapped in the sump don't do much to reduce the mulm in there. Got to go fishing in the sump soon!


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