# Fish poop. Amount, good, bad?



## fshfanatic (Apr 20, 2006)

A little water flow aimed in the right direction will stir it up allowing the filter to remove it from your tank.

What are you keeping that poops that much?


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## Joetee (Mar 28, 2006)

I don't worry to much about this. But I use a turkey baster to stir things up a bit when doing a water change when it starts to look like to much.
Joe


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## Natty (Apr 2, 2008)

I know you're trying to give ferts to your plants, but since you're using this method, you probably have a low tech setup? If so, you probably don't need that much laying around, it is also pretty unsightly if you know what I mean. 

I'd use a turkey baster and aim some flow near the bottom, you need some ferts for your plants through natural means but they don't need that much.

A few root tabs should be good enough to supplement them further. I wouldn't let so much fish crap lay around.


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## suebe333 (Feb 17, 2009)

lol natty


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## Etcetera (Mar 10, 2009)

What a wonderful poo farm! Nice poo means healthy fish, so good job with that. On the other hand, unless poo farm is your goal, I'd probably get a turkey baster or a gravel vac on that stuff. Your plants look really nice too, no dead pieces or spotty bits, you must be doing something right. Although I'm also curious about what kind of crazy poo machines you're stocking. That's quite a bit of poo for only a week.


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## stonedpuppy (Jan 26, 2009)

dont feed them so much and they will not poo so much. mix up their diet


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## Homer_Simpson (May 10, 2007)

You may not have ammonia spikes yet, but I can pretty much guarantee you based on my own experience that if you leave that much poop lieing around no matter how heavily you plant your tank(water changes or not), that you will get an ammonia spike sooner or later, not to mention the possible development of blue green algae. Also, if your fish are pooping that much, you are overfeeding them. This is not good for the long term health of your fish. I have successfully kept fish for 10 years, many of my fish have survived 8+ years and a large part of my success has been due to the fact that I purposely underfeed my fish and understock my tanks.


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## arn24 (Jan 31, 2009)

Homer_Simpson said:


> Also, if your fish are pooping that much, you are overfeeding them.


I feed them once a day, but I will try cutting back. I think a lot of that comes from the cleaning crew.



fshfanatic said:


> What are you keeping that poops that much?


1 Clown Pleco
3 Pink Flying Foxes
1 Upside Down Cat
2 Ottos
1 Dwarf Guorami
15 White Clouds
5 Serpe Tetras
9 Green Tetras
5 Red Eye Tetras

Natty, not purposely leaving crap in there for ferts, just not sure what 'mulm' would look like. I am using root tabs. By the way, those background plants should look familiar. Check out my thread in the Journal section to see how your others are doing! Thanks again!

Thanks all for the advise. Turkey baster it is....

Aaron


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## crabcake (Dec 19, 2007)

that's a lot of fish. how big is the tank?

you could also try to acquire some Malaysian trumpet snails. they love to eat fish poo.


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## Natty (Apr 2, 2008)

arn24 said:


> Natty, not purposely leaving crap in there for ferts, just not sure what 'mulm' would look like. I am using root tabs. By the way, those background plants should look familiar. Check out my thread in the Journal section to see how your others are doing! Thanks again!
> 
> Thanks all for the advise. Turkey baster it is....
> 
> Aaron


Oh yeah!! Lmao! I totally forgot. You're the guy I sent that gigantic bag of plants to. Haha. 

Mulm is basically the stuff you pull up if you stir your substrate. Root tabs and a little bit of fish waste is okay but that much will cause you problems in the long run. It also means you don't have enough flow to keep your tank clean of it. Put your journal link into your signature like some people do. I'll give it a look later.

Hope the plants are working for you well, it was a gigantic bunch. I hoped the UG survived.


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## arn24 (Jan 31, 2009)

crabcake said:


> that's a lot of fish. how big is the tank?
> 
> you could also try to acquire some Malaysian trumpet snails. they love to eat fish poo.


55 gal. 

Thanks for the advise. I've been thinking about adding some snails.


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## Burks (May 21, 2006)

I'm sure you can place a little blame on all that on your pleco. I have a 2" Bristlenose in my 10g and he just craps all day long. Very noticeable.

I did have a breeding pair of Clown Plecos in my 40g and they were the same way. Worst part was, they crap right in their living area....dirty fish. :icon_redf


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## arn24 (Jan 31, 2009)

Burks said:


> I'm sure you can place a little blame on all that on your pleco. I have a 2" Bristlenose in my 10g and he just craps all day long. Very noticeable.
> 
> I did have a breeding pair of Clown Plecos in my 40g and they were the same way. Worst part was, they crap right in their living area....dirty fish. :icon_redf


Think I could train him to use a box? 

I was thinking of adding another pleco, too. May have to rethink that one.


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## Walking_Target (Jul 16, 2008)

I use sandy bottoms and have MTS, so i rarely see poop, i watch my fish to make sure it's not stringy and then just remove some now and then with a gravel vac. 

Actually thinking of pulling apart my 10g and getting going on a rescape... i know that my sand is about 1/8th poop (only one betta and a butt load of shrimp and snails)

Never had algae or sulfide problems though, just stuck with EI dosing and good water changes.


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## Etcetera (Mar 10, 2009)

Hm, male plecos can be territorial and will fight. Probably not a good idea to introduce new plecos for that reason either, they're a very difficult fish to sex.


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## arn24 (Jan 31, 2009)

crabcake said:


> that's a lot of fish. how big is the tank?
> 
> you could also try to acquire some Malaysian trumpet snails. they love to eat fish poo.


A question about those snails:
I looked on aquabid for those and most of the time they're sold in quantities of 100+! Is this a lot for a 55gal? I know they're small, but how many is recommended? I don't want to have to brush them off the glass to see the fish!

Thanks again.

Aaron


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## Natty (Apr 2, 2008)

arn24 said:


> A question about those snails:
> I looked on aquabid for those and most of the time they're sold in quantities of 100+! Is this a lot for a 55gal? I know they're small, but how many is recommended? I don't want to have to brush them off the glass to see the fish!
> 
> Thanks again.
> ...


100 isn't nothing. I had a friend on here send me about 200ish. It was about enough to fill my cupped hand. It wasn't a lot even in my 10 gallon.

Don't go on aquabid...you can get them from someone that doesn't want mts on here. Mts are common and sometimes almost an unwanted snail in quite a few people's tank.

Plus, they breed very fast if you just drop some sinking foods down there. They give live birth too. Most of my MTS stay in the substrate but I've had a tank or so where they would run around a bit, even in the daytime, but I would think that's because they're trying to get away from the assassin snails.

If you ever have too many, feel free to sell them off or give them off or throw a couple of assassin snails in there.

Oh yeah! Special note, they will pull up some of your foreground plants like UG, HC, etc. Especially newly planted foreground plants that are not well anchored. So if you're planning to put some HC down or similar, you would want to do it BEFORE introducing mts. After the plants take root, it should be okay. It is because they burrow around the substrate which will loosen your plants. They don't literally pull it up.


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## NightSky (Feb 16, 2009)

This thread is making me not wanna eat those noodles I was planning on eating for dinner today.









On another note, I gravel vac that stuff away! I can't stand seeing that. It's actually kinda nice not having fish in my 5g because of this. Everything looks cleaner (in more ways than one!). I have platies so I know about poop machines. Even if you don't feed them that often (like myself), they still poop constantly! They find things to eat. And yes, they poop in the same part of the tank too. It's their "hang out" area that they like. It's also the part of the tank that has the least bit of water flow. :fish::fish::fish::icon_eek: :icon_roll


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## arn24 (Jan 31, 2009)

So, other than the possibility of these breeding into a gigantic number or uprooting some plants, is it a general consensus that MTS are a good thing to have in there? If so, I'll look into getting some.. 

P.S. if anybody has too many and is falling behind on their RAOK quota, lemme know! 

Aaron


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