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Hi Guys,
I've been told that my Bristlenose Pleco will produce more waste material than it eats (except for glass cleaning)on the bottom of my tank. In fact, this morning I noticed a long trail of waste still attached to it, as long as the fish (about 2"that will drop of soon, of course.

Are there an "extreme scavengers" that will even rid the bottom of my tank of that too?.....Yuck!

Seems like there might be, but don't know as much as you guys. Could you tell me of any, Please?

There are no fish I know of available that have a diet of fish feces. Scatophagus (Scats) are named that way because it was thought that they did, but it turned out that it was only a very minor portion of what they consume. Picking up fish waste is the job of the filter and the aquarist with regular gravel siphoning.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

Anything you put in your aquarium that eats, poo s.

Well, I should have expected that...but thought I'd ask the idiotic question anyway (incase there was a rare species that did it as "half of it's diet" (or things it would be able/willing to scavenge).

Of cource I have all the gear to syphan the gravel bottom of my tanks. But thought I might learn of a rare species...like maybe Omniveroso Bottomis Poopectus...Ha!

Too bad the "scat" is for brackinsh tanks.

I have generally found several geophagus and thoricthys species quite useful, not for eating poo exactly, but for chewing it up and spitting it out as a fine mist, and therefore it gets picked up by the filter, I have several aquaria each over 200 gal and I rarely have to vaccuum the gravel thanks to these guys, but in fairness I do get through a lot of fine filter wadding.

They are pretty much indescriminate about what they suck up , chew and spit out, poo gets churned up, much as old food and the gravel. Downside of course is that they uproot plants and can be a little aggressive to say the least, my latest geophagus hondae could be described as psychopathic, but his aquarium is usually very clean as regards the substrate.

If there was an easy consequence free solution to poo on the substrate, trust me, someone would have figured it out 80 years ago.lol.
Its probably one of the first things that goes through every new fishkeepers mind.

Geophagus certainly qualify as "extreme gravel cleaners" but unfortunately most of the extreme bit is in their mood, they are not safe around small fish.

These are the two I have that are the best at it.

cichlasoma robertsi

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/longhairedgit/IMG_6461.jpg

geophagus hondae.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/longhairedgit/fish002.jpg

Thanks, longhairedgit

I'll look into those fish. I think I'll look for a geophagus that will only grow to 3 to 4 inches(7.5cm to 10cm) approx.

My 55g tank has 2 Marineland Emperor 400 filters running similtaneously.....so every hour 800 gallons pass thru my filters.

Hey....I found this(Microgeophagus)...the Bolivian Ram
http://www.gcca.net/fom/Microgeophagus_altispinosa.htm

Thank you very much!
ARE there any that are colorful and stay fairly small like That, Please?

I was thinking rather restrictedly. lhg is right, fish digging around in the substrate allows for moving detritus and waste particles back into the water column, allowing for the filter to pick up the waste. The cichlid types are even better as they generally spit it out while they are hovering a short distance over the subsrate, allowing the particles to get picked up into the current above the substrate a little better. By contrast, most of the catfish I keep do not pick up gravel in their mouths, rather they root around in the gravel, which is less effective at releasing detritus. I do not know of any small cichlids that match your description that dig around like the larger Geophagus types, though. I'm no cichlid person, though, lol.

Wow, you've got about 15 tank turnovers an hour. You certainly don't need better filtration...

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

(Yes, I oversize all my tank support equipment)
Thanks, Yes it sounded good to me too!

How about this colorful eartheater cichlid...3 to 4 inches.
The Bolivian Ram
http://www.gcca.net/fom/Microgeophagus_altispinosa.htm

That's the one I'm thinking of finding to do the job.
Your thoughts, everyone???

The Bolivian ram is a small lower midwater feeder, fine for community and fairly trustworthy around small fish, but it doesnt move gravel about. Dont think youll find a major eartheater that comes in at less than 5 inches, and despite the geophagus latin name, unless the specimen your looking at has a large downturned mouth they probably wont do anything with the gravel. The pearl cichlid , geophagus brasiliensis for example doesnt really turn over gravel as much as many people might hope, gorgeous fish, but it wont help with the cleaning much, its all in the mouth design.

Have a look through the species on fishbase.

Geophagus the earth eaters,

http://www.fishbase.org/NomenClature/ScientificNameSearchList.php?crit1_fieldname=SYNONYMS.SynGenus&crit1_fieldtype=CHAR&crit1_operator=EQUAL&crit1_value=geophagus&crit2_fieldname=SYNONYMS.SynSpecies&crit2_fieldtype=CHAR&crit2_operator=contains&crit2_value=&group=summary&backstep=-2

Thorichthys (the firemouths)
http://www.fishbase.org/NomenClature/ScientificNameSearchList.php?crit1_fieldname=SYNONYMS.SynGenus&crit1_fieldtype=CHAR&crit1_operator=EQUAL&crit1_value=thorichthys&crit2_fieldname=SYNONYMS.SynSpecies&crit2_fieldtype=CHAR&crit2_operator=contains&crit2_value=&group=summary&backstep=-2

Satanoperca (more eartheaters)

http://www.fishbase.org/NomenClature/ScientificNameSearchList.php?crit1_fieldname=SYNONYMS.SynGenus&crit1_fieldtype=CHAR&crit1_operator=EQUAL&crit1_value=satanoperca&crit2_fieldname=SYNONYMS.SynSpecies&crit2_fieldtype=CHAR&crit2_operator=contains&crit2_value=&group=summary&backstep=-2

Make sure the species your choosing has a downturned or very low mounted mouth with big lips or youll be wasting your time. Mikrogeophagus are rams, and rams act more like apistogrammas than eartheaters. Beware too, that most of the geophagus are aggressive and you dont want to mix species of geophagus together, my robertsi and the red hump want each other dead on sight. If you choose an eartheater for a tank , make sure the other species of cichlid in the tank are not remotely related, they bloody hate each other. Be warned, ive tried combos of firemouths and geophagus and the related cichlasoma, and there are only certain mixes that work, thoricthys pasionis and the regular firemouths work ok with the cichlasoma robertsi, and maybe a braziliensis would work in there too, but that geophagus hondae, a geophagus jurupari, or a satanoperca , and there would be instant and lethal fighting. Some tank introductions have literally lasted 10 seconds before immediate liplocking happens and Ive had to seperate before injuries happen.

Some people never see that side of them because when in with reasonable sized and entirely unrelated fish they cruise around , digging about and doing theur thing with only an occassional chase off, but get the wrong combo of related species together or an incompatible male to male or even male and female pair (geos and firemouths are known for touchy partner selection and female persecution)they go off like a bomb, youll not see focused aggression like it short of a red devil or convict. Geos go for rams and even large acaras too btw. Stuff like severums they typically ignore, and they seem to get horny and display to gouramis, which lets face it , is odd, and very worrying for the gourami, especially when it happens to be male ,lol. Be aware that red hump geos and firemouths tend to compulsively attack fish with red heads and chins,or similar shaped lips,any big pair of smackers tends to be an excuse for an immediate fight, so no jewel cichlids or similar in with these guys either.


Cool fish they are,and useful, but also a compatability hell, Choose carefully, they have a really conclusive way of demonstrating that they dont like certain cagemates!

Thanks longhairedgit,
That website is a great resource for All kinds of tropical fish (and many other things)!

I guess I went for the colors of the Bolivian. All my fish will be colorful. And thought it's mouth did look down-turned. Places said it was had "digging tendencys"....so Bingo! Looked like everything I wanted and medium sized because my tank will be pretty FULL of fish (as far as tank capacity in relation to sizes of fishes I've choosen...ail small now, but will be good sized when mature). I have no pairs to help breeding aggression be not a factor, hopefully!

Thanks, I'll look at that site and head your words about true eartheaters.

Just as a sidenote--no organism can possibly produce more potential energy than was imputed into its system.Thus, a BN, for example, cannot make more poop than food it ingests.

CoL, I thought about that too, but I think there is one exception, and that is in the extreme case where the fish is extremely underfed and also digests part of its own body simply to maintain metabolism, which I imagine would produce waste; of course, if you look at in the long run the fish doesn't produce more waste than it eats, but if you look at it at the single point in time then it might be possible to produce more waste than it consumes. But yes, in most situations, and certainly in humane conditions, an organism does not produce more waste than food it ingests, and in the case of growing organisms, less waste will be produced than material it ingested as material is incorporated into the body.

Not that it's an important point or anything.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

That is why I was general in regards to energy input. Anything diverging from this contradicts COE.