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Even if an individual fish eats fish poop, it wouldn't really help. The nutrients are already mostly gone at that point and there's nothing left but undigestable waste material and roughage.

A useful poop-eater (like, say, an aquatic dung beetle) would actually need to metabolize the stuff into something useful. Even in that case, the only way to really get rid of that bioload is for the creature to be small, reproduce a lot, and become live food for your fish. Then it partially replaces feeding.

I made my own gravel vac. I chose the tubing diameter carefully though, so the flow rate is just right. Top of lemonade bottle, bit of tubing, 30 seconds making the hole in the bottle cap, voila - supoer-efficient gravel vac for about 50p. Why spend £10 on a gravel vac when you can spend 50p instead, and have £9.50 left over for new fish & plants?

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

'fraid there aren't too many wallmarts around here

Gravel vacs are around AU$15-20 for small ones in the pet shops. More for bigger ones. That's more than I earn in an hour at work.

Mine cost me about $1 and took less than 5 minutes to put together. It also has the advantage that I can remove the bottle and just use the siphon in the tanks with sand.

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That's what you get for making a DIY gravel vac. Even I'm not that cheap. You can get a gravel vac at walmart for less than $5. Best money I ever spent in this hobby if you ask me.

Actually I use airline tubing to vac the betta tanks but that's only because they're so small.

2 inch diameter tubing?
Man you'd get some suction with that!

I made my own gravel vac with a 500mL bottle and some 8mm tubing (1/3 inch?). The first time I tried to make it, I used tubing that was big enough to fit over the top of the bottle. When I tried it out, it sucked up all the gravel and the bucket overflowed so fast my carpet was soaked.

either get some snails(big ones so your clown loaches won't eat them])
or make your own gravel cleaner, I made mine from a pepsi 24 oz bottle with 1 inch diameter tubing for my 10 gallon.
You can use a 2 litter for bigger tanks
Works Great!

Last edited by trojan_man at 08-Nov-2004 22:50

Last edited by trojan_man at 10-Nov-2004 23:06

A fish that was actually willing to eat poop, would get no nutrition from it. Hence that fish would have to eat normal food too. They'd poop from the poop that they ate, and they'd poop whatever was left of their food after digestion. You'd have more waste, not less!

I agree, if you could get a fish to eat poo, you would/could possibly stand to get rich. However, like someone said before, what goes in as poo, must come out as poo. Unless of course you could produce a fish that eats poo and poos out food. LOL LOL

Hey, that was my idea! Gotta breed an aquatic form of the dung beetle. Then it can eat the poop and make dung beetle larvae, which all of your fish will eat. Fish turn larvae into poop, dung beetle turns poop into larvae. Voila! A completed ecosystem!....

...or you could just get some nice plants. You don't have to spend $30,000,000 genetically engineering an aquatic dung beetle, either.

Last edited by Silverlight at 08-Nov-2004 21:40

ROFL!!!
I just have to say that this is one of the funniest threads I have read yet!!
I agree, if you could get a fish to eat poo, you would/could possibly stand to get rich. However, like someone said before, what goes in as poo, must come out as poo. Unless of course you could produce a fish that eats poo and poos out food. LOL LOL


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That crazy gravel vac eel eats all kinds of poo.

yea, but it will eat alot of poo, and not poo as much

But if you have a fish that eats "poo" that fish will also eventually have to poo the poo out. So inevitably, you have poo. Just a thought.

Hey everyone.

I was watching my fish eat, and i noticed that when my clown loaches/ pleco moved fast, alot of poo would get stirred up.

My gravel vac is out-of-order right now, so i have no way of really cleaning it good.

Is there anything that will eat the poop? Will snails?

I know snails will eat decaying stuff on the floor.

rofl.

I have 2 peppered corys in the tank.

Strangely enough, my peppered cory cats eat the poops in my tanks. I dont know why, they get lots of food. But still like their gross snack. Maybe mine are just freaks. *shrugs*

This is where someone could earn some money...by "creating" a fish that thrives off of fish poo...ok sick idea, but let's face it it would be a top seller...:%)

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

Anything will nip at it, but nothing will really eat it.

my friend's pacus take swipes at oscar poo, but only when its floating thru the tank, never seen them scavenge thru the gravel for it. sometimes the spit it out, sometimes the eat it..... YUCK!

The Scat, a brackish to salt water fish, will on occasion eat fish waste, hence its common name and scientific genus (Scatophagus: Eater of Feces). But, that's probably not an option because you have a FW tank and the Scat can grow to around a foot.

That being said, you could make a DIY siphon with some 1/2" tubing. Just start a suction and drain into a bucket. Use it to remove the biggest pieces of waste. It should get the job done until your new one arrives.

Joe Potato

i have an eclipse hood, so i cant add to the filteration.

strong filtration could help pick that up...

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