Question About Poo

[Lizzie71]

It occurred to me the other day that some of my fish seem to poo all the time, and others never do. I was wondering if this was normal?

For example - platys poo all the time, so does my bristlenose plec. But otos and bettas never ever poo, nor do my x-ray tetras. I have had the bettas about 2 months, and the tetras the same amount of time, and I have never seen them do anything!

Just wondered if I'm doing something wrong - all fish are happy, healthy and active (well as far as I can tell).

 

[aaronnorth]

It's just how fish are, my ottos rarley poo either, the bigger the fish the more often they poo

 

[CFC]

A lot of it is to do with diet, as a rule fish with herbivorous diets will poo more than omnivorous fish and some carnivorous fish never poo at all as their stomach acids reduce everything to liquid.

 

[Colin_T]

vegetarian fishes poo a lot. Algae eating or suckermouth catfish, livebearers and goldfish are probably the worst. Smaller fishes like tetras and otocinclus only produce small amounts of waste.

 

[invader]

some carnivorous fish never poo at all as their stomach acids reduce everything to liquid.

Never knew that! What species do it?

 

[Shrimper]

Betta's definatly poo even if you don't see it!

My shrimp tank used to be a betta tank and the gravel is a lot cleaner now when I do the weekly water change compared to when he lived in there with some other shrimp.

 

[joecoral]

It's just how fish are, my ottos rarley poo either, the bigger the fish the more often they poo

you may not see them do it but i assure you they do
my ottos are pooping machines!
the amount of poop on the sand after i added 5 ottos was astounding!

 

[Colin_T]

this thread is wierd. We have south park characters talking about poo

 

[backtotropical]

OMG, they killed Kenny!!

 

[snoopyfrench87]

poo poo poo pooo pooo

i find its good to use a siphon over the gravel to keep the poo levels down.

the vegetarian and algae eating fish poo more as their diet is high in fibre and easily digestible.

carniverous fish diets are mainly protein which is used within the body, this is also hard to break down and will take a long time for the fish to poo.

my goldfish produce fantastic poo chains and my fancy tail goldfish used to float upside down until she had a good poop. but i have changed her food now and she seems alot better.

poo poo poo poooo poooo

 

[fergalthefish]

It occurred to me the other day that some of my fish seem to poo all the time, and others never do. I was wondering if this was normal?

For example - platys poo all the time, so does my bristlenose plec. But otos and bettas never ever poo, nor do my x-ray tetras. I have had the bettas about 2 months, and the tetras the same amount of time, and I have never seen them do anything!

Just wondered if I'm doing something wrong - all fish are happy, healthy and active (well as far as I can tell).

maybe they poo when your not watching - fish need privacy too you know! lol

 

[Colin_T]

maybe they poo when your not watching - fish need privacy too you know! lol

give em a newspaper and shut the door.

 

[CFC]

some carnivorous fish never poo at all as their stomach acids reduce everything to liquid.

Never knew that! What species do it?

Predatory catfish are the main ones, if you feed them a natural diet of frozen foods (as oposed to pellets) you'll never see fish like RTC TSN and other big pims or pure piscavors like gulpers and frogmouths have a solid poo. I've never seen a poop from my African tiger fish or nile perch either.

 

[fergalthefish]

maybe they poo when your not watching - fish need privacy too you know! lol

give em a newspaper and shut the door.

make sure its a waterproof one though

 

[invader]

some carnivorous fish never poo at all as their stomach acids reduce everything to liquid.

Never knew that! What species do it?

Predatory catfish are the main ones, if you feed them a natural diet of frozen foods (as oposed to pellets) you'll never see fish like RTC TSN and other big pims or pure piscavors like gulpers and frogmouths have a solid poo. I've never seen a poop from my African tiger fish or nile perch either.

Very interesting. Thanks for the info.