Which Fish Are "messy"?

[jaimeg]

I've run across a few things that say if a fish is "messy" or not and I was hoping to hear which are the messiest (goldfish??) and are which are the cleanest (lowest bio load?) (tetras??).

And where would you place platy on that scale??

Thanks!

 

[voo]

Plecs are very messy. It's quite amazing how much waste they produce. when i got rid of my two i was totally shocked.

As for low waste fish i'm not sure. I know shrimps dont produce that much.

Platties i'd consider to be medium. They can be fairly messy at times.

As with all fish i think, generally it depends how much you feed them.

 

[scubadoo]

I'm fairly sure there's a rule of thumb here......

the bigger the fish the more it eats
the more it eats, the more it cr@ps.

Now I'm sure there will be exceptions to the rule, but I think it would stand up to general scrutiny.

 

[ox5477]

Don't look at just the the waste that comes out of a fish either. Look at their eating habits also. Fish like oscars and puffers are very messy eaters. They try to eat as fast as possible and in doing so lose alot of it. They won't eat the scraps up usually either so that will be some of what your vacuuming off the substrate.

 

[dwarfgourami]

as ox says, it's not just size but eating habits

some fish like pacus and piranhas have a very inefficient digestive system- so a lot comes out

royal plecs eat wood, so apparently part of the problem is the tank gets clogged up with sawdust

low waste producers I would say are fish like neon tetras

platies clearly aren't waste producers on the pleco scale, but for their small size they are fairly messy- they like to graze conintuously on algae and greens in the wild (and in the tank if they get a chance) and as we all know herbivourous animals are great on the manure....

 

[DarkEntity]

Convicts.....omg food everywhere

 

[callum_parsons]

plecs are pretty bad they poo all the time and the poo is about half the size of them.

 

[dreamsphere]

plecs are pretty bad they poo all the time and the poo is about half the size of them.

I'll second that. Mine sh*ts for Britain. Minnows in my experience don't tend to produce much waste

 

[Rocky32189]

Oscars and Plecos are pretty bad...

 

[SPLiSH]

Cyprinids (goldfish, some barbs, sharks) tend to be messy. They aren't fish, but my apple snail makes so much mess! Much more than three bettas put together, daily.

Fish like tetras and rainbowfish seem to make less mess.

 

[QuotheRaven]

Platies they are poop machines for their size and poo all the time. My BN is small at the moment and I cannot see it poo alot...rather I didn't anyway

 

[dwarfgourami]

My BN is small at the moment and I cannot see it poo alot...rather I didn't anyway

Don't worry, you will.... I have a pair and it's all I can do to keep the 63 gallon clean.

 

[cane76]

red bellied piranha are bad for making a mess also ray poop isnt very nice