Urgent! Poop eating fish needed.

**Mattcomptonassvanhorn** · 06-21-2006, 10:29 AM

I need to know some poop eating fish for my 55, because I am at 20% water changes every 4-5 days. Trying to keep up with my parrot. please help before I drown.

**craig** · 06-21-2006, 10:36 AM

Scats eat poop. Even though they are brackish you can get some fully marined.

**P3R3** · 06-21-2006, 10:37 AM

Does'nt exist.

**Oddball** · 06-21-2006, 10:42 AM

Scats will not eat poop and neither will any other animal. Some fish, like scats, will scavenge through detritis to consume anything that hasn't been metabolized already. In the process of scavenging, they will break up/stir up that detritis so it can be more easily picked up by the filter. The same goes for burrowing snails, brittle stars, etc.
Keep a healthy current running across the bottom of the tank that directs loose surface waste toward the filter intake. That will help a bit.

**Ang** · 06-21-2006, 10:54 AM

Fish dont eat poop dude.

Bottom feeders eat left over food or algae, but not poop.

You're just going to need to upgrade, or get better filtration.

Or just do larger water changes. Like 40% once a week. Then in between water changes, you could use one of those battery powered siphons that suck any poop sitting on the surface up. Kind of like a handheld vacuume. Just to keep it clean looking.

Adding another fish will only make your problem worse. You'll be getting twice as much poop in your tank as you were before.

**Justin_James** · 06-21-2006, 11:18 AM

Yep, It's true there is nothing that will do what you want it for. The myth of poop eating fish derives from the pleco. Alot of people think that the pleco will eat poop and so therefor they feel that any bottom dweller will do the same. Pet stores even sometimes tell people to put pleco in their freshwater systems to eat all the poop and then they think they don't have to clean them agin. hahaha. I recommend getting a good protein skimmer, lots of live rock, macro algae, and make sure there is lots of flow too. Your flow should be 10 times the water volume of your tank with all your equipment added together.