pleco poop rant

[monkeybike]

OMG! How can two bushynose plecos that are 2" max create more poop than the 6 heavily fed medium SA cichlids that are their tankmates? My beautiful pfs bottom looks terrible! They are doing a bang up job on the brown algae bloom that happened in my freshly cycled 180 so I guess there's an upside. Going to score a goldie pleco pretty soon and swap him in and the bn's out. End rant.

 

[Oddball]

You should try one of these. It's like cleaning up after clydesdale horses.

 

[monkeybike]

Bleh, I can only imagine the line of poo coming out that monster. Like rope sausage, lol.

 

[pops]

they poop long ropes no dowt, but my 14" gibby and my 9" common keep my glass, wood, intakes and decor cleaned up. all I have to do is vacuum the tank well at water change, lot easier than scrubbing the panes on a 180 every week, let alone the decor.

 

[Oddball]

And he ground up 5-6 pounds of driftwood and coconut shells a week

 

[duanes]

Any large vegetarian fish that eat heavy fiber stuff (like wood, or papyrus) is going to be a waste production machine. That kind of food has a low nutrient value, so the fish must eat a lot, and most of it will be waste.
I have Etroplus suratensus that eat 2 or 3 dandelions per day, and the waste must be siphoned out every day, or the tank is constantly cloudy. I had the same situation with Herichthys(?) pearsei, and bocourti.

 

[jaws7777]

I use the eheim vac every day otherwise its pleco poop wasteland

 

[monkeybike]

I picked up a python vac today to deal with all the poo.

 

[Wailua Boy]

Yeah, they are known to drop big loads....They tend to not put as much strain on your bio-filter as you may think, because of their lower protein diet.

 

[framcosco]

That's weird....in my heavily stocked pleco tank.... no poo on the bottom....lol.... it would drive me insane....so I put a pump with a 90 degree inlet at the bottom to suck up all poo.