Freshwater Detrivores?

[Tlaloc]

i've mined the internet looking for the freshwater equivalent of a sea cucumber or bittlestar or bristle worms and found nothing, so now i'm asking yall. does anyone know of something that can live a happy healthy life eating the poop and leftover foods in my freshwater tanks? or point me in the direction of an old post covering this? much appreciated.

[mnemenoi]

Snails and shrimp perform that task fairly effectively, just depends on your tankmates

[michelleraia]

Snails and shrimp perform that task fairly effectively, just depends on your tankmates

They eat poop??? Would they go with my "will be big someday" Lake Malawi Haps?

[morpheus]

many scavengers will eat whatever they can find. as for things that literally eat poop i cannot say. there are many varieties of catfish, plecos, snails, shrimp, etc. that clean up extra food and algae. like mnemenoi said, it depends on the tankmates and tank size for what types to use (i.e. cichlids will definitely eat shrimp and probably snails too).

malawi haps you would need something that gets bigger and has some armor (or is faster). many plecos would work. maybe striped raphaels or spotted pims. many keep clown loaches too in schools

[mnemenoi]

Actually hard water tanks are perfect for some species. Shrimp would likely be out in that sort of setup, but assassins and tylomelania would both do a wonderful job stirring the substrate and getting into spots that food and detritus might accumulate. I have seen red claw macrobranchium used in tanganyikan setups without too much predation. I might be worried with small fry and shelldwellers or larger predators like frontosas or Malawi trout. In a large enough system that was well established I would bet that larger Amano shrimp and Vampires could hold their own with enough rockwork. There are the occasional inverts from the lake itself imported, but they can be tricky and are often times actual large predators in the lake, like the Platyphusa sp. of Tang lake crabs.

[morpheus]

assassins and tylomelania would both do a wonderful job stirring the substrate and getting into spots that food and detritus might accumulate

true some of the larger snail species may work too

[mistahoo]

Homeless Aquatics. He's got Vampire shrimp (the tank they're in is pristine due to their feeding), tylos that are already monster sized, and many more goodies. Nothing I know of actually eats poop except one fish. Tin foil barbs. I didn't believe it, but I've witnessed it first hand.

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[Tlaloc]

wow thanks guys. it's my 10 gallon fast river tank and it's full of large pea gravel and blue flat river rocks so i'm dreading having to remove everything to siphon it. it's got 2 hillstream loaches and around 15 blue dianos so pretty much anything is safe. i was hoping for something that eats poop exclusively so it wouldn't encroach on the alage i'm trying(keyword, trying) to grow for the hill streams, even though they seem to rather eat flake food that reaches the bottom. a vampire shrimp sounds good since i've seen them pat everything in the tank looking for detrius and the strong non directional flow would be good for it's feeding. or maybe a small battalion of ghost shrimp

[mistahoo]

Wood/bamboo shrimp or amanos are filter feeders too. Amanos will pick at longer hairy algae, but not so much at diatoms. RastaFarian actually just bought all the vampire shrimp that Homeless Aquatics has just now. Nothing eats poop that I know of besides the tin foil barbs.

[troy tucker]

BamBoo shrimp would love the fast moving water. You can get them for $6.00 at petco.

[Tlaloc]

i totally forgot those existed, i've always wanted some! thanks troy

[clayt101]

They eat poop??? Would they go with my "will be big someday" Lake Malawi Haps?

I think any snails and shrimp will become food for your Haps.

[mistahoo]

I think any snails and shrimp will become food for your Haps.

Besides, they don't eat poop. They do poop though

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