Cichlids eat hippo poo?

DarkSoul

DarkSoul

Mad Scientist
Mar 12, 2007
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London, Ontario
First let me state, that I dont believe they actually eat the poo, But i've never kept them so what do I know :)

I was watching dirty jobs the other day, and Mike was at a zoo cleaning hippo pens.

at one point Mike asks what kind of fish they have living in the water and the biologist replies "cichlids, they help eat the hippo poo, and keep the water a little cleaner" ..... or something along those lines.


but anyway, is that true by any stretch? I would think a marine biologist at the zoo knows what hes talking about, but it seems odd that a fish would eat poo.

probably just eating leftover undigested things right?
 
yeah. hippos, like horses, elephants, and other large herbivores, aren't so great at digesting everything. there is a lot of plant matter left over when it all comes out the other end.
 
Probably the plant matter, i would think.........:)
 
LOL. That was filmed at an aquarium in NJ, not at a zoo. I know because I work at Adventure Aquarium in NJ. I wasn't there the day they filmed Dirty Jobs though. Bummer!

The employee (Marc) who tells the host that cichlids eat hippo poop isn't a marine biologist. In fact, he knows basically nothing about fish... however he does know a lot about mammals. He's one of our hippo experts. hehe.

And yes, the cichlids eat any of the remaining food matter. There are around a 1,000+ cichlids in that tank. Gotta be eating something! It's pretty cool.
 
Pallen81 said:
LOL. That was filmed at an aquarium in NJ, not at a zoo. I know because I work at Adventure Aquarium in NJ. I wasn't there the day they filmed Dirty Jobs though. Bummer!

The employee (Marc) who tells the host that cichlids eat hippo poop isn't a marine biologist. In fact, he knows basically nothing about fish... however he does know a lot about mammals. He's one of our hippo experts. hehe.

And yes, the cichlids eat any of the remaining food matter. There are around a 1,000+ cichlids in that tank. Gotta be eating something! It's pretty cool.
Click to expand...


first off.... thanks for the corrections.... i knew I had a bunch of things sort of messed up.

and wow, cool that you work there..... you could have met the man himself.
 
Hippo enclosure at the zoo in my area is also stocked with african cichlids.

01_hippo_and_cichlids.jpg
 
We had to drain that hippo tank once at the aquarium.... its like tens of thousands of gallons....

to make a long story short. catching 1000+ cichlids was a real ummmm... pain you could say. lol.
 
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