Pleco eat poop?

[Kyohti]

Yup. My siphon can barely suck that those half-ton turds up!! O__O;;

 

[webcricket]

The name 'scat' originates from the latin name, Scatophagus. During certain times of the season, young scats can be found in areas where sewer pipes dump into bodies of water. These fish could be seen nipping at the floating detrius and fecal matter flowing out into the waters.

This is how they get their ever popular nickname “scat (dung) eaters”. However it is inconclusive as to whether they actually do eat the waste or the organisms that feed on the waste. It is thought that perhaps they are just consuming the undigested vegetable matter in the dung and only when other food sources proved scarce.

Obviously, we don't feed them feces... but it is how they got their name. And they are such avid feeders because they eat from just about anything in their native habitat... obviously!! XD

Thanks for the visual.

 

[F1shkeeper]

i've watched ghost shrimp eat poop before.

 

[Qweenc]

My pelco went without feeding for 3 days and when I finally bought food I realized all his poop was gone. If they are hungry and poop is available then they will eat it. I don’t recommend starving them to clean poop but maybe try less food to balance poop out.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Plecos go not eat poop. And all plecos are not vegetarians. I have been breeding Hypancistrus plecos for a couple of decades and they are primarily meat eaters. More accurately they are omnivores who love meat. I do feed a bit of veggie matter as well.

I just did a quick search (15 mins.) on Google Scholar ( https://scholar.google.com/ ) looking for information on fish which eat feces. Pretty much there was nothing in the FW world. But it turns out that fish poop does feed corals. In fw it becomes fertilizer for aquatic plants. In a tank poop will break down and then settle into the substrate. Decaying organic matter makes ammonia which is plant food. If one has no plants, then the bacteria/Archaea get the ammonia.

A couple of species of sw fish are thought to eat feces, but this is not certain if I read right. It is though that they are after the microrganisms in the feces. This is similar to the wood eating plecos (Xylivores) in FW.

If anybody can find research papers showing that any species of fw fish eats poop, please post the info or link here.

 

[jake72]

As others have posted...nothing eats fish feces. Your best bet is weekly substrate vacuuming.

But dog go wild for cow poop if that counts