What can I have in my tropical tank to help eat the waste?

Question

I have a 60 litre tropical biorb with a glass catfish, 2 clown loaches, 1 ruby shark,2 small frogs and 3 baby angle fish. I want something like snails to help eat the waste but have been told the loaches will eat them? What else can I have?

Answer 1

I assume that you mean fish poop when you say waste, a full grown flower shrimp may work, but you are better off with a small gravel vacuum. Use it once a week when you change the water.
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Answer 2

No snails in your case because the ruby shark will try to eat them. An easy suggestion is to gravel vac 1/2 the gravel, without stirring the gravel, make a 1/4 tank water change and change the feeding habits. Feed only once a day what the fish can consume in 3-5 minutes. No food should be on the bottom when feeding time is over. If you are using an outside filter, rinse with cold water or completely change the cartridge every 3-4 weeks. If this does not clear up the situation, then the filter is the problem. Under gravel filters with power heads are still an excellent way to keep a tank clean. Don't rely on Wal-Mart quality though. Go to an independent shop, Petsmart or on line.

Answer 3

First off, no fish actually eat the WASTE. There are some that eat excess food that falls to the bottom, but once it goes bad, none will eat it. If you're looking to clean up algae, try a snail, algae eater, or pleco. But don't get a fish to "eat waste". Loaches, cory cats, and all bottom feeders still have to be fed foods that sink, such as shrimp pellets or algae wafers. Also remember that plecos get huge and the general rule for freshwater is one inch of fish per gallon of water!

Answer 4

No fish with eat the other waste of the fish. Algae eaters will eat algae which grows on the waste. The waste will break down like in nature, but it turns into nitrates which are harmful to fish. Plants use nitrates like those founds in fertilizers for food.

Your aquarium is a closed natural enviroment. However, you probably don't have enough plants to ensure the waste being created by your fish will neutralize the nitrates in the water. You can get test strips for this, but chances are you don't have enough plants. Plants are hard to raise in aquariums with fish and the average home aquarium is not sufficent for such self containing enviroments.

The best way to control waste is by changing the water frequently.

Answer 5

It sound like you are over stocked, and/or over feeding. You can get something to eat the excess food, and even tome degree the solid fish waste. This will only make things look better.

Keep in mind fish + food -> ammonia (which is toxic) Assuming you've properly cycled the tank. Bacteria will convert the ammonia to nitrites, and finally to nitrates. (Nitrates are much less toxic than ammonia.) Nothing you can put into a tank will remove nitrates at a meaningful rate. Only reducing the amount of food, and proper cleaning.

Food- How much, and often are you feeding. None of your fish need to be fed more than once a day. If they haven't eat all their food in 2-3 minutes you've over fed them.

Cleaning- Are you using a cheap gravel filter to clean the gravel, and remove 10-30% of your water weekly?

Stocking- You shouldn't have as a general rule more than one inch of slim bodied fish, based on adult size, per gallon. By my count, without counting the frogs, you've easily got 15+ inches of fish in a 15 gallon tank. Never mind that angel's aren't slim bodied, and count extra. Plus the angels get huge, and need a 40-50 gallon tank. Also the glass cat will not survive his tank mates aggression as they get older.

PS- You should really test your water for nitrates, and ammonia.

Answer 6

nothing will eat fish feces, however if your speaking of food that has settle at the bottom. cory cats, sharks, and loaches make good bottom feeders. however you don't want much food waste at the bottom, this will make your water quality poor and raise you ammonia levels. only feed your fish a small amount 3-4 times a week. a hint on snails although good for algae, quickly be may become out of control in number.

Answer 7

Your standard sponge filter should cope with the waste produced by your fish. Your filter sponge shouldn't be cleaned in tap water either (the chlorine kills the baceria in it and they take time to recover) just rinse it in the 'dirty' water when changing water. Perhaps you're feeding too much as the poo shouldn't really build up noticably between cleaning.
If you don't already have one, get a vacuum syphon and 'hoover' the waste from the gravel with that (once a fortnight should be enough).
Your gravel shouldn't really be any deeper than 1/2 inch either, otherwise it just stores up waste.

Answer 8

You can`t put in snails as the clown loaches will eat them, the waste sounds like to much food put in, don`t over feed the fish, try a plec

Answer 9

What waste? Extra food, feed them less or are you talking about the manure? Nothing is going to eat the manure accept plants which treat it like fertilizer. :^) Loaches love snails for food. Or are you talking about algae? The best fish I have found for algae are Flying Foxes.

Answer 10

Tanks ultimately advance effective micro organism that harm down the feces in the gravel. it is appropriate to no longer sparkling the gravel or the poop it is lodged interior because of the fact there is micro organism living there that still help harm down ammonia. the suitable concern to do is to no longer overcrowd the tank with too many fish (one inch of fish in step with gallon) and to get a suckerfish which will freshen up the algae. do no longer purchase the Hypostomus plecostomus suckerfish (those usually offered in Walmart or in puppy shops) because of the fact it rather is going to ultimately outgrow the tank. Do your homework on the Loricariidae relatives of suckerfish and decide a species which will stay small. i choose to advise otocinclus. they only advance to a max of roughly 2 inches.

Answer 11

you can get plecos, they do the job really good. they eat all the goop from the decorations and from the sides of the tank. they are not that pricy but you can get 2 of them. you don't want to many because they do get big. just be careful not to add anymore fish to the tank because you will over crowd your tank and you will have to clean more often and your fish will start to beat each other up. if you get the plecos get them small, but eventually you will have to go bigger then the 60 gal tank. the angel fish you have will out grow that tank soon, they can get to be the size of silver dollars.

i own a pet store and i took over all the fish that were in the tanks had to be put in different tanks because they were either in the wrong size or there were to many in the tanks. i had fish that were beating each other up, and also they can get sick from to many fish in one tank. good luck