Scavengers?

Question

I heard that you don't count scavengers in the load for your tank. That you only count the normal fish, is this true?

I meant scavangers such as shrimp etc. the inverts.

I know there isn't anything such as a scavenger fish..I feed my corydora cats a mix of spirulina and tropical flakes with wafers. I'm pretty sure the shrimp will eat the same plus some of the bio from the fish. I also have two bubblers and a good filter to add oxygen to the water. But someone told me that shrimp and true bottom feeding scavengers don't count toward your bio in the tank. That didn't make sense to me, thus why I'm asking.

Answer 1

They still add to the bioload - they eat and poop, plus they take in dissolved oxygen. Maybe maybe they don't add as much as a fish does, but they still contribute.

Answer 2

There's no such thing as a scavenger fish each fish fills different niches in the aquarium but one should not rely on a particular type of fish to just scavenge, and to get back to your question do these so called scavenger fish not breath the same oxygen as the rest. Include your bottom feeders cat fish algae eaters pleco's what ever you want to put in the scavenger category into your equation otherwise two things will happen.

a. your tank will become toxic due to overloading and you'll loose the lot
b. your (scavengers) cats, pleco's etc will die through lack of food as your not providing for those bottom fish in the correct way.

I'm not trying to pick a fight here, however, in my largest tank there's 15/30 platties and 15 Siamese algae eaters 4 bristle nose cats, 5 whiptails as far as I'm aware of they re there for a purpose and not to scavenge, its a planted tank and i want to keep control of algae from getting too much, Ive 6 clown loach to control any snail infestation. but they all get fed greens, and wafers, blood worm and there's wood for the odd L cat which is a requirement, now if they don't count i can fit at least another 8 or 10 adult discus or maybe 100 cardinal tetras, count everything. fish is a fish

Answer 3

They still count.

They poop just like fish.


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