just wondering if anyone else has a problem with the waste from big fish? in my oscar tank i get a heap of poo on the gravel.

what is a way i can help reduce this as after a week its so bad?

:lol:

Dont get Plecos then.. they are the original poo machines !

I think you just have to break out the gravel vacumn a bit more often. I vacumn my tanks every week or so while doing a partial water change and everything stays fine. Bigger fish you may need to do it more often.

Cheers

Ian

That is so easy.

Don't feed it.

Problem solved.

Saves money too.

haha @ Alan. i hand feed my suvatii puffer worms and he normally spits little pieces out when he is chewing. i have a fluval 4 plus in his 3 ft tank and i do a good 30% waterchage plus syphon weekly

I was going to say the same as Alan - don't feed it :lol:

Big fish produce more poo and if you want messy ones like oscar you need to get used to cleaning it out.

yeah i have a redspot plec. i do weekly water change/gravel syphon weekly change about 30-40%, also has a large sump.

they only get feed 1-2 times a day they just poo like crazy, and it just sits on the bottom and looks horrible

Well i have a huge pleco, oscar and knife fish and they are dam messy. I do a 30% water change every week(vac all the water out with the poos). Was thinking of using a under gravel filter. Next tank i have will have one built into the bottom and make it so i can suck from under the substrate.

does anyone use ug filters anymore ?? big cannister usually does the trick , or sump

i got a new tank the other day(just a small one for my wcmm

and i came with a ug filter seems to be working well

I actually find its my plecos that do all the poo. They're little poop machines.

But good filtration, and weekly gravel vacs, not a problem. If they're super-poopers you may want to look at what you're feeding them. We've got 5 oscars, 3 adult severums, and 2 plecs in a 650L tank, no poop problems, you get the occasional floater from the plecos but never had a problem with oscar poop?? Oscars the big problem seems to be keeping the food in their mouth.

I wouldn't recommend an undergravel filter for a heavy load tank like that. We use a single external filter (1200L/hr) and two internals pumping 1000 each for extra flow. Undergravels are great until that one day where they clog up and stop flowing and you have a bit of a bacterial disaster going on (Note a problem for small tanks with clean fish)

Oscars and large plecs don't mix well with plants. I think people often get too excited about removing gunk. I remove it every few months and usually just do water changes and clean the glass.

Agree with the others about plecs- its just what you have to live with if you want them or any other large messy fish, feeding it less to stop it pooping isnt fair on the animal, its not like they do it to spite you :lol:

In my 460L i have an Oscar, Sev, 3 silver dollars, a common and a RT black shark and i do 50% or so weekly with a decent vac. I may not *need* to do such large w/c's but i do just because- clean water means happier fish.

I would also steer clear of UG filters with oscars in a tank (or other fish that dig)- they dig 90% of the time and that will render it nearly useless. Personally i would prefer to remove that waste than waiting for it to break down slowly.

does anyone use ug filters anymore ?? big cannister usually does the trick , or sump

Sump is where its at! No other way to filter a big tank IMO, increases the system volume, easy to incresae flow and surface area, airates the water better than a canister and is so easy to clean - throw away old filter wool, insert new filter wool, done.

As for the big poo's, make sure you have good water circulation so they get sucked up rather than accumulating in dead spots, and/or do more regular water changes.

make sure you have good water circulation so they get sucked up rather than accumulating in dead spots, and/or do more regular water changes.

That's what I was going to say - if you have a filter where you can adjust the direction of the water flowing into the tank, experiment with it so the water is circulating all around and stirring up the rubbish on the gravel.

You'll soon find the best position for your particular layout depending on positioning of your hard elements (rocks, wood) and your plants. It might also help to rearrange these a little so the current can get around them and pick up the poop.

That is so easy.

Don't feed it.

Problem solved.

Saves money too.

yeah thats it, if you dont eat you dont poo, & if you dont poo you die....... Hmm, maybe not the effect we are lookig for due to the $ we have spent to try to keep em alive

I was really paranoid about the faeces on the gravel when I first started to keep fish. i almost turned myself inside out with stress worrying about it. I posted about it here, everyone said that it is not a problem at all. since then (8 months give or take) i have not vacumed the gravel, bout the only poo cleaning done is when i fill the tank with the hose the filter sucks up abit of the stirred up stuff.

You guys are crazy, how can you not love bright red oscar poops on dark grey gravel? :lol: