Fish Eating Poop

[Clownfish_Boy]

Does anyone else here have a fish that eats turds ? Twice I have seen the coral beauty eat a piece of turd ! I have never seen this happen before, normally when a fish mistakenly tries to eat a turd it will realiz that it is not food and spit it back out. Not this Coral Beauty, he swallows the confounded things !

 

[vetteguy53081]

Not abnormal and they usually spit it out. This is one effective way corals are fed as it is distrubuted throughout tank. If the poop has algae in it, coral beauty may retain what is undigested- Ewww, but nature.

 

[ClownWrangler]

Does anyone else here have a fish that eats turds ? Twice I have seen the coral beauty eat a piece of turd ! I have never seen this happen before, normally when a fish mistakenly tries to eat a turd it will realiz that it is not food and spit it back out. Not this Coral Beauty, he swallows the confounded things !

I've have goldfish in a bare bottom tank that is always perfectly clean without any vacuming. They just eat their poop and recycle it again and again until there is no waste left except what eventually disintegrates and ends up in the filter. I have some clown fish and a flame angel pair in 3, 10 gal bare bottom QT tanks waiting for a new home to be set up and never see any poop in spite of feeding them every day. I think some fish are just really efficient at processing and recycling food.

 

[Dbichler]

My desjardini tang(crop duster)poops so much that every fish tastes it and spits it back out.

 

[MickeyR]

When my tang poops its a party and then everyone gets hung over and pukes it back out, gross but funny every time the kids or friends are over and they see it in action

 

[Dana Riddle]

It's called coprophagia and is quite common, at least in my years of observing coral reef fishes in Hawaii - they don't spit, they swallow!

 

[George81]

my powder brown tang is a serial poo eater. It’s own and others.

 

[HB AL]

Some fish love others fish poop and that can't be changed. Also if fish are underfed they will eat what they can and fish poop would be on the menu but in that instance they are just really hungry and most of those times they will spit it out when they figure out it was a turd and not food.

 

[G Santana]

My desjardini tang(crop duster)poops so much that every fish tastes it and spits it back out.

Hysterical

 

[G Santana]

Saw my yellow tang take a dump today and take a bite out of it, my 8 yr old daughter was grossed out then we both laughed.

 

[davidcalgary29]

This is like a confessional thread! I watched, amazed, this morning as one of my orchid dottybacks pooped directly in front of my diamond goby, which immediately swam over and ate the poop. No spitting. It was both fascinating and gross.

 

[saltybees]

 

[UkiahTheTurtle]

My clowns poop then put it in their mouths then spit it out and then put it in their mouth again and repeat with out the pooping part.

 

[N.Sreefer]

Recycled food! My mollies eat eachothers poop, after being passed a couple times youd think there would be no nutrition left in it.

 

[ca1ore]

When my chevron was a juvenile, it subsisted primarily on hippo poop .... has since broadened its diet to include unicorn poop.

 

[G Santana]

My yellow tang will scoff his poop as well as the purple tangs poop.
When the yellow tang gets too close to the purples tail, he gets chased.

The purple tang has too much class to eat poop.

 

[SenorCappuccino]

I'm ashamed of my underwater kids. They tend to do that.