Questions about "messy feeders"

ichthyogeek · Oct 18, 2020

What exactly does it mean for a fish to be a "messy" feeder? I'm looking at dwarf lionfish, and I keep seeing things about them being "messy feeders". Does that mean they're just large waste producers? Or do they chew up their food and some of it gets blasted past their gills?

If the latter, are there any fish that work well at eating up the scraps? Or would hermit crabs/Nassarius snails be better?

Hugh Mann · Oct 18, 2020

I'm guessing it means they produce a lot of waste. Before velvet killed it, my dwarf lion ate mollies whole. Not a lot of mess there. To my knowledge, they swallow all their food whole.

My eel on the other hand, shreds it's food, scraps everywhere, huge mess. My hermits and nassarius clean it up pretty well.

lion king · Oct 18, 2020

Yeah lionfish are not messy eaters, they eat everything whole with one slurp. Eels can be messy but you can mitigate that by cutting food into smaller chunks and not feeding so fast. Also target feeding, not dropping food into the tank expecting eels to go and get it; you think that is common knowledge, but it is not.. Nassarius snails are the best cuc for eels, they are so ridiculous.