Amount of waste

[rohnds]

Do fishes that swim faster and more active produce more waste than ones that are very docile.

Is this true? I can't find scientific article on this.



Rohn

 

[exhumed07]

well in a sense it would seem to be correct. look at rabbits. constantly going and fast metabolism. constantly poop lol. but u take a cat. bigger animal but not quite as high strung don't poo as much. but that may also be because of diet. it is a nifty question though

 

[FishDad]

What about plecos? They don't move a whole lot but poop more than my 2 month old kid.

 

[OrangeCones]

Diet has a lot to do with the amount of waste. Meat eaters have less, omnivores have more than meat eaters, and those the munch on veggies exclusively, have the most.

 

[FishDad]

Makes sense.

 

[Rotaripsnoc]

GSP have a very large bio load for their size, and they are carnivore, however that is likely an exception, the more fiber one consumes the more one produces ...

 

[OrangeCones]

The bioload for a lot of carinvores is overstated usually, as the decay of 'parts' of their meals is not factored out (uneaten bits that are not removed and will decay).

 

[Persistency]

Diet has a lot to do with the amount of waste. Meat eaters have less, omnivores have more than meat eaters, and those the munch on veggies exclusively, have the most.

This makes sense. It's the same for humans that go vegetarian.

 

[rohnds]

Interesting, waste produce by carnivore and omnivore can be different produce size of the fish is same.

Something I have to look into.


Rohn

 

[FishDad]

You're going to look into poop?

 

[rohnds]

You're going to look into poop?

By nature and by job, I am scientist. I would rather see hard data and fact in front me rather than speculation.

Here is what I have learned so far. Carnivore are less active than Herbivores; and Omnivore are somewhere in the middle. Since Herbivore are the most active, they produce more waste than Omnivore and Carnivore the least.

This is scientific fact for mammals and most animals. I simply transposed the theories from mammals to fishes.
Again, there are exception to every rule.
There is hardly any scientific articles or fact on aquarium fishes.

Would love to see this experiment carried out by placing each types in an identical tank and measuring NH3, NO2 and NO3 level produced.



Rohn

 

[FishDad]

Thats cool. Makes sense, your post are very scientific. I somewhat of a movie fan, so excuse me, but you are conjuring a memory of Jurassic Park when the paleantologist chick had her arm shoulder deep in dino dung and the Goldbloom says "That is one big pile of sh*t"

Or when jackasses like me give you a jibe you could pull a Bill Murray from Ghostbusters... "Back off man. I'm a scientist."

There is hardly any scientific articles or fact on aquarium fishes.

Maybe you could write the first one and post it her on the forum.

 

[rohnds]

Maybe you could write the first one and post it her on the forum.

I will leave that for the someone that has a lot of money and time on their hand.
Something I don't have either off.


Would be nice experiment. Setup two identical (as close to as you can get). The add 6 carnivore in one of medium body size and 6 herbivore in one of medium body size and then measure NH3 and NO3 level every week.
Whatever you do to one tank must be carried out on the other including feeding and amount, water changes and etc.

Then setup a control experiment by setting my another 10 gal of identical setup and mix of 6 fishes and measure their waste. And see if there is really in difference.



Rohn

 

[OrangeCones]

In a cycled tank, you would only see a possible difference in nitrates, as the beneficial bacteria will have converted the ammonia to nitrite, and the nitrite to nitrate.