Fish Eating Poop

Clownfish_Boy · Dec 20, 2020

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 · Dec 20, 2020

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 · Dec 23, 2020

Clownfish_Boy said:
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 · Dec 23, 2020

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

MickeyR · Dec 23, 2020

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 · Dec 23, 2020

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 · Dec 26, 2020

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

HB AL · Dec 27, 2020

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 · Dec 27, 2020

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

Hysterical

G Santana · Dec 27, 2020

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 · Mar 16, 2021

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 · Mar 16, 2021

UkiahTheTurtle · Mar 16, 2021

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 · Mar 16, 2021

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

ca1ore · Mar 16, 2021

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

G Santana · Mar 16, 2021

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.