Fish pooping problem

DEmeant0r

Here's my problem, my tropical fishies are pooping alot, and well the "cleaner" fish isn't really cleaning well. There about 10 small 6 small fish and about 4 big fish in a small-medium tank, I only feed them once every two days, is this normal and is there a way to combat this? My filter doesn't really seem to be doing a good job, and I do try to change the water once every week if I can, but I'd prefer if they didn't **** as much.

Nala

You might have too many fish in your tank, or you might need a stronger filter. Check out

here

and

here

whiteshadow

hi,

how often do you clean the tank?

how much water do you change when you clean it?

and what apparatus do you use to change the water?

DEmeant0r

whiteshadow wrote:

hi,

how often do you clean the tank?

how much water do you change when you clean it?

and what apparatus do you use to change the water?

Sorry for digging up an old thread, still having fishy poopy problems

once a week

Anywhere between 30% and 40%

A bucket, a Syphon pump and then I add a few drops of the biological aquarium supplement and a few drops of Water conditioner

Should I clean it more often?

I think I give 'em too much food. About three big pinches of fish pellet food twice a day. Should I cut down on the quantity?

whiteshadow

cut down on the quantity and don't bother with the biological supplement
thats really only for treating a new tank...
also are you cleaning your filter once a month?
clean you sponges always in water taken from the aquarium and never from the tap
water.

the suckerfish will eat algae but not "poop"
feed a tiny bit every day instead of binge feeding every second day.

DEmeant0r

whiteshadow wrote:

cut down on the quantity and don't bother with the biological supplement
thats really only for treating a new tank...
also are you cleaning your filter once a month?
clean you sponges always in water taken from the aquarium and never from the tap
water.

the suckerfish will eat algae but not "poop"
feed a tiny bit every day instead of binge feeding every second day.

I actually clean the filter when I change the water, that's about once a week. Oh, I always cleaned the sponges with tap water. I'll clean it with water taken from the aquarium from now on. Hopefully it'll make a difference.

whiteshadow

ah-ha.. i'd say thats it to be honest,
you have loads of nitrifying bacteria that
live in the sponges of the filter, these need
to be kept alive to convert poop(ammonia) into nitrite then into nitrate
ammonia and nitrite are both very toxic to fish.
if you get a basin or a bag full of aquarium water
and squeeze out the sponges in that and then put them back in.
but you don't need to do this with every clean of the tank,
only every second/third time.

in your tank will settle down, probably in about a month or two.
and you should notice a big difference...

keep doing the weekly changes for the first month,
then maybe every 10 days/2 weeks from then on.
and until your filter matures a bit (gets a big culture of
the bacteria in it) i'd continue only feeding every second
day but only a bit, and always just a bit at a time.

you could get some cooli loach, they stay in the gravel most
of the time, similar to earthworms and keep it moving.

do you use a gravel cleaner on the end of your syphon.
its the best 10/20 euro you'll ever spend.

good luck and keep us posted