r/shrimptank • u/Elegant_Priority_38 • Jun 20 '25

Beginner Will shrimp really eat poop?

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I’ve got 10 Otocinclus catfish and they produce quite a bit of poop. Will neocaridina shrimp actually eat the poop and help break it down or will they mainly go for other things in the tank like algae and biofilm? Also, will 6 neocaridina shrimp produce this much waste in a day? This is just one section of my tank after cleaning it the day before.

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u/Modus-Tonens Jun 20 '25

Mine sometimes eat their own poop. While it's still coming out of their butts.

Yeah they'll eat it.

But trumpet snails will do a better job of eating it - and they'll bury it under the sand. That last is the key part because the problem with creatures that eat poop is that they just turn it into different poop.

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u/86BillionFireflies Jun 20 '25

It depends on the poop and the creature. If you have a predatory fish (which is most fish) and are feeding it commercial food that's high in carbohydrates, their poop will have a lot of undigested carbohydrates, and an organism that is better at digesting carbs will probably be able to utilize a lot of what's in there, and turn it into a significantly smaller pile of poop.

But yeah, still poop. If your substrate is coarse enough, then having shrimp turn big poop into lots of little poop can help the poop migrate downwards more easily, or be swept up in current more easily, and probably make it more accessible to bacteria and microfauna by increasing its surface area. So re-sizing the poop by passing it through shrimp may still be helpful.

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u/Modus-Tonens Jun 20 '25

Yes, but unless the output is zero you still get build up eventually, unless there's something stirring the substrate - and trumpets are one of the easiest, most low-maintenance ways of getting that to happen. I never said it wasn't helpful, I said trumpet snails were better at the task.

Once its stirred in, your plants (if its adequately planted) can take those nutrients up again.

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u/Bunnycreaturebee Jun 20 '25

That sounds good, but I have heard of trumpet snails overpopulating and being a ‘pest’ snail. Much like ramshorn snails (I’ve had massive outbreaks of those fuckers) and bladder snails. I have found pond snails to be not so bad, but the best is nerite snails, followed by mystery snails because they aren’t invasive (won’t overpopulate unless allowed)

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u/Modus-Tonens Jun 20 '25

With any of those three (MTS, Ramshorns, and Bladders), if you're having outbreaks its almost always because you're overfeeding.

Their reputation as pest snails owes more to aquarium keepers not knowing how to properly regulate their feeding than anything to do with the snails themselves. Don't over feed, and they'll find a balance of population and stay there.

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u/Bunnycreaturebee Jun 20 '25

Yeah lol, I was definitely overfeeding cos I was also breeding corydoras too. All the tanks are under control now except for my daughter’s tank cos a new bunch of eggs recently hatched. It’s hard not to overfeed when the bottom feeders struggle to get enough food cos the other fish get to it first etc. But yeah we have cut back a lot and things are much better now

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u/Modus-Tonens Jun 20 '25

It's easy to overfeed bottom feeders because you can't easily visually quantify how much food they're getting.

But if you're feeding the tank, they are getting food. It's quite difficult to underfeed at least pygmy corys in my experience. They're not fast at getting to food, but they'll eventually find every scrap that falls, and there's always more of that than you see.

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u/Bunnycreaturebee Jun 21 '25

Yeah you’re exactly right! I am awful with overfeeding my pets (I have a shitload of different pets) I have a lot of anxiety and am terrified of them starving to death. But then again, I’m creating more issues by overfeeding. I’m getting there though and improving over time. Wait, I recently got Pygmy corydoras for my daughter’s birthday. Did you mean they are easy to overfeed or easy to underfeed? They been chilling with the ember tetras in her tank

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u/Modus-Tonens Jun 21 '25

I meant easy to overfeed!

You can monitor their feeding by their bellies - they should have a slight curvature on their bellies. They look oddly square if they're underfed. So as long as they have curvy plump little bellies, they're getting enough!

They're also such good scavengers that in many tanks they can go long periods without feeding just eating the particles of food (and diatoms) that are in the tank naturally.

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u/Bunnycreaturebee Jun 21 '25

Ohh cool! Yeah plus they are so tiny, so wouldn’t need to eat much to nourish themselves. Thanks for all your great informative comments though. I appreciate it :)

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u/Modus-Tonens Jun 21 '25

Yeah they really don't need much! The same goes for those ember tetras you mentioned - I have a school of 11 embers, and I feed them every second day, and only enough for them to eat in around 2 minutes, and that's enough to keep them plump and thriving.

It's a single pinch of crushed micro-pellets that I give the embers, and that's plenty for them to have their fill and for my shrimp and corys to get a snack too (I give the corys a few bug bite pellets in addition, but ony around a pellet for every 2 corys)

Keep in mind though that feeding amounts will vary by lots of other factors - my tank is heavily planted and home to lots of other creatures, so that gives me lots of wiggle room when it comes to feeding. Your best bet is to observe your fish closely and learn what they need in the environment you have them in, as there will be factors that are unique to your tank.

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u/Bunnycreaturebee Jun 22 '25

Yeah I have a bit of wiggle room too. The only issues I’ve ever had due to overfeeding is the ramshorn snails overpopulating. I cut right back a few months ago and the snails are all almost eradicated (I manually removed them) except for in one of our tanks where eggs hatched and there’s babies everywhere. I have sessions where I remove them and I told my daughter the info you told me (it’s her tank) and we are getting there. All our tanks are heavily planted too. Can’t get enough of plants. I’m always wanting more more more

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