Do your fish eat other fish's poop :P
- Thread starter Len
- Start date
I heve never seen my fish do this but.
When I worked in Alaska our chief engineer refused to eat Mahi Mahi when I cooked it. He claimed that as a Tuna fisherman off of the California/Mexico coast that whole schools of the fish would swarm around and eat the human poop when they pumped the tanks of the boat about 60 miles out to sea.
It must be that there are unused nutrients left in it that the animals are trying to utilize. Gross, never the less.
When I worked in Alaska our chief engineer refused to eat Mahi Mahi when I cooked it. He claimed that as a Tuna fisherman off of the California/Mexico coast that whole schools of the fish would swarm around and eat the human poop when they pumped the tanks of the boat about 60 miles out to sea.
It must be that there are unused nutrients left in it that the animals are trying to utilize. Gross, never the less.
Peeps, this is known as coprophagy, and is quite common in angelfish as well as other species. There are minerals that the fish obtain from fecal matter that occur in at least the same abundance as in non-poop food items. 
So the fish know exactly what their doing. This feeding pattern is often seen in Centropyge species, most notably acanthops and argi, but also larger species such as certain Holocanthus species (passer for instance).
It doesn't always manifest itself in captivity, but with regard to angels you're more likely to witness it with the smaller detrivore species mentioned above. It's sudden occurrence in a non-detrivore species may indicate some dietary deficiencies - that part us just speculation.
Jim
So the fish know exactly what their doing. This feeding pattern is often seen in Centropyge species, most notably acanthops and argi, but also larger species such as certain Holocanthus species (passer for instance).It doesn't always manifest itself in captivity, but with regard to angels you're more likely to witness it with the smaller detrivore species mentioned above. It's sudden occurrence in a non-detrivore species may indicate some dietary deficiencies - that part us just speculation.
Jim
JimM":20q4byx1 said:Peeps, this is known as coprophagy, and is quite common in angelfish as well as other species. There are minerals that the fish obtain from fecal matter that occur in at least the same abundance as in non-poop food items.
It doesn't always manifest itself in captivity, but with regard to angels you're more likely to witness it with the smaller detrivore species mentioned above. It's sudden occurrence in a non-detrivore species may indicate some dietary deficiencies - that part us just speculation.
Jim
I'm surprised you didn't mention Centropyge interruptus. A large part of its diet is the feces of zooplanktivorous fishes (like fairy wrasses), mostly lyretail anthias IIRC. From--
Moyer, J.T. & A. Nakazono. 1978. Population structure, reproductive behavior and protogynous hermaphroditism in the angelfish Centropyge interruptus at Miyake-jima, Japan. Japan. J. Ichthyol. 25: 25-39.
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