Poop!! Sorry but have a question...

[barkmanusd]

I have 2 approx. 75 gallon discus tanks. Had discus for over 10 years and they are all healthy and doing well. (Some are older but solely from Kenny in the last 3 years or so.)

As they are healthy I don't think about their poop very much. But in the last year I switched to sand and introduced Freeze dried black worms. (They also get beef heart & Tetra color granules).

I usually think of fish poop being long and stringy...close to the color of ther food. But I've noticed small round black pellets recently. They are larger than a sand grain...maybe a litte bigger than a grain of rice on average. They tend to be heavy enough to make wand siphonng them out pretty difficult.

I did a major claning yesterday including the Rena cannister filter. I was thinking maybe they were remnants from an old charcoal 'bag'. I no longer use charcoal just Purigen & Matrix. The cannister had no black pellets or loose charcoal. But the pellets are back today. I've neve seen a fish pass these.

This is appearing in both tanks so I think it must be just the normal fallout from the FDBW....? Any thoughts or guesses?
To be clear, this isn't a problem and the fish love the FDBW...just curious.

Thanks in advance!

[Madaboutdiscus]

Looks perfectly normal to me. Stringy poop in discus is usually bad especially if its white.

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[Ryan]

The same thing happens to me with most cichlids, not just discus. I usually end up siphoning them out with just the hose. Take the larger vacuum tube off; the more narrow hose creates a stronger vacuum and sucks them right up (hint: it's also good for removing stray sand/grit from a bare bottom tank). In your case it's probably going to suck up some sand with it.

I have no idea if it comes from poop (I'm assuming so) but I don't think it's indicative of a problem. It's just a pain to siphon out.

[plecocicho]

Sometimes discus ingest few sand grains togehter with food. Didnt know about it, until i checked their feaces under the microscope and found small sand grains in their poop.

[barkmanusd]

Thanks guys! I've learned not to sweat things if there isn't a problem but I was just curious. I'll try vacuuming without the attachment...might work. Really trying to find a strainer of some sort that would allow sand to pass thru but not the poop. Haven't found one yet but the seach continues! Thanks again

[strawberryblonde]

I call the small black pellets "cement poops" because they ingest some sand grains, and it makes the poops small, though dark, and heavier than normal. If they sit in the tank for a full 2 days (big tank only gets a 90% WC every 2 days) those suckers can be too heavy for the siphon to pick them up..hence "cement poops". LOL

They are normal. =)