Detrivores

[reefnewbie54321]

Had a discussion w/ my LFS about Detrivores and now I have a few questions.

Detrivores do eat detrius correct?

What do you consider good detrivores?

Do detrivores consume only detrius?

Would a detrivore create detrius itself (when it goes poop lol)

Would a detrivores poo be visible so I could siphon it out, would it float in the water colum becuase of its size, or would it turn into coral food?

[nterry]

By definition, detrivores eat detritus

Good detrivores: brittle stars are probably the most common. I have seen one of mine (black brittle) popping a piece of fish poop in its mouth. I like sea stars, even though they don't come out much during the day. Some authors say you can have up to 1 brittle star per 5 gallons of aquarium water. I personally ahve four or five in my 120, but could probably handle more.

Some snails are detrivores too, I think (nassarius). Sea cukes are also detrivores, but they can be a little problematic if you have the wrong kind. One rule of thumb I've heard is that if they are bland colored, they are OK for the aqarium, but as always, do species specific research before making purchases.

A detrivore will be a net decreaser of detritus (i.e. it eats more poop than it creates--it obviously needs to keep some energy to move, grow, etc). I was reading one article (on this board) that said the average piece of food needs to be eaten and reeaten seven times before it completely disappears from your system (but I belive this includes fish and bacteria consumption as well).

If you add extra food for the detrivore however, the net decrease rule will not be true, because you are probably adding more than it is eating.

[MAreefer]

Thanks for the input, makes alot of sense

Has anyone overstocked detrivores and ended up having alot of dead snails or stars munching on other stuff?

[reefnewbie54321]

whoops my friend still had his account logged in