Which are the mucky ones? Light and heavy waste

[Maroonostrich]

Having a relatively small tank I want to make sure I do not stock it with heavy waste producers and ideally stick to 'clean' fish to keep it as well run as possible.

Can anyone pin point the worst 'messy' fish (heavy waste producers) to avoid and maybe compare with some of the light waste producers for me?

Does size of fish influence amount of waste produced? Are small fish less of a load per inch than large fish, or is that just not how it works?

Just curious, am a long way off stocking yet!

 

[boxman]

Pl*cos and alot of catfish produce lots of waste, puffers (obviously only on their own) are the worst I'm aware of. All fish produce waste.

I don't think it can just go on fish size as to the amount of waste produced although it may be in some cases.

If you overfeed you'll find your tank will have problems!! With regular water changes (every 2 weeks), syphons and testing your water quality regularly, not overstocking and having more than adequate filteration (cleaning that at least once a month in old tank water) you should be fine.

If you could give us an idea of the tank size, filteration and idea of stock or desired stock we can work from that!

 

[quintessential]

No food=no pooh
unfortunately it will also mean no fish

 

[CFC]

The fish that make the least mess are small omnivorous fish like tetras, small barbs, rasboros and corydoras. Avoid fish that are strictly herbivorous as these tend to eat huge ammounts of food due to their diets low protein content which is transfered into huge ammounts of waste, also fish which have strictly carnivorous diets should be avoided due to the high ammount of proteins released in their waste.