Need help... new to fish

[Stefanie]

Hi All,
I am new to having fish, and I finished cycling my tank (ammonia at 0 and nitrites at 0). I put my first fish in about two weeks ago...
Yesterday I noticed white dots on the glass in the tank, and I checked my book for ich... none of my fish have white dots, though. I tried scraping one of them off the glass and they are very hard. Today I saw that they somehow dissolved except the outer ring... Is this just a mineral deposit or something to worry about?
I also saw long gelantine like masses above the water surface... could this be from snails? And can I leave them in?
On top of all, my heater just broke a few minutes ago, and I can not buy one until tomorrow (all stores closed!). Will they survive the night? What can I do to help them???

Sorry for all these questions, I am very worried about my fish.
Any help is greatly appreciated.

Stefanie

[Mako]

Heater---- most fish that you're likely to have (other than discus) can handle low 70's for a day or so, or longer, but I'd get a heater in there ASAP. Not exactly an ambulance caliber emergency, though. If you jack your house temp up to 75 or higher, you tank will stay in the safe zone (and your family may roast, I hate a house over 75).

As far as the white deposits, you have me stumped. Could be mineral deposits. In saltwater, this happens a lot, but it is a tiny worm making a tiny coiled calcium carbonate tube to live in. I've never heard of a fw counterpart to these tubeworms. DEFINITELY not ich, so breath easy. The white part you see on ich is largely fish puss, the same gunk that human zits are loaded with. The fish's immuno-defense is trying to fight it off, circling it with white blood cells (the puss).

The gelatinous masses are likely snail eggs. I recommend you scrape them off with a razorblade or credit card (then shred the credit card with the razorblade, you didn't need it anyway ;) ). Snails are neat to have for scavenging but can become a plague. If you tank gets loaded with them, you run the risk of a snail die-off polluting your tank horribly (treat the tank with a copper-based medication one time and you'll find out what I mean). One snail per 3-5 gallons if they are bigger than a marble is a good rule.

[redbucket]

set your home/apartment/whatever heater to 80 degrees for the night and they should be fine. your spouse, parents, kids, roomates, or whoever else is around may not like it, though =] it wouldn't hurt to check on them every few hours.

no clue on the white tank spots, i'll leave that to the more experienced

[Stefanie]

Thank you very much for your fast help...
I just turned up the heat in the house :D
and my husband will go and buy a new heater in the morning... he can go to work late.
My dogs and cat will probably like the warm house, although I hate it... I usually turn the heat down to 63 degrees over night...
I am glad it is not ich... I am a little paranoid, I guess. I just do not want to lose any fish and I want to do everything right... I really like them. And since I had never really seen ich except on pictures, I googled "white dots in fish tank" after consulting my book and found all those horrible things about ich...