Ich on plants?

[GrandeEsteban]

Out of curiosity, I am starting to notice some tiny white spots on some of my driftwood and a couple plants in both my tanks. This happened simultaneously in both within a few days of each other and all parameters are fine, completely stable and fish show no signs of any illness or funny behaviour for about a week now. Do you have any ideas what this could be? Thanks

Steve

[rob_hoosier]

How large are the spots? Sometimes you may develp cotton like spots around entire tank (usually attaching to plants and equipment inside). Usually it's a sign of bacterial outbreak. Try cleaning the gravel first and partial water change won't hurt either. I had these issues long time ago when I had my first ever tank. The fish should be fine unless their immune system is weakened by other factors. Once again, from my experience it is a tank maintenance issue which can be easily taken care of. By the way...I usually noticed drastic PH swing (the reading would drop as much as .5 pts within 24 hrs). This of course was caused by worsening water condition and insufficient buffering levels in my water. Check you KH values and PH values and see if your PH is at your usual range.

[rob_hoosier]

I just realized that you said, it happened in both of your tanks. In this case, the chance of this being caused by tank maintenance is not likely. You probably know that ich cysts do attach themselves to gravel and other objects in their dormant stage. I don't know what kind of substrate do you have in your tank, but they prefer to attach themselves to light color gravel and objects over darker colors. If you have dark gravel, this may explain why they attach themselves to the driftwood and or plants.
Most probable reason for outbreak in both of your tanks at once is the usage of the same cleaning equipment( e.g. algae scraper) and/or fish nets. However, making sure that in fact this is an ich problem will elminate unnecessary treatments which are always quite stressful to fish. If possible, try to dislodge and "fish out" few of those "spots" and examine them. If they have cotton-like appearance, the first of my advices would apply.
Good luck!

[wetmanNY]

No, these aren't Ich. Ich is a microscopic single-celled critter, only visible in the late stage of its attached phase on the fish.

The white cottonly tufts are likely to be Saprolegnia "fungus" (it's a watermold, actually) attached to wood. Probably the wood is a recent addition. Soon algae and other biofilm will pretty much crowd it out.

Yes, it's the same Saprolegnia that causes "mouth fungus" when it attacks dying tissue that's part of the live fish.

[BluEyes]

wait, are they fuzzy spots, or hard?
If they're hard, I'd suspect biogenic decalcification. Basically, the plants aren't getting enough CO2, so to meet their carbon demands, they break down the carbonate and bicarbonate in the water. What is left behind is bits of calcium on the leaves.
Other symptoms would be decreasing KH, and increasing pH

[GrandeEsteban]

Sorry for the late reply in getting you all info...haven't been around the computer lately. SO...let me fill you in. The white spots are really tiny and basically exist on the driftwood and on a few of the rock fixtures. By tiny I mean the tip of a needle tiny, you only notice them when you get up close to the glass. As for parameters , I haven't checked the KH and pH in the last two weeks as I do weekly 35-40% water changes on the larger tank with Rams and Neons in it and weekly 50% changes on the small 10 gal with my dwarf puffer in it. Every time I check the parameters its quite steady with little or no fluctuations in the KH and pH. Both tanks have been going for about 7-8 months now and all plants/fixtures have been in there for about the same amount of time, so I could rule that out I guess. Fish continue to be healthy and aren't acting weird or sickly. It doesn't seem to be a problem right now as they have been there for about 2-3 weeks now and no problems with the fish. Just wanted to get some input on whether this is something that I could watch out for or if I should possibly try something preventative here....thanks for you input!

steve

[wetmanNY]

BluEyes, you might have something there!

[GrandeEsteban]

The bio-decalc. sounds like about the right answer.....I don't use CO2 fert. so that could definitely be a plausible answer. Thanks for your input.

steve