dots on glass

[biogirl361]

i have recently noticed some little white dots (looks like ich, only not on the fish) on the glass of the aquarium and on some of the plants. i have carefully inspected the fish and they are not on any of the fish. the fish are not acting strangely at all. any ideas what this could be? fish: one angelfish, 7 various tetras, and a couple of unidentified snails that prob came in on my plants.

 

[cushi272]

Sounds like baby snails, I'd suggest looking information up on them to see if that's your problem.

 

[Gettin' Tanked]

Although, I would not discount the possibility that your tank has ich. The organism that causes it can and will attach itself to the aquarium glass, plants, and/or substrate while waiting for the opportunity to attach itself to one of your fish.

 

[OrionGirl]

Can you provide a reference for that, please? The tomites which are free swimming will attach only to a host. The trophant forms only following attachment to a host. The cysts themselves have no mechanism for locomotion, so can't do more than fall out of the water current. The cysts do not 'wait' for a host--they incubate until hatching, releasing the tomites. Of these stages, the cysts stage is the only one which is visible to the naked eye, and the only one with no possible way to move or attach to anything.

Anything that's stirred up the substrate recently? Any plants? Do they move? There are a number of harmless micro fauna that occupy our tanks--though they can be ugly if they get out of hand. Normally, this only happens when the tank is fed too much or not cleaned enough.

 

[Gettin' Tanked]

My post was based on the following statement in "Tropical Fish Secrets" by Sean LeMay: "White spot disease (Ichthyopthirius multifiliis) is caused by a tiny organism
that starts with one fish, falls off and attaches itself to the tank glass or gravel, then grabs onto another fish and spreads to the entire tank." However, based on Orion's excellent explanation, I concede that I likely misinterpreted Mr. LeMay's statement.

My apologies - there was no intent on my part to be misleading.

 

[biogirl361]

i have been planting my tank recently, so i would say the substrate has gotten stirred up a bit. as far as i can tell the spots do not move. there are lots of them (if it was a disease i feel like it would be on the fish already since there are plenty of them on the glass). i have 5 or 6 plants that i have planted recently (within the last month) and the spots appeared only after i added the plants (i have never seen anyting like this before i did the plants). i don't think the tank is fed too much because my angelfish and tetras eat everything i put in there, very little goes to waste at the bottom, and i clean the tank twice a month. the tank looks dirty because a lot of algae has developed as i have been experimenting with fertilizers and lighting, but i do not think it is actually dirty.
i think you might have an idea there with the snail eggs (do snails even lay eggs?) however, i have not seen any baby snails, just the same 2 or 3 that came in with my plants, and if it is eggs then they have not hatched because they are still there (they have been there maybe 2 weeks). i also thought it might be fish eggs since my rasboras are always doing a funny looking dance together, but the spots are not clustered, they are randomly dispersed across the sides and back of tank, and no fish seem to be "guarding" them at all, andi have not seen any baby fish.

 

[OrionGirl]

What kind of snails? Pond snails (most likely hitch hiker) lay eggs in a mass--there will be a blob of jelly, and if you look close you can see individual sacs with a tiny dot in each one. Temp controls how fast they develop--a week or two wouldn't be too uncommon. Yours sound more like a discrete, single object, so unlikley to be a snail egg.

Most non-cichlids do not defend their eggs at all, just scatter them around and hope for the best. My cories will lay eggs in the manner you've described, just scattered all over. But, eggs wouldn't still be there 2 weeks later.

If it were my tank, I'd pull one out and examine it more closely.

 

[biogirl361]

as far as i can tell i have 2 snails and each is a different kind. they both have yellowish-clear shells. one is very small (~1mm) and looks like he has a shell that spirals out into a point. the second is larger (~5 mm) and his shell does not spiral out to a point, just spirals in to the same plane (does this description make sense? i would get a picture except that he is pretty small and i am not a good underwater picture taker and my camera does not have the option to turn off the flash). the dots are definitly not all in one mass. they are much too small to take one out and examine it more closely, and if i did take out out i would need a microscope to make out any details. like i said they are about the size of ich if not smaller.
do you think my rasboras could continuously lay eggs all over the glass, and whenever they hatch they get eaten before i see them, and then they lay more so i don't notice that some have dissapeared? i really wish i could take a pic of the spots for you but they would not show up in pictures bc they are too small.