New(?) White Fungus/Mucus on glass

U

Unislash

AC Members
Nov 7, 2010
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Hello all,

I have an odd sort of fungus that I can't identify. I've attached a picture below.

It is kind of a white mucus like deal, and it is only growing on my glass. It has even grown a bit *under* the substrate, although still only on the glass. Whenever I rub it off, it always comes back two fold--again, only on the glass.

Another important thing to mention is that this is happening to my grow out tank, where I have around 50 baby egyptian mouthbrooders. Some are in the fry stage, having just been released a few days ago; the rest have been happily feeding on brine shrimp eggs and other frozen foods for about a month now. Anyway, the point is that I don't want to kill my fry nor my juveniles with whatever meds I use.

Any help identifying it and getting rid of it would be awesome!

Thanks guys :-)

Cheers,
Unislash

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If it's all on the glass (it might be the angle but in pic 2 it looks like there's a piece attached to the top leaf on the plant, up at the top of the pic) is there a chance you could just reach in and scrape it off by hand? Or with a utensil of some sort, I just mean mechanically.

agree that it would be unwise to swoop in with medications or other chemical treatment, in a fry tank. Unless it spreads to fish/fry, plants or otherwise seems to be doing harm you might just want to let it be and see if it goes away as mysteriously as it arrived.

And it may be the pics or it may be my eyes, but it looks purple to me rather than white. :)
 
Last night I did indeed go through and do a 50% water change (much to the dismay of all the fry and mamma :-p ), as well as scrape off as much of the stuff as I could (with my hands) into the siphon. Of course by the time I had woke up this morning about 50% of it was back, having grown back out from the substrate.

Oh, and it's just the picture; it's all on the glass and not on the leaves and it is definitely white. :-)

Any ideas or possibilities on identification would be great!

Cheers,
Unislash
 
Hey all,

I'm still struggling with this disease/infestation. The stuff just keeps coming back as soon as I take it out of the tank. Any help would be appreciated!

Cheers,
Unislash
 
Still working on keeping the fungus at bay; I do water changes every other day and scrape it off every night, but it's still coming back just as much as ever.

Help would be appreciated!

Cheers,
Unislash
 
Well I can't tell you what it is, but I would take the pic's and show them to a trusted lfs and see what they say, can't hurt. Are the fry and mom doing well? Hopefully it's nothing that's going to hurt them.
 
That's a good idea. I'll definitely be doing that.

The fry and mom are doing just fine, in fact mom is getting healthy enough to be put back in the main tank. She's becoming extremely colorful--I'm almost worried she might even be becoming a male! Which would suck.

The main thing about this infestation is it is so fast at regaining its losses. It literally takes it 12 hours to rejuvenate after i've scrapped it off. I'm afraid of it spreading at this rate, because if it does it would surely be over my entire tank in the timespan of a week.

Cheers,
Unislash
 
i've had the same thing happen when i have fairly newly set up tanks. it may be excess bio film (beneficial bacteria) building up due to the increased feeding that a fry tank would receive. the beneficial bacteria are playing catch up to keep up with the added ammonia that is being created by the multiple feedings? that's my theory. and if i am correct then it is perfectly harmless, just not nice to look at, and fry could be using it as a food source between feedings, picking at it.

if your fish are healthy and not showing any adverse effects from the 'gunk' then i'd just leave it be for the most part, and clear away whatever portion you want/need to see into the tank.
 
I agree with BettaFishMommy - if you're not seeing ill effects, and it's come on specifically in this fry tank with a new tank, then it's likely that it's just some kind of opportunistic bacteria. That would also explain why it grows soooo fast! Fungi just can't do that, haha.
The bacteria is probably helping to take up excess nutrients (aka pollutants) and provide a food source like mentioned. I wouldn't worry about it too much - you'll still want to clean your tank like usual, and probably remove some each time, but it's not going to be a make or break sort of deal.
 
Hey guys,

Thanks for the thoughts! I'm sure it is some sort of bacteria/fungus/algae (bacteria makes sense) that is feeding off of the extra bio--i'm just not sure if it is good or bad. I'm certainly not seeing any adverse effects, so that's cool, but the gunk isn't where my fry are being kept, so I doubt you'd see any bad effects anyway. I just don't want to allow it to get over by the fry because if it is a bad thing, there'd be no way to fend it off. Hopefully it's good bacteria; there certainly is a thin film of transparent stuff floating on the surface that i siphon off every few days.

I doubt it's considered a food source, as the stuff is over in the section of the tank where a hungry mamma is living and she hasn't touched it. Also, this tank is heavily planted and is nearly 3 months old.

Again, thanks for the help! I think i'll just carry on like I am. If anyone has any other thoughts, i'd love to hear them.

Cheers,
Unislash
 
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