what the.....?!?!?

sumoschro

sumoschro

Gold Thunder
Aug 16, 2003
346
0
0
40
Portland, Oregon
All of a sudden this morning i woke up to find this white, thready fungus looking stuff on the bottom of my aquarium. It looks like little threads of cotton, but its on about 1/3 of my gravel and is attached to my piece of driftwood as well. Can anybody help me I.D. this stuff and tell me what to get rid of it with? thanks:)
 
Also another thing: Does anybody have any pics of hydra, as far as what they look like from a distance, like if i were to look at my aquarium right now, because when i do a google search all i come up with are either pictures of the mythical beast or closeups, which really dont help at all. I will watch my gourami tonight and see if he eats this stuff, because in that case it very well could be hydra.
 
Sounds like Hydra

Hydra generally bloom in a tank that has been prone to overfeeding. My plec seems to enjoy nibbling on them when there is a small bllom. You can treat it with a myriad of products but it is usually cheaper to perform a partial water change (ensure you clean the gravel well) and reduce the amount of food your feed your fish for a short time.
Also, run a search on Hydra and you should get some pretty good ideas.
 
It looks like you have Epistylis which is a protozoan. I had it in my tank and it covered pretty much everything. It may be harmful for your fish because it can attach to them and cause irritation on the skin and secondary infections. However it didn't cause any problems in my tank and just died off by itself. I did treat the tank with Clout tablets but it didn't kill off all of them, however I think it did help get rid of them eventually.

Read my original posts on the problem here: http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3728
 
now im split over whether it is hydra or if it is this protozoan alex is talking about. However what Alex is talking about sounds exactly like what i have, so i will do a water change tomorrow and even though I only feed my fish once a day anyway, ill lower the amount a bit, maybe stop feeding them tubifex worms or something like that. Anyway thanks for the help....At least it wasnt something serious:p
 
I think if you had hydra and so many of them, you'd already know it by the look of your fish ... or the lack of thereof :)

Anyway, I have a microscope, so it's easier for me to identify the beast. I must also mention that the "tree-like" protozoan is always in my tanks. When I take a sample of a plant leaf or smear from the glass, I always see the collapsing branches of the animal. But it's when they bloom that you can easily notice them with your eye. I'm sure that the balance in your tank will establish and most of the protozoans will die off by themselves.

Also, hydra gets really big, much larger than those protozoans, so I think you won't confuse the two.

Anyway, keep us posted on your developments.
 
I vaccuumed the gravel today and sucked a bunch of it up. Except the stuff that didnt is now floating freely in the tank. Hopefully this will clear up soon. I thiknk this all came about because i started feeding my fish tubifex worms last week,(I got a jar of them in my stocking, hehe) every other day. I dont know if they stuck to the side like they should have though, and maybe the fish never ate them all. Any way, I'm going to stop feeding them these until the mess clears up, and prrobably after that as well. Maybe i should break up the cubes and just feed them with the flakes?
 
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