Timesdragonfly

there are thin little "hairs" attched to the sides of Grim's tank, they are about half of an inch long, the appear to be whiteish/clearish. there are also tine white dots on the side of the tank without hairs. what is this?

Timesdragonfly

could the little dots be baby snails If so, it looks like i'm in trouble!

Phloxface

Sounds like planaria. They are harmless and fish will sometimes eat them. I'm not sure what causes this but I've had them in almost all my tanks. Just last night I had to remove Karma from her tank and empty about 99% of her water and scrub her rocks, vaccum her gravel and wipe down the sides of the tank to get rid of these disgusting things! I managed to rinse off her java fern but had to throw out the cabomba because I couldn't get it off that plant. Her tank was recently medicated with antibiotics and I've had the same thing happen when I've used these meds on my other tanks. Maybe that could be one reason...
Do a big water change and scrub the sides of tank and ornaments. Rinse any live plants. These things don't usually go away on their own. They tend to get thicker and more disgusting... *:P

chickadee

The dots could be snails but it is too soon to tell. The worm like things are probably as Phloxface said, planaria. The betta will eat them if that is what they are. It is true that all tanks get planaria and especially if the betta is overfed or medicated.

They are harmless, just give the fish a food source that we cannot control.

Rose

Timesdragonfly

i had the little worm things, that I thought were planaria... they wriggled and were free moving (not attached to the glass) are these the same? what I'm describing is attached the the glass at one end, and floating free on the other end. They just float in the water, they don't wriggle like the planaria did.

Phloxface

Sounds just like planaria. Some are attached, some are just floating and eventually you'll get clumps of slimy stuff that looks like someone blew their nose in there. :P

chickadee

It really sounds like Hydra...I am afraid you need to take your fish out of there and put him somewhere for a week while you run a 0.5% aquarium salt solution in your tank to clean them out. *(that is 5 level teaspoons of aquarium salt per gallon of aquarium water and is much too strong to leave him in) *You will have to leave the gravel, plants, decorations, and heater in the tank to get treated too. *It may kill the plants (probably will but if you keep them the infestation will just return) but that is probably where they came from anyway.

These parasites will probably not kill your betta but the treatment to get rid of them would be not good for him. *They also have stinging tentacles and can make the little guy very uncomfortable. *

When the salt solution has been in the tank for a week you will need to clean everything and reset the aquarium..the cycle will probably be okay with just a new filter media and a small mini cycle perhaps. *I am so sorry that this is happening to the folks on this board now. *I wish I knew what the problem is with this now. *To have two reported cases of it in such a short time doesn't bode well.

Rose

LZ Floyd

Wonder if this site helps in the identification of hydras v. planaria: http://www.fishpondinfo.com/micro.htm

Mike

Timesdragonfly

well, what i have do not look quite like the photo, but then again I don't have a microscope! I've seen planaria before, and I don't think that is what this is. I think it is the hydra

Is there any kind of alegae that could be growing like i've described?

I've done a little research and the products Dactycid and Flubenol have come up as effective in killing hydra (they are also very harmful to snails wich could help me too) what are your thoughts about using one of theses instead of salt? I can still put grim in another tank for a while during the treatment.

LZ Floyd

Though it doesn't help right now, you might want to pick up a magnifying glass.* I have one I purchased at Radio Shack that has a light in it to illuminate whatever's being looked at.* It also has a small mega-magnifier embedded in the lens to really get an up-close look at things.* It's helped me get a better look at the fin rot on GB.*

He does go crazy sometimes, though, when I pull the thing out and am looking at him.* Maybe what he sees is my great big magnified eye staring at him.* *

Mike

chickadee

He does not like being scrutinized that carefully... They get a little skittish about things that look odd to them and he is probably just being a normal betta. It means he is not feeling bad and that is a blessing.

I think you can used one of the other preparations if you would rather. The big issue is what to do with Grim while you are doing it as you cannot transfer the filter and heater with him. He will need to be in a heated tank or bucket though now he has gotten used to warm water, he will get finrot or one of the cool water diseases even more easily. I am so sorry to have to give you all this bad news in one day. I would rather not most days tell people things that are going to amount to work for them, but I know you all want to do the best for your fish.

There are algaes like hair algae that can cause the type of thing you are talking about. If you want a comprehensive artice on algae...here is one. The hair algae is usually dark in color though.

http://www.plantgeek.net/article_viewer.php?id=9

Please do keep us informed on how things are going. I do worry about all the little fish on this board and the owners too. Take care.

Rose

Timesdragonfly

Grim and Billy are going to come home with me for a week while I treat the tank. I'm going to get a tank divider for my ten gallon (currently home to two young mollies and a small cory cat). Right now the mollies are about 3/4 of an inch each and the corry cat is about an inch and a half... so if you add grim and billy (the otto) that makes about 7 inches total... it wouldnt' work long term, but it will certainly be fine for now. I'm afraid Grim would go after the little mollies, or I'd not mess with the divider at all.... that tank is heated and filtered and cycled even !!!

chickadee

They should be snug as two little bugs in a rug. It will be a perfect solution. Thanks for letting us know and please keep us informed of the progress on the tank. Since we have now had a couple reports of Hydra, it would be a good thing I think to let folks know how you handle them.

Rose