voiceless_kat

Ok, I would like to run this past my fellow fish people. Way back, I posted about a small anemone in Neptune's tank which he loved to sleep on. Then I noticed the tentacles were covered with this clear/brown slimy stuff...it was all "wrapped" around the tips of the tentacle. I took it out, cleaned it, but replaced it with a new long tentacled anemone. This one looked cool as it moved with the water, but he really paid no attention to it. Yesterday, I noticed it too had brown, slimy algae wrapped around the tentacles at the tops, middle, bottom. ( Looks kind of like jelly??) This creepy stuff/algae is not on the heater/filter/bridge/gravel/thermometer/sides of tank.

Last night I was reading about fin rot on the web ( yet again) and it talks about how "bad bacteria" can perpetuate this condition.

I know this is some kind of algae, but it has crossed my mind that perhaps there is something in those soft rubbery tentacles that encourages this algae growth, and that perhaps that kind of algae is bad and contributing to the fin rot ( which heals/frays/heals/frays - always in the same places despite medicating).
Does anyone have any thoughts on this? I am not familiar enough with aquariums to know if there is good and bad algae, which could harbour bad bacteria??

So this morning, I pulled it out, replaced it with one of those fake smooth rock things with a hole for swimming through. Neptune just cracked me up, he kept swimming up to it, moving backwards, forwards again, and just circling. He gave it a couple of little flares, followed my coffee cup which I was moving around outside the tank, paused, and then swam through it. Then he turned around and went through it the other way. Every day something new...more to entertain us! I love these fish!!!


I digress....please share some thoughts?? Meanwhile, I am not returning anemones to the tank, ( despite how cool they are)he can sleep on one of his many leaves!!

Val

Terry

One of my tank buds at work has one of those soft artificial anemones and has the same problem. He has to take it out & scrub that stuff off & within a short time it comes back. No idea what it is - an algae, bacteria or just that soft rubbery material that it's made of degrading.

voiceless_kat

Exactly..when I removed the first one and scrubbed it and returned it to the tank, that was back within 2 days. My gut says that can't be good........

COBettaCouple

It must have something to do with the chemical composition of those tentacles.. some sort of reaction to water conditioner, fish waste, etc? the brown stuff couldn't be biotomes, could it?

voiceless_kat

what are biotomes

COBettaCouple

oops.. my bad.. typo city! diatoms not biotomes.. was i even awake when i typed that? :

voiceless_kat

LOL now I am going to say,what are diatoms?? I googled it and it is some kind of algae, the stuff in the tank was slimy & it was brown, but it wasn't growing anywhere else. I scrubbed the anemone all up when I removed it, the slime came off, but the tentacles are stained brown where it was. I think I am going to throw it out. Just seems weird,,Neptune is enjoying his "rock with hole" to swim through anyway.

COBettaCouple

yea, that's it.. brown algae. it's a sign of a cycled tank, i believe. Angel's tank has a little now since that tank got some algae while we were gone. Getting her a couple ottos if the store has any today.

voiceless_kat

Holy ...could that be true Neptune's tank cycled? Nahhhhhhh.....can't be. I think I scrubbed everything away yesterday then...and I took that anemone and the one before it out of the tank. Rose, if you are out there.............could this be?

betta couple.........from your lips to God's ears..............please say it is so..............nah...........I don't think so. I am doomed to have a never-cycled tank + fin rot fish??!!LOL

COBettaCouple

I hope it's true.. gave Angel her anemone today that we found in Denver and it seems that Aslan might have gotten fin rot AGAIN.. this time on his anal fin.

voiceless_kat

I hope Angel enjoys her anemone......... please post if you find that creepy stuff growing - it usually takes a couple weeks. The tips of the tentacles look like they are encases in clear jelly that is brown on the tentacle. It grew on both my long and short anemone and I removed both of them. Someone said they thought it could be slime algae, but when I read about, it didn't look the same.

Also wish you luck in treating Asian...it seems no one seems to win at treating fin rot - people ( including me) post that it is healed and then a week later that it has returned. Neptune's is always in the same spot. But he is a spitfire, so I just keep spending $$$, treating and enjoying him. Sounds like that is what you guys do also.

Good luck!! Val

COBettaCouple

So far Angel just nipped at the anemone a couple times when i put it in and for now is not paying it much attention. maybe all the changes to her tank today with a complete cleaning & changes to her decor & air bubbles.

If there's every a 100% cure med for fin rot, i'll have a shelf of the stuff at the house.. such a frustrating thing.