Help! Strange Granular Fungus In Tank!

I have had promblems with this before, lost to shrimp to it. Recently was away after couple days when I came back I noticed a large white clump of it behind a planter tryed to gravel vac it last night. Now today the entire tank is covered in it, fish seem to be fine, but my snail is staying near the top of the tank. Here are some photos of it:

Please help me identify it.

 

I’ve seen the one on the glass before, and have never been able to ID it. It seems to be a black hole on the web. I even had it in a quarantine tank once, from which most of my fish ended up dying. I posted about it here in fishlore and no one here knew it either.
My thought is it’s a fungus, and it’s secondary. Meaning it’s not dangerous itself, but it occurs and thrives in ‘poor’ conditions, which are potentially dangerous. But not necessarily in ways that show up through routine testing.
So without knowing more about the situation, I think you need to work on maintaining cleaner water. Up you water change frequency.
But again, this is all hypothetical, so please take it as an opinion, not gospel.

Edit: here’s my thread. Check the video about half way down page. Is this what you have?Help - SterbaI Dying Off In Quarantine

 

I’ve seen the one on the glass before, and have never been able to ID it. It seems to be a black hole on the web. I even had it in a quarantine tank once, from which most of my fish ended up dying. I posted about it here in fishlore and no one here knew it either.
My thought is it’s a fungus, and it’s secondary. Meaning it’s not dangerous itself, but it occurs and thrives in ‘poor’ conditions, which are potentially dangerous. But not necessarily in ways that show up through routine testing.
So without knowing more about the situation, I think you need to work on maintaining cleaner water. Up you water change frequency.
But again, this is all hypothetical, so please take it as an opinion, not gospel.

I think that's probably some what because I was gone for a while when I came back I checked the water quality and it wasn't great. So I did a bunch of water changes and cleaned filters. My main concern is, is this a harm less fungus or could it be something worse. Such as columnairus, just wanted to see if anyone had an idea as to what it might be, before I begin treatment for it.

 

I have had similar questions, and despite having a couple of biology degrees under my net, have not been able to secure a firm answer or even distill truth from non in this specific matter.
Does anyone even know if columnaris can reproduce in an aquarium outside of a fish host?

 

I have had similar questions, and despite having a couple of biology degrees under my net, have not been able to secure a firm answer or even distill truth from non in this specific matter.
Does anyone even know if columnaris can reproduce in an aquarium outside of a fish host?

I'm pretty sure invertebrates can be vectors for it but it doesn't seem to affect them.

I’ve seen the one on the glass before, and have never been able to ID it. It seems to be a black hole on the web. I even had it in a quarantine tank once, from which most of my fish ended up dying. I posted about it here in fishlore and no one here knew it either.
My thought is it’s a fungus, and it’s secondary. Meaning it’s not dangerous itself, but it occurs and thrives in ‘poor’ conditions, which are potentially dangerous. But not necessarily in ways that show up through routine testing.
So without knowing more about the situation, I think you need to work on maintaining cleaner water. Up you water change frequency.
But again, this is all hypothetical, so please take it as an opinion, not gospel.

Edit: here’s my thread. Check the video about half way down page. Is this what you have?Help - SterbaI Dying Off In Quarantine

Looked at your thread and watched the video. Can confirm that is the same stuff I have in my tank. Been doing water changes today. Snail looked like it was not doing well moved it to a small quarantine tank. The snail was cover in white fungus, I washed the fungus off. The snail is still alive. Lost another shrimp. Ordered fugus medicine, waiting for it arrive tomorrow.

 

I recommend staying on the ‘cleaner water’ course and seeing how it works out. The white things did go away after a few days or a week (can’t be sure, cause I didn’t note an exact start date, so can’t know duration). Recommend wiping them off, monitor, clean, repeat (clean and repeat only as necessary).
The fungus med you have (if it’s for aquarium use), is really geared towards treating fungus in/on creatures, not something that’s so obviously water-borne. Not saying it won’t work, just advising caution.

 

I recommend staying on the ‘cleaner water’ course and seeing how it works out. The white things did go away after a few days or a week (can’t be sure, cause I didn’t note an exact start date, so can’t know duration). Recommend wiping them off, monitor, clean, repeat (clean and repeat only as necessary).
The fungus med you have (if it’s for aquarium use), is really geared towards treating fungus in/on creatures, not something that’s so obviously water-borne. Not saying it won’t work, just advising caution.

The fungus med I have planned on using is pimafix. In the future I plan to add catappa leaves to the aquarium, some people say they help prevent fungus and help water quality, so I think they couldn't hurt to try. I will follow your advice and keep doing water changes and monitor the fungus.

 

Update: did changes daily fungus got worse. All fish moved to quarantine with snail. Last shrimp died. Snail seems to be doing better in the quarantine. Running high concentration of aquarium salt through infected tank with no fish in it.

 

Well, that bites.
Do you want to talk about your stocking, and feeding schedule/quantities? If the problem is continuing despite cleaning the water, that's where I think the problem might lie. Not finger pointing, just trying to help.
You could also try ruling out some source water issues: test your water source and check for ammonia, nitrates, and phosphates if you can.
Is you filter able to handle additional media? Purigen might help, as it binds/removes many organic compounds, which could also be (part of) the problem.
PS I glanced at your stocking on your profile page, how big are your pearl and apple snail?

 

Well, that bites.
Do you want to talk about your stocking, and feeding schedule/quantities? If the problem is continuing despite cleaning the water, that's where I think the problem might lie. Not finger pointing, just trying to help.
You could also try ruling out some source water issues: test your water source and check for ammonia, nitrates, and phosphates if you can.
Is you filter able to handle additional media? Purigen might help, as it binds/removes many organic compounds, which could also be (part of) the problem.
PS I glanced at your stocking on your profile page, how big are your pearl and apple snail?

Peral is about 4inches. Apple snail is about the size of a gumball. I think the fungus may have come from some of the plants I got because I forgot to do a peroxide dip on them. Still waiting for pimafix, shipping is slower than I thought because of labour day. Ordered it from chewy. I only feed them once in the morning and make sure not to overfeed them.

I know should probably move up to a bigger tank soon.

Peral is about 4inches. Apple snail is about the size of a gumball. I think the fungus may have come from some of the plants I got because I forgot to do a peroxide dip on them. Still waiting for pimafix, shipping is slower than I thought because of labour day. Ordered it from chewy.

 

I don’t know what to say; I still think that the fungus is not a primary pathogen ( I.e. I don’t think it’s something that the fish can catch or get sick from), and I don’t know what to tell you to control or get rid of it, even though I’ve seen it before.
I hope you see an improvement soon!

 

It is back. The fungus got into my quarantine bucket. Didn't see it at first until it got bad. It went from milky color to white yellowish and in chunks. The tank was rid of the stuff and re-cycling with no fish. Fish we're imdeitly removed to a clean environment.

 

I wonder if there's something in your water that's desirable for the fungus(?). Like phosphorus or nitrogen? Of if the stuff is coming in with your water (eg if you use other than treated municipal water).
Were you using ammonia or actual food (eg fish food) to cycle the tank?

 

Fish waste to cycle it. I did notice it gets worse after a water change. Ex: I did a water change in the morning, went out came back at 8:40pm, bucket was full of fungus. The fungus doesn't seem to bother fish only the snail.

It could be phosphorus or other minerals. In the area where I live the entire town is built on top of a large cave system so our water table is contained within it. Note: cave system contains a mineral that as it degrades releases radon gas, so everyone has radon removal systems.

 

Update, everything thing was fine for awhile did a water change with four hours everything is covered in the stuff, bright green spots have started to appear in filter and on other surfaces. Lost one white cloud minnow, it was struggling to swim and stay up right also bloated. I was curious an reserched the water quality in my area, it wasn't good. The water contains many by products caused by adding to much chlorine. It also had trace amounts of radon and methane. I will no longer be using it or drinking it. I will switch to RO water and add minerals for fish and plants.

 

Wow.
So, green spots began to appear literally within hours of a wc? That weren’t there before?
Did bloat also progress from zero to dead in that short time?
I can’t even imagine what could cause that. Makes fungus and/or algae explode at mutant levels, but kills fish.
Even if it was some kind of crazy high fertilizer or nutrient effect, your water would have to have enough of the other things necessary for fungal or algal growth at such a high rate to support it.
Still don’t know what’s going on, but it sounds like switching to new water (for your fish and for you) is prudent.

 

When I checked the water after this( Note fish we're removed from tank.) Nirate and Nirites where very high but, strangely ammonia was very low. I checked the water three days before and everything was almost at zero. It's possible the green spots may have developed during those three days. I did notice some strange behavior in the minnows but nothing to out of the ordinary, they we're hanging around the bottom level of the tank but still quiet active.

 

I would say the visible problem in the aquarium is a ciliate (such as Stentor, Vorticella etc.).

These feed on microorganisms such as bacteria that are multiplying in the water.

The reason microorganisms multiply in the water is because there is ample food.

The way to stop microorganisms multiplying in the water is to deny them food.

Columnaris bacteria do live freely in freshwater habitats including aquaria as they can feed on food sources other than live fish.

The main problem with Columnaris bacteria in aquaria is due to the virulent strains that have developed in fish farms due to the conditions in which the fish are

Natural strains of Columnaris are thought to coexist with fish without noticeable problems unless the fish are stressed and their immunity compromised.

Studies have shown that it is not advantageous for wild Columnaris strains to kill their fish host.

However, in the densely populated fish farms killing the fish host becomes an advantage to the Columnaris bacteria so strains that do this have developed.

 

Redshark1 I checked those critters out (woohoo, thanks to the interweb I'm an instant expert!!), and I'm not sure they're what we've seen/are seeing. The ciliates appear to be pretty small, definitely in the micro range (as in microorganisms), these things are definitely macros (low end of macro, but still very clear and defined to the naked eye).
I would say the larger ones might be up to 3mm in length. That sound right Occult Toad ?
It perplexes (and frustrates) me that something so many folks have seen (I've been trying to nail these critters down for months, though I'm not dealing with them at this time) does not appear to have been identified by anyone, anywhere. If you google "aquarium fungus glass", a good number of the hits, including youtube vids, are this thing, described on a number of fish and planted tank forums, and no firm id anywhere.

 

Sounds like it could be a possibility. if they feed on bacteria, could they be eating benifical bacteria?