What are these things??

These little things have been forming over the walls of my tank... started off with just a few, then they multiplied, fast! I included a closeup; they are attached with a stalk to the tank and have fan-like attachments, and flail about in the current. At largest they are a couple of millimetres, they grow really quickly. They are almost exclusively on the glass..







Anyone have any idea what they are? ??? I couldn't find anything on the internet to match them, they look a bit like bryozoans but aren't forming int he same way at all. I just wiped a load of them off with my hand, so it doesn't look like they'd be too hard to get rid of if needs be... maybe the fish will eat them?

Anyway, I'd be grateful if someone could tell me what they are

Thanks

~Bill

 

Looks like the ~~lovely~~ pond snail eggs. If ya don't have something to eat them they can easily multiply and be a very small nuisance. (loaches are awesome for eatting them.)

 

I agree, they look like pond snail eggs.
Your description, however, makes them sound like hydrae. Do they move around the tank walls on their own power? (They'll look like they're doing cartwheels if they're hydrae).
My bet is on what I'm seeing, but just want to offer all possibilities.

 

Oh nooo. I have the same thing. But if they flail about in the current (while attached to the glass), are they really eggs? My mollies seem to eat them, but not fast enough. How can we get rid of them? Would salt do it? I was thinking of adding some salt for my mollies as one of them is injured.

 

I used to have them in my 55 gal tank. I never could figure out what they are, but I just cleaned them off the glass with an algae sponge. I think I had to do that twice. Eventually they stopped coming back (or else the bn pleco in there is just staying ahead of them).

 

Oh, so they wouldnt' be pond snail. Gawd I hope you're right!!!

 

Hard to say for sure from a picture, but they look a lot like what I had.

 

Ahhhhhhh, now I got these thinggys... do we know what they are now?

 

Yep, Tan? Do they look like what you had prior to your snail infestation?

 

I'm sorry, Armadillo... what?

 

Tan (another member of this forum) had this snail problem a while ago, and someone is now suggesting they might be snail eggs, so I was wondering if she had anything like that.

 

The tank that these things are in, are in a tank that has recently cycled and has had only fish in it... I don't have real plants, so I didnt get any hitch hikers, so it can't be snails... unless snails can hitch hike on fish... I think its gotta be someting else.

 

Mmmmmh. And I have loads of plants, and it's also a recently cycled tank.

 

Whatever it is... it multiplies! Ive been trying to research it, but found nothing as of yet. But, I do know it scapes off easy. I hope its okay for the fish once its swimming after the scrape... Maybe Butterfly or Tom would have a clue as to what it is... wierd.

 

Here's a thought. You might be able to get a better look at them (and thus be able to identify them better) if you go out and buy a cheap kid's magnifying box. Normally, they are made for viewing bugs, but they work for aquatic creatures, too. You can scoop one into the box, then try viewing it on different backgrounds to see what gives you the clearest picture of it.

It's a list of parasitic creatures. You'll be looking toward the bottom (after the protozoa, which are too small to show up on a picture). The only problem is that there are no good photos, mostly just line drawings.

Keep you water clean and your wastes low. If you do this, your fish have a better chance of fighting off infection.

 

Hey Sirdarksol... thanks!
I have been so dilligent with this 45g tank. I have two others (6g & 26g) that I hopefully made all my mistakes on, and this one... at the moment is my pride and joy... Its completely cycled and the water parameters are pristine... (for now). I just freaked me out when these things just showed up. Ahhh, sometimes this fish stuff can make you crazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzy! I'm going to that site now to check it out... thanks for the link.

 

Good tip, the magnifying glass, Sirdarksol. I'll go get one.

 

Yeah, I looked at them through a magnifying glass too... They're not eggs, and they're not hydra either (hydra are bigger and much chunkier, with definite "limbs"). When I got back from holiday, I saw that they've pretty much completely disappeared off the tank walls but are on some of my plants and bogwood too. It looks like all of them died ??? There's also a brown mouldy-looking algae growing on the back of the tank and my bubbler tubing now too, but there are a few snails in there who seem to be taking care of that.

 

The closest thing that looks similar to what we have that I could find on the net these past couple of days were suctoria ciliates... a type of protozoa. But they are soooo small, I don't know if we would be able to see em. So I don't know. I couldnt seem to find anything on them other that they are frequently found in freshwater enviorments and eat other ciliates, bacteria and algea. I searched to see if they would do any harm to the fish, but couldnt get a real answer either way, but I don't think so...

Bill, the brown stuff is brown diatoms. They are a form of algea. Looks yuky but its harmless. Ottos, snails and plecos seem to love the stuff. Just try to keep your glass clean with a scraper and eventually they do go away on their own. They like nutrient rich water, so keep up with your water parameters too.

Good Luck!

 

I seem to have the same type of growth on two of my betta tanks. I don't have a good enough camera to take a pic to compare, but from what you have described it sounds the same. I came across this article quite by chance today and it seems to describe the growth almost perfectly in the first paragraph:

In many cases, we receive calls from customers stating that they have white wavy worm-like parasites attached to the glass in the aquarium that tend to sway back and forth with the water circulation in the aquarium.

It makes some sense in my situation if it is one of the columnaris bacteria because the bettas in these tanks are chronic with fin rot. In this article it recommends sulfa type antibiotics, which I have tried with limited success. But I still have the growth, just cleaned one tank today and the other a couple days ago which is now showing signs of regrowth. I think I'm going to have to break those tanks down and deep clean.

Oh, and I meant to add that I don't have any live plants or snails, so in my case it can't be snail eggs...

 

It mentioned that the disease is prevalent in low oxygen conditions; when I turned my air pump on for the week I was on holiday (I'd had it off previously, because the tank only contained plants, but then I read that oxygenation helped bacteria while cycling...) they all disappeared. If, indeed, it is columnaris, you could try oxygenating your water more heavily.

 

Hrm. Thank you for the tip! I do have some spare air stones and an extra pump. I'll give it a try in one of the tanks first and see if that helps...

I did google for pics of columnaris after reading that article, but I didn't find anything that looked like your pics or my tanks.

 

Also says that these are prevalant in"...tanks with high organic loads, crowded conditions as well as low dissolved oxygen levels" Quoted from
This doesn't sound like your tank to me(correct me if I'm wrong )
There are all kinds of organisms that grow in our tanks and with good tank maintenance and feeding programs we never see them. Usually when wigglies show up on the glass it is some type of planaria and either water maintenance has been neglected or the fish have conned us into feeding them too much. Since you state you keep the tank maintenance up(water changes each week? Vacuum gravel?) could you be feeding a little too much? A fishes stomach is the size of its eye so they don't need much. Excess food in the substrate will cause these little organisms to grow to the extent we can see them. Usually with a good vacuum and water change your fish will be able to finish what's left off. They see them as live food.

Oh, and I meant to add that I don't have any live plants or snails, so in my case it can't be snail eggs...

If you add the water from the fish bag(which isn't a good idea) you can get snail eggs that way
Carol

 

I have one betta per tank. Their water is very clean, heated and filtered, with partial changes every day or every other day (the mini-bows aren't cycled). I don't have any substrate in them and only one silk plant each. I feed them 3 hikarI pellets in the am and 3 in the pm, so there is no extra food. I suction their little poops throughout the day with turkey basters. The only additive they get besides the Prime water conditioner is the Vita-chem liquid vitamins. Cujo is on ampicillin for his fin rot, and Romeo is not being medicated. So it is a total mystery to me why I should have a) fin rot in the first place, and b) potentially a bacteria related to poor water conditions and tank maintenance.

I added air stones to both tanks today. Maybe a little more oxygen will do some good...

Oh, and I meant to add that I don't have any live plants or snails, so in my case it can't be snail eggs...

If you add the water from the fish bag(which isn't a good idea) you can get snail eggs that way
Carol

That is very good to know! I got Cujo in February from his little cup in walmart and Romeo came in April, so if there were going to be snails I think I would have seen them by now, right?

 

..

Oh, and I meant to add that I don't have any live plants or snails, so in my case it can't be snail eggs...

If you add the water from the fish bag(which isn't a good idea) you can get snail eggs that way
Carol

That is very good to know! I got Cujo in February from his little cup in walmart and Romeo came in April, so if there were going to be snails I think I would have seen them by now, right?

you would think you would've seen them by now but snails are sneaky little things. I was just reminding everybody not to add teh water from the fish store because snail eggs can come in that way also. If there's any disease in the LFS tanks it will be in their water also. I acclimatize my fish then pour all into a net and put only the fish in my tanks.
Sounds like your babies may not have been healthy when you got them.
Carol
Carol

 

Here is a forum with someone asking possibly about the same problem.



Perhaps that will be a start on more searching,

--R

 

The first link is actually asking about a type of algae. The second link has little critters similar to what we've been discussing. really two different things
Carol

 

Well Guys.... I only have 3 words... SCHOOL OF OTOS! ;D
I tried and tried to figure it out, researched, read the links that have been posted and just began to give it up...
So, yesterday morning I went into the lfs to get some prime and I picked up 5 otos, and believe it or not, this morning... nothing (well, almost nothing)!
Wierd! But, hey, it worked for me!

 

Well that's awesome!

But unfortunately for me, a school of otos isn't going to be an option in a 2.5 gallon mini-bow that already houses a betta. I am optimistic about my air stones, tho. They will be running for a week while I'm out of town and I'll see what the tanks look like when I get back...

 

Jen... any luck with the mystery stuff? My otos seem to have fixed my problem... did the air thing work for you?

 

Yep, Tan? Do they look like what you had prior to your snail infestation?

i'm here!! better late than never : !! the clear blob thing with white white dots is def snail eggs....and yes I still have loads of them!! salt, algaecide, ich treatments (products which say unsuitable for invertibrates) etc including snail killer didnt kill any of them!! they are very good at hiding in the gravel and among plants...hence them being nr impossible to simply hand pick and remove them all, and some species can reproduce without a mate, so leave 1 behind and the following week you'll have 50!! the green bits on the tank is just algae. plenty of real plants to take up excess nutrients, less light and if you had a bigger tank a bn pleco or some otos could sort that out, or just a quick scrape every week . also overfeeding results in excess nutrients which in turn fuels algae growth.

 

also overfeeding results in excess nutrients which in turn fuels algae growth.

and an excess of snails
Ccarol

 

and an excess of snails
Ccarol

oh yeah, so true!!!