White fuzzy stuff all over betta tank, help!

all of a sudden, one of the fake plants in my 10 gal betta tank has this white fuzzy stuff all over it! it wasn't there yesterday, or at least I couldn't see it-- what is it? anyone have any ideas? it is a new tank but I cycled it with biospira, and all of my levels are reading fine... is it some sort of algae? is it the plant itself? meaning, could it be whatever the rubber it is made of doing something? I'll be watching my threads so if anyone has any suggestions, please don't hesitate to respond! thanks!


(I also posted this in the beginners section)

 

I do not know what it is but I would remove it from your tank and do a water change and watch your fish. If he starts to act strange or have a problem start to treat him for fungal infection immediately. (Rid Fungus probably)

Rose

 

that is exactly what I did-- removed the plant and did a 50% water change-- finn seems fine though, and I don't see it on other plants. when I started cleaning the fake plant, I put it in a bowl with a couple of drops of bleach and hot water, and that stuff started coming off, it's almost like mucas-y skin. very gross. thanks for answering so quickly rose!

 

did you have any kind of water additive to remove chlorine or build up stress coating?

 

because of the biospira I didn't want to add prime, which is what I normally use, so I added tetra aqua safe. do you think that has something to do with it?

 

that's pretty icky. i've seen some similar stuff in bad pet store tanks... like tanks with dead fish and stuff. looks kind of like a fungus. what are the rest of your water readings, besides nitrate? is it possible you're over feeding? has that plant been in there longer than others, was it new when you put it in? if no one else has any information on this, I would try to look up fungus stuff in aquariums, just to see what I could come up with. doesn't look like any sort of algae, and i've never heard of a fake plant oozing anything bad like that.

 

there's never been a dead fish in this tank, just a betta and two tiny otos, and the tank has only been set up for maybe a week. again, cycled with bio spira-- ammonia 0, nitrites 0, ph is normal... I just don't know. I have had that plant for the same amount of time i've had the betta. he was in a 2 gal tank before and so was the plant, and again he was the only one in that tank. I hand feed the betta and the otos eat tiny pieces of algae wafer so I doubt that's it. I dunno, but I did remove the plant and do a 50% water change.

 

I had this problem on a decor that we had. It was one of those cheesy alligator things that you hook and air pump to and it's mouth opens and closes w/ the bubbles.
Well anyways... this funky white stuff got all over it.
No idea what it was other than it felt kinda snotty.
Unfortunatly this was a while ago, so I can't remember what I did to get rid of it.

What you have could be a fungus though as Serene has already mentioned.
I'd take the fake plant out w/ as much of the stuff on it as you can and boil the plant if there's nothing on it that will melt or anything.

 

were your fish ok? did they catch anything from it?

 

I'm just guessing here but
somthing in aqua safe could of been attracted to that plant for some reason and it stuck it it

just a guess though

 

It could be rotten food particles left behind. They get fuzzy too.

 

I hand feed the betta, and if it was from the algae wafers, why would it only be that one plant though? that plant was nowhere near where I dropped the wafers...


I don't see anymore of the stuff, maybe it was just the material the plant was made of?

 

I hope this did not mess up your Bio-spira. Had it been in long enough to cycle your tank? I hope so. I am so sorry this happened to you. I would not have suggested the water change if I had known about your Bio-spira. I would have asked you to move your betta for a few days.

Rose

 

actually, yeah, it messed things up. luckily though, I have enough left to do it again when things get better! I am doing two water changes a day because when I tested last night, my nitrites were crazy high-- ridiculously high-! everything was fine days ago so I don't know what is going on. even after a 50% water change they were bad, so I started using prime again to help it. also, finn (betta) has the beginnings of finrot and I can't really use salt because of the otos that are in with him. and of course one of my husband's ciclids has pop eye and is in finn's old two gallon which I using for a hospital tank... so I guess I'll either be getting another tank tomorrow or moving the otos to the 55 so that I can treat the betta. i'm still thinking on the matter, trying to decide what to do because the otos are so small i'm afraid they'll get eaten in the 55. oh, and then there's the fact that the ph in the 55 is higher than they are used to, and i'm afraid to stress them out too much more... ugh.

 

I hand feed the betta, and if it was from the algae wafers, why would it only be that one plant though? that plant was nowhere near where I dropped the wafers...


I don't see anymore of the stuff, maybe it was just the material the plant was made of?

A total mysteryto me.

 

I'm going to interject with some information I've seen repeatedly around this site.

When using bio-spira, you're not supposed to change the water or even test it for 7 days because you'll get really wonky readings...so the readings you got may have been just a part of the bio-spira cycle. Somebody with experience with bio-spira may be able to confirm that, but that would be my guess based on the information available.

 

I usually warn those using Bio-spira not to test for at least the first 7 days as the readings are false and due to the bacteria getting set up in the tank. It is too bad that you did the water changes. This is normal and just a result of the cycle doing its thing not something that will hurt the fish. You need to let the Bio-spira do its thing undisturbed for 7 days and not test at all. I am sorry no one told you this. This time do not test or change the water for ANYTHING or you will have yourself disturbed. Nothing will hurt your fish but the readings you would get would be false and disturbing so don't do them. The cycle will progress and the fish will be safe. I have done this MANY times so do not let yourself freak out over it. It is going to be fine.

Rose

 

actually, I did know that about the bio spira from reading others' posts here, but because I knew that I had more and the weird stuff growing on that plant, I just decided to take care of that and reuse it later. I figured i'd be better safe than sorry!

 

I think it might possibly have been some sort of algae growth.

 

I think it might possibly have been some sort of algae growth.

I think you might be right. I cannot wait for the day that I feel like I actually know what I am doing!!

 

LOL.. me too.

I think you might be right. I cannot wait for the day that I feel like I actually know what I am doing!!