Any ideas what this "fluff" is?

[UncaToddly]

This past Tuesday I received my shipment of L168 Butterfly/Flounder Plecos (Zonancistrus brachyura / Dekeyseria brachyura). We didn't quaruntine them as everything that went into the 29g was going to be from this order and the larger 55g we didn't have any fish we were really concerned about losing if something did come up and would treat everyone. So far we are doing OK, having lost 4 of the Celestial Danios and only 1 of the 12 L168's. Since setting them up in our two tanks though, we have been getting this wierd stuff on the bottom of the tank. The best way to describe it is if anyone has seen the big piles of fluff from Cottonwood trees, it is like that. Or like someone took some of the "blown in" cellulose insulation and dropped it in the tanks.

The fish seem to be doing OK but this stuff is very light and fluffy and in our 55g, where there is stronger water movement from the bubblewall and output tube from the Magnum 350, it is like there is a bunch of fluffies floating around in the water with smaller pieces landing on the coffee cup hides we put in there for them. In the 29g where the water is much slower, it just shows as a mass at the bottom of new plants.

None of the water from the wholesaler was transferred into the tanks. When I floated the bags to let the temp match, I rinsed the bags off real good first and then dumped the fish into a net or my hand before transferring them to the tanks. The only thing these two tanks have in common are the L168's.

Anyone have any idea what this is?

[MatsP]

Not sure, but it sort of looks like fungus growing on uneaten food - that's just a guess however.

--
Mats

[UncaToddly]

Not sure, but it sort of looks like fungus growing on uneaten food - that's just a guess however.

Can't really be that, at least not on uneaten food. It doesn't seem to be growing on broken down algae tabs we have put in there and the food that is being fed to the other inhabitants are micro pellets and micro wafers for the Celestial Danio's (aka Galaxy Rasbora) and Ember Tetras. Other than 3 Malaysian Trumpet Snails and 30 Cherry Shrimp they are the only thing in the 29g other than the 4 Butterfly Plecos.

Thanks for the response though I could believe it is some kind of fungus but just not with that as the reason.

[Mike_Noren]

Is it possible to get a highe res photo?

There's two basic possibilities: fungus, growing on something dead (in which case that tank's got SERIOUS water quality issues), or bryozoans. It doesn't really look like bryozoans (moss animals) to me. A very distant third possibility is a freshwater sponge, but I've never seen one which looks like that.

So without higher-res photos I'm going to have to go with fungus growing on dead matter, probably left-over fish food.

[andywoolloo]

I have no idea what that is but it's a bit scary. What happens when you gravel vac it out? does it come right back?

[UncaToddly]

Is it possible to get a higher res photo?

I tried to post them as they were but got the 512k size message so I converted them down. They are being shot with a Kodak EasyShare that is 8.1MP. Originals are running around 1Mb in size and 3200 x 2400 (roughly). I would be happy to send them privately if you think it would help. I see some amazingly high rez shots on here but can't imagine how they make the 512k requirement. Of course, I am sure they are being shot with a nice DSLR as well

There's two basic possibilities: fungus, growing on something dead (in which case that tank's got SERIOUS water quality issues), or bryozoans. It doesn't really look like bryozoans (moss animals) to me. A very distant third possibility is a freshwater sponge, but I've never seen one which looks like that.

LOL, the water quality can't be THAT bad. When we made up the water for the 29g (110L) we used about 50% water from our 55g (208L) and the rest treated tapwater. The same was true with our 55. We drained it down completely since we were changing substrate, saving about 40-50% of the aged water. Keep in mind that this tank has been setup for exactly a week as of today. We had our fish from the 55g in it while we re-setup their home and transferred them back a day later. The following day (this past Tuesday) we got the L168s, Shrimp, Tetra's and Danios that are in the 29g now. I only mention this tank so much because it is where it is the worst. We would have had to be dumping food in by the handful to make up this volume.

As for something dead, the only deaths we have had in that tank were 4 of the Celestial Danios (Celestichthys margaritatus). These fish look like micro sized brown trout (trout shaped body with lots of tiny spots) and the first one that died looked like it was covered with a white film from a distance. Not Ich-like but like it had a piece of translucent skin over most of it. It was dead the next day and by the time I pulled it out and looked at it, it didn't appear to be external, but rather like the body had fluid between the skin and muscle. Another one had this same appearance but only in a band around it's tail and it was dead the next day as well as 2 others that showed no symptoms. Since then, they all look fine.

I looked up Bryozoans on the web and while the one I labeled Small Fluff does have that type of appearance it doesn't really seem to match.

So without higher-res photos I'm going to have to go with fungus growing on dead matter, probably left-over fish food.

See above. Like I said, I would be happy to send you the original photos if that might help. You seem to be pretty knowledgable about these types of things

Thanks a ton!

Todd

[Barbie]

An easy way to solve the problem would be to siphon the stuff out of the tank and then fast the fish for a couple days. If it doesn't come back, it was definitely fungusing food. It really is what it looks like to me. An algae wafer swells quite a bit and can go a long way towards fouling a tank in short order.

Barbie

[apistomaster]

Looks like fungus growing out of disintegrated food that settled in between your coarse grained gravel. I would try the actions Barbie advised and feed the sinking foods by using a container on the bottom so the mush doesn't get in the gravel to rot. You may not be over feeding but you definitely have uneaten food spoiling.