Fungus or Diatomic Algae?

eyeluvzdatrout · Post by **eyeluvzdatrout** » 31 Oct 2004, 08:16

If you look closely at the photo, you'll see a translucent, greyish organism growing off my micro sword.

It's sort of stringy, but it can be "gooey" like, and appears to grow almost exclusively on decaying matter.

When I put something like an algae wafer or flake food in the tank and it sits, it grows abundantly upon it.

My question is, does anybody know what it is?

Is it a fungus?

Is it the common hair algae people talk about in new tanks?

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 31 Oct 2004, 08:41

it's bacterial growth!
no fungus, no algae.

eyeluvzdatrout · Post by **eyeluvzdatrout** » 31 Oct 2004, 13:37

Do you mean it's diatomic "algae"?

Because I thought bacteria is free moving.

Anyhow, is it bad or good, what should I do?

coelacanth · Post by **coelacanth** » 31 Oct 2004, 15:30

If you put it under a 'scope you'd probably find a variety of organisms there, including Epistylis, Saprolegnia, various bacteria and others.

eyeluvzdatrout · Post by **eyeluvzdatrout** » 01 Nov 2004, 04:52

Any idea how to get rid of it without putting salts in my water?

Post by **Barbie** » 01 Nov 2004, 05:18

That one is easy. Stop overfeeding. Your fish should be able to consume everything you feed in less than a minute, once a day for flake and other midwater type feeds. If your pleco isn't managing to eat an algae wafer overnight, cut back to 1/2 of one, or even 1/4. All that food rotting in the water is VERY bad for the fish. They would be much better off missing a few meals, rather than dealing with the wastes involved from even a single overfeeding, IME.

Barbie

eyeluvzdatrout · Post by **eyeluvzdatrout** » 02 Nov 2004, 05:30

I'm not over-feeding. I don't even have fish in the tank. :/

It seems to accumulate on plants, and I only put food in there momentarily to see what would happen.

Post by **Barbie** » 02 Nov 2004, 14:44

Is the tank already seeded with bacteria colonies to digest the waste produced? Uneaten food is overfeeding, in my experience. I don't know many people that keep boxes of water without fish ;) It's normal for food that's not eaten to fungus up like that.

Barbie