Help, what is this?

[InfiniteSoFi]

strange clear stuff growing on glass. at a distance they look like dirt spots or algae but with a magnifying glass they look like tiny clear dandelion seeds.
heres a video of what they look like(not my video)

http://youtu.be/al_pUDrCS6M

 

[Oddball]

Sounds like hydra. In a tank with large fish, they're just an eyesore. However, with small fish, or in breeding tanks, hydra can capture, kill, and eat fry and small species. Hydra can be removed by using copper sulphate in the tank. Do not use CuSO4 if there are inverts in your tank since copper kills most inverts. If you can place mollies in your tank, these fish normally include hydra in their diet in the wild.

 

[mcsnapper1]

What causes it?

 

[Oddball]

usually hitch-hikes in on fish, live plants, and/or live foods like blackworms, bloodworms, shrimp, scuds, daphnia, crayfish, etc.

 

[InfiniteSoFi]

Sounds like hydra. In a tank with large fish, they're just an eyesore. However, with small fish, or in breeding tanks, hydra can capture, kill, and eat fry and small species. Hydra can be removed by using copper sulphate in the tank. Do not use CuSO4 if there are inverts in your tank since copper kills most inverts. If you can place mollies in your tank, these fish normally include hydra in their diet in the wild.

Do you know if copper sulphate is cichlid safe? Also what about sirens(salamanders)? and how much should i use?

 

[Oddball]

Can't use copper or malachite green on salamanders. Adding fish such as sailfin mollies, paradise fish, and/or blue gouramies may be in order. If your cichlids are very large and aggressive, the tank may be temperature treated. For this the fish must be relocated so the tank temp can be raised to 104F for several hours. Then, return the tank to normal temp, gravel-wash the tank to remove all the dead hydra, and return the fish once the tank has cooled to the correct temp.

 

[Jimmy16]

would a large pleco remove hydra? my friend added a 8inch pleco into his 125 gallon and it removed all of the hydra. lol we thought it was just algae too.

 

[OMGFISH]

 

[Oddball]

It's a start. Ensuring that the tank isn't over-fed and keeping up on routine gravel washes will go a long way towards removing all life stages of the hydra.

 

[InfiniteSoFi]

Can't use copper or malachite green on salamanders. Adding fish such as sailfin mollies, paradise fish, and/or blue gouramies may be in order. If your cichlids are very large and aggressive, the tank may be temperature treated. For this the fish must be relocated so the tank temp can be raised to 104F for several hours. Then, return the tank to normal temp, gravel-wash the tank to remove all the dead hydra, and return the fish once the tank has cooled to the correct temp.

Do other gouramies eat hydra? Or only blue ones? I have some golds and some snakeskins in there now. My cichlids are an electric blue jack Dempsey and a firemouth so I think mollies are out of the question.