Spots on glass..

[Adhlc]

Hello,

I recently noticed white spots on the glass of my freshwater tank. They don't move on their own, only with the water current. I've read this is most commonly Planaria, however it seems to be bothering my Argentea. He's stopped eating, and shows no interest in any of the food I drop in there. I also noticed that since he's not been eating, his genitalia has been out 24/7 which is odd. Along with his lack of interest in food, his mood has done a complete 180. He used to be very docile, but since these spots appeared, he's been attacking my hand during maintenance and constantly moving rocks and sand around (unusual for him) I can't help but think the spots and his behavior are related as there is nothing else out of the ordinary going on. The water is perfect - Nitrates 15ppm, Nitrite and Ammonia 0ppm, pH 7.5.

Unfortunately, I could not get any pictures of these spots, though to the naked eye, there's nothing more than a small white circle, or "string", none exceeding 2-3mm.

I've added some Instant Ocean salt to the tank, but it doesn't seem t be helping at all.

Any help at all is greatly appreciated.

 

[TwistedPenguin]

If it's planaria it's caused quite often by not cleaning the bottom well enough and food and gunk getting stuck in the gravel. And (if that's what it is) I don't think the worms themselves bother him. The change in his behavior coud be the end result of water conditions that aren't quite up to par, or maybe he's entering sexual maturity and the planaria just happened to show up at the same time.

 

[XxPrudencexX]

From what u describe is as, then i had this too. They just vanished suddenly in my tank...and no major effects on the inhabitants.

 

[Adhlc]

Well during the cycling of the tank, the water was pretty rough (obviously) Though I always threw in a few extra caps of Prime, so the fish wouldn't be bothered too much by it. As of right now, the water is perfect, and the cycle is over with. No doubt these things came from overfeeding on my part, I just wanna get rid of them and get him eating like normal again.

 

[RedAlkiestarte]

Sorry I dont really have an explanation besides planaria but I do have a question of my own. Where do these things come from? Even fish ick, fish lice, etc. Are they carried by the fish? Like for instance a peacock bass that the water gets to cold and poof next morning you got Ick, but for months the tank was healthy? Are these organisms airborne? Tapwater borne? or what? It really seems like that old scientist (forget whose name it was) that was trying to figure out how rats can just take over something by claiming they just materialized out of fuzz or something lol

 

[TwistedPenguin]

Depends on which you're talking about. Planaria comes about on it's own from uneaten food, gunk in the gravel, immature tanks. (Good question though....because how does it hatch? from an egg?). Lice and ich are transferred parasites. Ich can live a looooong time in cooler/cold water yet the ich life cycle is like 3-5 days in 86 deg or so water.
Edit: This is a creepy article about planaria-
http://howard.nebrwesleyan.edu/hhmi/fellows/dcarpenter/flatwormlab.html

 

[RedAlkiestarte]

Depends on which you're talking about. Planaria comes about on it's own from uneaten food, gunk in the gravel, immature tanks. (Good question though....because how does it hatch? from an egg?). Lice and ich are transferred parasites. Ich can live a looooong time in cooler/cold water yet the ich life cycle is like 3-5 days in 86 deg or so water.
Edit: This is a creepy article about planaria-
http://howard.nebrwesleyan.edu/hhmi/fellows/dcarpenter/flatwormlab.html

Ew, what a filthy animal flatworms are. I was under the presumption that planaria just split like mitosis or are they egg layers?

 

[TwistedPenguin]

I have no idea but now you've got me really curious lol Does anyone really know where these things come from? We know under what circumstances they show up, but they have to start from somewhere. I don't buy the "in all water supplies" answer for ich or planaria.

 

[Adhlc]

Well during a 75% water change, I found something even more strange. After I had thoroughly scrubbed the glass, and DRAINED the water - white spots started appearing on DRY areas of the glass that I had just scrubbed....

Any explanation for that?!

 

[TwistedPenguin]

Now that sounds like hard water stains to me without seeing a picture.