Thread like growth on my filter
- Thread starter Ace Fishkeeper
- Start date
^ dont forget OP has added copper to his tank before, so not sure how safe it is for any inverts atm, since copper is known to effect them badly...
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Well this is a first. Lol. And ive seen beautiful decorative pink, purple, and blue dyed algae sold at fish stores. Coming to a store near you. Lol.
That's a first for me. Looks like something I would expect from sw.
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I've had the same thing growing in my filters for a couple of years now and haven't had any problems.
Update: My biology study has uncovered some info on this growth.
I scraped some of the stuff off the filter when cleaning today. Under daylight I could see some tiny swimmers in the little dish I collected the growth in.
I put a drip of the water and some of the growth on a slide and had a look under at it under a microscope.
The growth looks like branches of a opaque tubular material.
Inside the tube are oval discs brownie red-ish colour with yellow-ish inner parts on one side. As I was examining the stuff I saw one of the swimmers pass by. I caught up with it when it stopped and saw what I at first thought was a Daphnia though much smaller than any I have ever seen. These things are smaller than quarter of a pin point.
The 'thing' also looked like a mollusc too as I thought I could see two half shells.
When I looked up freshwater mussels I came across some more info on Glochidia (Mussel Larva).
These can attach to fish fins or gills and can be regarded a parasites.
It is difficult to isolate the animal under my microscope and the animal is translucent so not easy to distinguish in water.
I bleached all hard surfaces of the tank filter and ornament on the water change today.
I will probably only be able to control or monitor this organism until it becomes more of a pest.
I scraped some of the stuff off the filter when cleaning today. Under daylight I could see some tiny swimmers in the little dish I collected the growth in.
I put a drip of the water and some of the growth on a slide and had a look under at it under a microscope.
The growth looks like branches of a opaque tubular material.
Inside the tube are oval discs brownie red-ish colour with yellow-ish inner parts on one side. As I was examining the stuff I saw one of the swimmers pass by. I caught up with it when it stopped and saw what I at first thought was a Daphnia though much smaller than any I have ever seen. These things are smaller than quarter of a pin point.
The 'thing' also looked like a mollusc too as I thought I could see two half shells.
When I looked up freshwater mussels I came across some more info on Glochidia (Mussel Larva).
These can attach to fish fins or gills and can be regarded a parasites.
It is difficult to isolate the animal under my microscope and the animal is translucent so not easy to distinguish in water.
I bleached all hard surfaces of the tank filter and ornament on the water change today.
I will probably only be able to control or monitor this organism until it becomes more of a pest.
If you say 'out of the water' I assume you mean out of the tank. The pictures I posted were of the filter canister as I was cleaning it out. (Stripped down so to speak) I use a Fluval external canister filter. Water siphons from the tank over the lip of the tank down to the filter, through the screens to the baskets of ceramic media, then back up to the top of the tank via a pump in the filter canister lid/cover.
I haven't seen any adult molluscs in my tank and I'm not sure why the growth has made it's way past the screens and only found on the media baskets.
When I was cleaning the rocks from the tank I found a few strands of this stuff on a corner of a big slab I have in the tank.
I haven't added any new fish for months and any rocks I put in the tank are boiled for 1/2hr before adding.
We lost a few fish over the past month though we assumed this was due to the air pump failing. There's a new air pump on now but I pulled two dead fish out last week too.
I do not think this growth is actually connected to the fish deaths just coincidental.
I haven't seen any adult molluscs in my tank and I'm not sure why the growth has made it's way past the screens and only found on the media baskets.
When I was cleaning the rocks from the tank I found a few strands of this stuff on a corner of a big slab I have in the tank.
I haven't added any new fish for months and any rocks I put in the tank are boiled for 1/2hr before adding.
We lost a few fish over the past month though we assumed this was due to the air pump failing. There's a new air pump on now but I pulled two dead fish out last week too.
I do not think this growth is actually connected to the fish deaths just coincidental.
So that growth, being in the cannister was in its, wet, inside, not on the exterior of the cannister. I had not understood it.
If they are parasites as you seem to now suspect, they may be having an influence on those deaths you mention....
If they are parasites as you seem to now suspect, they may be having an influence on those deaths you mention....
