I looked at my fishies today and noticed hundreds of little white “baggies” hanging from the sides of my tank at all water levels just “blowing in the breeze”; what in the world are they?! They are shaped just like this pirate hook ( http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.piratemerch.com/images/pirate_hook_58275.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.piratemerch.com/pirate-costumes-pirate-costume-accessories-c-58_50.html&usg=__Ea8u2GAGxuwNUIm3wcncuB7GvD8=&h=500&w=500&sz=16&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=yTgDgQo7oEJhwM:&tbnh=138&tbnw=142&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpirtate%2Bhook%2Bcostume%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us%26rlz%3D1I7ADFA_en%26biw%3D1003%26bih%3D577%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=522&ei=ONKHTMfDGoHCnAetm6iCDg&oei=ONKHTMfDGoHCnAetm6iCDg&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=13&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:0&tx=65&ty=93 ) in which the curved part of the actual hook is chopped off.
Sticking with the picture, imagine: the nub part is frayed at the bottom and loose in the water; the stick/hook portion is stuck onto the sides of my tank. Each is about the size of the end of a pencil lead, and there are hundreds of them: OMG!
The tank was just moved from home to my dorm on Aug 30th, so it is possible that something different is in the water here. I did travel with about 8gal of water or so from home, all the bacteria and wheel were preserved in water through trip, fish were transfered to hot-water-cleaned rubbermade container for transport and reintroduced to tank after it was back up and water running for about 5ish hours by being floated in baggies for about 20min.
I did have an ick-scare (treated 29days with Coppersafe and sponge filter by marineland). Ick scare means I treat preventatively now for three days with Jungle’s Ick Guard II 1xmonth (without carbon filter of course) bc I believe the parasites are in my water.
No signs of fish distress, etc; everyone is perfectly normal. One fished died in hospital tank due to long-lasting, unknown, internal infection/parasite/bacteria(??)… there was nothing more I could do.
***My fishtank, freshwater, tropical community:***
-15gal tall Eclipse System 150gal/hr filtration
-Access to sunlight, but not in direct sun at all (light is just bouncing off white walls lol). Hood’s lamp is used to light and heat tank during the day.
-Heated to a constant +/- 78-80*F by seperate heater always (lamp does so on its own).
-7 Zebra Danios (5F 2M I believe)
-2 Mystery Snails (1 F 1unknown)
-2 Dwarf Gouramis (both F)
-I think that we might have neamatoads (or whatever those little white worms are that come out at night) bc my mom’s tank (same set up and water supply) have them.
-Fish are fed any variety of Tetra’s Bettamin, Tetra Min Tropical Chrips/Granuals/FD Shrimp and Tetra FD Bloodworms & Tetra Algea Waffers.
-No live plants, etc. but tons and tons of fake plants and decorations including a new plant that cover 1/3 the tank’s surface.
-Tank floor is a mixture of sand, “pond rock”/larger stones, and gravel all from LFS and very very old sea shells that have been in our tanks for years.
-API Aquarium Salt is replaced 1xmonth in a small pet-co cup
Any comments or advice will be appreciated. …I’m trying not to worry. Thank you
Sarahbeth