White slime in my fish tank constantly… I cant stop it?
Hello, i have a 27 Gallon Hexogon Fish tank. For some reason i keep getting this white/clear slimy stuff growing on my rocks. It seems to grow in area’s around the plants and pirate ship and other objects. I’v tried removing some things thinking maybe i had to much in the fish tank as far as objects. However that doesnt stop it, i barely had any fish in my tank and it still growing, all my fish died from it like a month ago at least i think thats what killed them.
I got some new fish last night because all i had were 3 “Huge” Silver dollars, one of those big brown sucktion fish you know the ones that get like 6 inchs long thats how long mine is, and 2 smaller fish i dont know there names. Basicly my tank looked empty. Anyway i got 8 new fish the other day all small ones and 1 inch in length, bright yellow/purple ones and 2 silver/black striped fish. They were only $1.66 each.
It seems 2 of the 4 yellow i got are already dead. The others seem fine so far, im sick of my fish dying. I need help i dont know what the problem is. I have plenty of bubbles in the tank from the bubble pump, i have cleaned out the filter and replaced it not to long ago. I did some heavy duty cleaning of my tank not to long ago with the hose that sucks up the crap in the rocks. I used my fish net to get all the slim out of the tank but swooshing the rocks around and using the net in circular motions to capture it all.
So i dunno, i dont feed my fish that much maybe 1 Pinch of food every day or 2. Right now after i found more slim growing in the corner of my tank and under my pirate ship i just totally removed the ship cleaned the slim up. Now my tank is bare rock.. What should i do ?
My fish totalls right now are
3 Large silver dollars “they grew big” bout the size of my palm almost.
1 large sucktion fish ” maybe 5-6 inchs long
2 small Yellow fish maybe 1 inch long
2 Purple fish of the same speciies as the yellow
2 Black striped silver fish maybe the size of a quarter
2 inch long fish that have been in the tank for ages.
So i have 12 fish in a almost 30 gallon tank.
Also i just recently put those silver dollars in my mom didnt want them anymore so i put them in my tank because all i had were 2 fish in my tank, before i had tons of neon tetra’s and other smaller school fish in my tank and 1 black shark with the red fins. However all those died after the slim came. The 2 recent fish that died i mentioned the yellow ones, i found inside the pirate ship when i removed it they must have gone in there when i turned the light off and just died i dunno..
Nooo its not due to overpopulating did you read what i said. ? My tank ahs had 3 fish in it for the last month and still had white/clear slime growing.
The 3 silver dollars are only recent i put them in like a week ago.
When i said a bunch of neons i only had like 5 of them. Ok i found a website with a list of tropical fish and this is what i had originally in my tank
4-5 Neon etra
4 Black Neon Tetra
1 Common Pleco
1 Clown loach
1 Red tailed black shard
Thats what i had in my tank originally. I had 8 tiny tetra’s basicly, and 1 shard, 1 pleco, and a clown loach and your telling me thats to much 1 30 gallon hexegon tank ?
Right now i have
3 Silver dollars
1 Pleco
1 Black neon tetra
2 Black widow tetra
1 Bleeding heart tetra
1 Knife LiveBearer “the yellow fish”
1 other yellow fish with a black tail i cant find its picture on this website
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The fact that you added all of those fish to your aquarium at the same time, it put stress on them as well as raised the ammonia and nitrite levels as the aquarium is not used to housing that many fish. This is why you must add fish slowly, max three fish every week.
Silver dollar fish are schooling fish that thrive when kept in groups of at least six. They grow to be around 6″, so a 30g tank is not suitable for them. I recommend at least a 60g tank for a school of six silver dollars.
What kind of “sucktion” fish? Common pleco’s grow to be around 3-4ft in length and need to be in very large overfiltered aquariums/ponds. Your tank is suitable for one of the “dwarf” varieties of the common pleco, including the zebra, clown and bristlenose. They only grow to be around 4-6″.
A 30g tank won’t support “tons of neon tetras… and 1 black shark with the red fins” because it’s not large enough. A school of 10-12 neon tetras will thrive in a 30g, but red tailed sharks grow to be around 6″ and are schooling fish, I don’t recommend anything under 120g for a school.
Unfortunately, that’s all I can tell you. I don’t know what other kinds of fish you’re keeping, and frankly neither do you if you’re calling them “small Yellow fish”, “Purple fish of the same speciies as the yellow” “Black striped silver fish” and “inch long fish”. You should only buy fish unless you’ve done your research and you know all about their needs and requirements inside and out.
The slime is due to overstocking. Please return your fish.
For one, I would stop adding fish.
The white stuf (if im right) is white algae. You fish can snack on it. That or apple snails love it. If it bothers you, take the stuff out and scrub it down.
I would start by getting rid of some fish!! I don’t mean flushing either, I would bring the silver dollars back as I don’t know the size of your palm but they are propbably too big for your tank!! Hexagon tanks do not follow the general 1 inch of fish per gallon of water because they are tall tanks and don’t have as much room for fish to swim! They sell small plecos that do a good job cleaning and will only get to about 3-4 inches! I use 2 for my 55 gallon! I don’t know what you are dealing with but I would guess it is to do with the amount of fish in your tank!! Get a test kit and test your waters for Nitrates and make sure to check your PH as nitrates will cause your PH to be all over the place. I would propbably get take all of the pieces out and soak them in a mixture of 1 teaspoon of bleach per gallon of hot water! Do not use a lot of bleach!!! Then I would gravel vac with everything out of the tank and also clean the glass with a tool to clean glass such as a magnet cleaner so your hand does not have to be in the water! I would also do about a 50% water change. Make sure you add some cheicals to the water you are adding to make the water safe! They sell all diferent types of chemicals and stuff! You just need to get all the chlorine and other stuff out if you are using tap or well water! If this does not work if you really like the hobbie than pick up a little bigger tank and start over!! I am sure you could sell your hex tank as they are very desireable! I just bought a whole 55 gallon set-up on craigslist for $200 dollars! I know money is tight and you may not have the room for a long tank. If you definetely want to keep all of the fish you should buy a bigger tank as that is propbably the number 1 thing leading to this reocurrance of white slime! Without having numbers from a test kit it is hard to say!! Good Luck!!! As far as Sarah saying red-tail sharks are schooling fish?? If you house more than 1 red-tail together 1 of them usualy becomes dominant to the others!! This is my experience with them anyway!! I love the red-tail shark but only keep 1 and he is very happy!! If you go online and read about the red tail or ask in a pet shop they will tell you the same thing!! A 55 gallon tank is plenty big enough for 1 red-tail to be happy also!! If you have a 125 gallon tak you could propbably get 2 because they would create places that they took over in the tank and would call their own!! I can’t wait to get my litlle clown loaches to put in the 55 gallon to finish it off! Yes I know I will need a bigger tank when the clown loaches grow!! I have 5-6 years for that to happen though!! Again good luck!!
Dude, you are seriously overstocked. You need to sell or trade back at least half of your fish, to include the silver dollars, and the pleco. Pick out 6 fish and return the rest.
All of your fish died from ammonia poisoning, your tank wasn’t able to handle the amount of ammonia that was cycling through it fast enough. I know that 12 fish in a 29 gallon tank sounds like not much fish to you but you have to consider the amount of waste produced from those fish and the space on the floor of the tank in which the waste is dropped. Even if you vacuum daily it won’t remove enough of the ammonia to make it safe.
I wouldn’t worry too much about the white slime as it should resolve when you get your water parameters to normal. You’ll need to purchase a liquid test kit that checks ammonia, nitrite nitrate and PH. Ammonia and nitrite need to read 0 and the nitrate needs to read less than 20 ppm. The PH needs to be around 6.8 to 7.8.
RE: Your additional information.
Yes I mean to tell you that your tank is over
stocked.