Gouramis Bubble Nests or Too Much Protien?

[Jak]

What does a dwarf gourami bubble nest look like?

I've got bubbles in the corners of my 50 gal and they look like sea foam. Is this what a bubble nest looks like? I'm new to gouramis.

You can't really see in the pictures but its at least a quarter inch thick maybe a bit more in some places. Its all collected around a broken piece of plant.

 

[johnny leftist]

Pictures wouldn't load for me but from the description it's probably not a DG nest unless it's about 50% plant matter. Dwarfs tear off bits of leaf and root that make up a large portion of their nests. It's actually a lot of fun to watch them work on it

 

[Jak]

What do they do if there isn't much plant to tear apart?

 

[johnny leftist]

I'm honestly not sure, never seen one nest in an unplanted or lightly planted tank.

 

[Jak]

My tank is lightly planted.
Try downloading those pictures if you're on the android app. That almost always works. The pictures will be in your downloads.

 

[johnny leftist]

I see them now, it looks much more like protein scum than a bubblenest.

 

[Jak]

Muamp

 

[johnny leftist]

Just up the water changes and agitate the water surface a little more (an airstone on a check valve should work fine) and it should clear off.

 

[Jak]

Sounds like a plan.

My gut says the protein remains on the surface. Do I have to skim it off? Or will a regular middle of the tank syphin water change do the trick?

 

[Animal1402]

What I've done before is use a piece of kitchen towel and watch it suck up the scum.

 

[johnny leftist]

You can soak it up with any kind of CLEAN media (I prefer paper towels since they're single use and therefore less likely to contain contaminants) but a simple siphoning water change shoukd be adequate to prevent further occurrences since you're removing protein before it has a chance to surface. Trying to siphon the surface is just ridiculously frustrating.