cloudy film/mucus from lion fish..HELP please.

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bradmc

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Oct 19, 2005
Messages
10
Location
Vancouver, Canada
There is this cloudy almost clear film floating around in the tank. I am not sure what it is. There is a large Volitan Lionfish and a small picasso trigger. i have never noticed it before but some of the pieces are quite large. I have been trying to find out what it is. i was reading about mucus the fish produce when they have ich..do they shed it? It is quite disconcerting. Could it be the lionfishes feces..becasue I never noticed it before.

Hope somebody can help

Cheers
 
are you talking at the surface of the tank or in the water. if it at the surface it no big deal just build up of organics, most tanks get it unless you have something skimming water off the top or powerheads breaking the surface.
 
Well, imo any buildup of organics on the surface of an aquarium is not good. It inhibits proper gas transfers, if it is on the surface I would find out why, and fix that problem.

I had a Lionfish once that would deficate an almost clear substance when fed certain feeder fish. Don't know if this helps you, If it is floating around the aquarium I would remove it carefully with a net.

You don't have any Soft Corals in your aquarium do you?
 
No. This film is floating around in the tank freely( all around inside)Pardon the crudeness but it looks like snot in water. This is why I thought the fish might be shedding some Mucus. It also might be feces since I never seen the lion relieve itself but I am not sure, i have never seen it before. The trigger was rubbing against a rock a few days ago but I have been watching carefully and he has stopped so I dont think there is Ich..I am at a loss.
 
My lion did start letting off a slime into the tank he had just finished a ich treatment and was suffering from a bacterial infection, he did it for a couple day before he died,he was also not eating well for a week or 2 before,hope im not scaring you into thinking your lion is gonna die,i dont think it means that at all i would guess stress is the trigger bothering him or mabey check all your water parameters,amonia,nitrate,salinity,temp and whatever else you can think of
 
i have crabs said:
My lion did start letting off a slime into the tank he had just finished a ich treatment and was suffering from a bacterial infection, he did it for a couple day before he died,he was also not eating well for a week or 2 before,hope im not scaring you into thinking your lion is gonna die,i dont think it means that at all i would guess stress is the trigger bothering him or mabey check all your water parameters,amonia,nitrate,salinity,temp and whatever else you can think of

Okay, this might be coming together now. This is my second lion. I sold my 9 inch 2 months ago adn then a week ago I bought another 8 inch. When he was put into the tank he was fine, then all of a sudden he is letting of this slime. The trigger was rubbing against the rocks for a day of so but has stopped. Perhaps its becasue of the Ich. Does anybody know if this slime is a reaction caused by the Ich?

Thanks I have Crabs, We are getting close. :)
 
((I'm going to update the thread title and move this to the Sick Fish forum to try and get you some help))
 
bradmc if you can see any spots(ich) look closley for small white spots on the body,fins,even on the eyes,you should start treatment sooner the better the first time i got ich it was in my main tank,i tried paraguard and feeding with garlic for about 2 weeks wich didnt seem to help one bit and i think i overdosed it and killed my flame angle and a small puffer,so i bought a refractometer and did the hypo salinity but since it was a 130g tank it took quite a while to get the salt down low enough and i also think adding alot of fresh water was making the ph and other parameters fluctuate alot, once it got down to 1.090 the ich cleared up quite fast and i also had huge amonia rise followed by nitrite/nitrate so i had to keep doing big water changes to deal with that,while the ich was almost cleared up big time problems with bacterial infections occured and i lost a few more fish i helped that problem with fedding alot of zoe and other vitimin additives so in the end all that lived was a snowflake eel,yellow tang and a domino damsil and both fish ended up with head and lateral line erosin problems and are now an a high vitamin c diet and doing well.
sorry for the long post.
i sold the 130g and bought 2 67g and use one for a qt tank i got a couple new fish and added them in with the tang and damsil (long after the last ordeal) and ended up with ich again, i cought it a lot sooner this time and went and got some cupramine copper added it for 3 weeks and it cleared up right away and no side effects that i seen no stress compared to the hypo,i did have to do a couple water changes but the tank cycled quite fast compared to before.
just remember no inverts can ever go into the tank after coppering it to look into your future before making any decisions if your forced to.
 
Any chance you could post a picture? Could be your lion is shedding due to some skin irritation like parasites. It's hard to diagnose without a visual of what's being dealt with. If it is bacterial, water changes will help.
 
Well its seems that I am having the same problem. My Volitan Lionfish looks as though it swam through alot of spider webs. I currently have him in a Quarintine tank and I'm treating for Ich and do a 50% water change everyday. He is dramatically better from one day of this treatment. I would suggest this method. If you can quarintine both in seperate tanks. We have an almost identical setup but my fish little brother is a Starry Puffer.
 
The lion fish has white spots on its fin and its body but I believe they are part of its colouring becasue they seem to be in uniform position. I checked the Trigger and and Lion fo rany odd white cists or dots and they don't appear to have any. I was reading that fish create extra mucs to fight off the ich, so the lion may be recovering, I am not sure.

Good news through. The Lion made a velvet damsel dissapear last night and he ate 2 silversides this morning so his appetite is good. He also seems a bit more active then when I first bought him. Perhaps he is getting better but this wierd film in the water is still disconcerting. I have crabs lion shed some slime but his unfortunately died. I dont know how healthy and active it may had appeared before it died..but mine seems to be fine now, except fot the goop 8O

I should note, when I woke up this morning, the lion was trying to eat the trigger, (so that would had been a Damsel, Trigger, Silverside Feast) so I guess 3 days between feedings is a little too long for this lion, my other one was usually good for about 5 becasue he would gorge.
 
Fluff said:
Any chance you could post a picture? Could be your lion is shedding due to some skin irritation like parasites. It's hard to diagnose without a visual of what's being dealt with. If it is bacterial, water changes will help.

Unfortunately no, I don't have a digital camera.
 
Jasonanatal said:
Well its seems that I am having the same problem. My Volitan Lionfish looks as though it swam through alot of spider webs. I currently have him in a Quarintine tank and I'm treating for Ich and do a 50% water change everyday. He is dramatically better from one day of this treatment. I would suggest this method. If you can quarintine both in seperate tanks. We have an almost identical setup but my fish little brother is a Starry Puffer.

Really? Okay, Mine doesnt have visible slime on him.
I am beginning to believe more an more that he may just be recovering from something. I did a 25 percent water change yesterday, I will do a large one tonite and I will scoop out the remaining slime and see if anymore appears. If the Picasso begins to rub against the rocks or if spots appear, I will begin a treatment regiment immediately. :p
 
BillyZ said:
((I'm going to update the thread title and move this to the Sick Fish forum to try and get you some help))

And thank you very much. It seems to have worked. More people are posting suggestions :wink: :D
 
My Lionfish took a turn for the worst and is on the border line of passing away. I am helpess and don't believe their is anything else to do but to stop his suffering.
 
Well, it could help if you could describe the latest symptoms.

The stringy substance you see I have little doubt is indeed that it is shedding its cuticle. The could be due to a parasite, but also just from stress from other maladies both physical and environmental.

Are there other fish in your aquarium? As mentioned, it could be from a parasite, bacterial infection, or a result of poor water quality. More info is needed, and apparently time is not on your side. I would remove the fish if possible to a hospital tank of the appropriate size with freshly mixed (but buffered and aerated) saltwater and try to figure out the problem.
 
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