Hair & cottony stuff in tank, (micro)bubbles, fish moving mouth...Pics & Video

[librarygirl]

Hair & cottony stuff in tank, (micro)bubbles, fish moving mouth...Pics & Video

Hi,

I'm a n00b. Here's a short history:

~March 25 - purchased a 5 gal Hex from Petsmart; wasn't told about cycling, etc, just told to let the tank "sit" for a week

~April 1 - took water to PetSmart, tested and said it was "fine," bought 3 GloFish (wasn't aware at the time they are genetically modified fish); fish seemed fine except one chasing others around the tank and harrassing one of the fish more than the other

~April 6 - one Glofish was dead after first water change which went badly. Purchased a bad siphon (had to shake it to get it going which I couldn't get it to work and lots of shaking of the water, moving things around, etc, stress for fish and 2) this was the fish that got bullied the most so I think it was stress

~April 7 - took dead fish back to Petsmart. Asked for advice; they tested water again and said everything was "where it should be" but didn't give me particulars. They suggested I get 2 more Glofish to try to lessen the harassing, which I did

~April 6-22; bought a better siphon cleaner (squeeze it once, all water pumps out, no fuss no muss lol) and doing daily water changes, 20%-40%. I also purchased a strip test kit, ammonia constant at 0.25 no matter what I did. Water treated with Prime before each change.

~April 16, noticed one of the fish moving its mouth fairly rapidly ( like saying "me me me me" very fast). I also purchased an API test kit around this time . Sometimes the fish seemed to slow down its mouth movements although never totally stopped; definitely doing it more than the other fish. Posted on another forum and they suggested an oxygen issue, so I purchased a small air stone. Noticed some improvement as I said but still moving its mouth more than the others

~April 20 - started to feel guilty about the small size tank for these guys, plus at some point I'd like to get a few more fish, maybe a snail, so I bought a 12 gallon Marineland Eclipse. Posted about how to upgrade here: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f15/how-to-safely-upgrade-tank-149534.html

~April 21 - set up the larger tank, let it run overnight

~April 22 - tested both tanks, parameters and temp the same, switched fish over, after a few minutes of initial freaking out, they explored their new home and then seemed very happy, swimming around the tank, etc.; Throughout this time did not notice any noticeable difference in the fish with the mouth issue; sometimes he'd seem to be doing it less, other times more, but always more constant than the other fish; she(?)'s been eating and swimming around fine....until today.....hence this post.....

Today after a 40% water change I noticed a few things:

1) the fish with the mouth issue is at it again, back to doing it constantly and fairly rapidly. Also I noticed today she's not moving around much, hovering near the top. I have a filter which does move the water pretty good and I bought a larger airstone with the larger tank. The other 3 fish are swimming around some but are acting different than usual: they are schooling more today which usually they swim separately or in a group of 2 more often than not (although they are schooling fish, so, I don't know...) and even they have longer periods where they are hovering around the top and not moving much. [edit: they have stopped doing this for now, not sure what was going on earlier, but the mouth issue remains, links to video below]

2) I have bubbles everywhere: microbubbles which seem to be coming from the filter (the part where the filtered water comes back into the tank) - see pic-, larger bubbles attached to the filter and part of the heater (normal?) and bubbles at surface (they tend to pop fairly quickly)

3) tiny hairs (?) & cottony stuff floating in the tank - not much, but I've spotted a few - and some attached to the filter pump (the holed part that sucks up the water; tried to take a pic but my camera is pretty old so it wouldn't pick up the hairs). Also saw what looked like fluffy cottony stuff floating around and attached to some decor; removed with my fingers, hard to see what it is, but gross lol What are these things? is it normal? I have a cat, so I'm hoping they aren't cat hairs. The lid is always on and/or closed unless I change the water or feed and the cat has no interest whatsoever in the tank (I know, odd), and I try to make sure I rinse my hands before putting them in the tank, but hairs do cling, so maybe that's what they are? Although my cat isn't white lol. Anyone else have this? Do I need to treat it?

4) when I turned everything back on after the water change I heard a grinding noise coming from the filter. Somehow gravel had gotten in there. I removed it with my fingers, turned it on again, made the noise again, checked it and another piece of gravel in there. I checked the pump and there's no way gravel that large could fit in there....? Anyway, after a couple of tries it stopped but not sure what's happening there.

Additional info: tank hasn't yet cycled, been up for 3 weeks with fish (well, the old tank was up for over 3 weeks, this current one a few days, but parameters test the same). Daily water changes. Ammonia levels constant from 0-0.25, hard to tell with the coloring of the tube and the chart, but definitely nothing over 0.25 yet, no nitrates/nitrites at all, ph between 7.4-7.6 as of this morning. Any advice on this? Should it be taking this long to get nitrates?

Any advice? I want to help the fish if there's something wrong but I don't know what!

[update] Did another water change this evening even though not sure if it was required but felt I had to do something. I also turned the light off. After a bit, all fish were swimming around, but the one that moves her mouth still does it (links to video below). Looks like something might be wrong with her mouth, almost like it's too big for her and i thought I saw a dark spot on the inside of her mouth on one side but hard to tell, could just be shadow, they move fairly quickly. She is getting chased a little (new tank, maybe they have to do the territory thing again) so maybe that's why she's isolating some. I don't know, but her mouth moving is what's bothering me the most. She also tends to hide more when the light is on (larger tank, more powerful light, maybe she doesn't like it? Is that possible?)

I think I'm losing my mind at this point lol

Pics below of the bubbles (this was after the first water change; after the second, I didn't fill it as high so the filter can't be seen from the top of the water now) and links to the videos of the fish with the mouth issue (takes about 15-25 seconds into each video to get a good shot of her mouth):

Video links to mouth issue:

http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/33/b5e.mp4

http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/9093/3eyz.mp4

Thank you!!!

 

[melosu58]

Welcome aboard. We are glad you found us here at AA. Moving this to the FW general discussion forum. More people will see it there.

 

[Batt4Christ]

I'll chime in first with some info (partly learned right here!):

The test strips are notoriously bad/inaccurate. The liquid tests are much better and reliable.

I can't make out the "fuzzy" stuff you mentioned so can't comment on those.

But either way - apparently there is no cycling going on in your tank - and the ammonia is hard on those fish. There are several good threads here with info on cycling the tank (both with and without fish). A good place to start!

Out of curiosity - why use Prime BEFORE the water change? Wouldn't that mean you are taking OUT what you just put in?

 

[Rokuzachi]

The fish that is constantly moving its mouth sounds like it's having trouble breathing. This could be because of;

Low oxygen levels
Gill damage (from chlorine, chloramine or ammonia)

In the past one of my female Hoplo cats has done the same thing, and it almost always happens when there is too much Co2 in the tank and not enough oxygen.

If it's gill damage, your best bet is to keep your water quality high and the stress low while it heals. I don't know offhand if something like Melafix works for gill repair.

When I treat my water, I do it one of three ways; I remove the water, add Prime for the full amount of the tank, and then add water (with filters off). Or I treat the incoming water for the amount that's being added. Or I add 1/2 the amount to the tank and the new water, totaling the full volume of the tank.

Prime is also a great ally in keeping your fish safe during cycling. As I understand it, it will detox ammonia or nitrites (at a 5x dose) for somewhere around 24 hours. During the cycle, if the levels get out of control but it isn't time for a PWC yet, I treat it with prime. I haven't lost any fish yet during cycling doing it this way, but your mileage may vary.

 

[librarygirl]

Thanks for your replies. Maybe I didn't explain my methods well enough in the original post, sorry about that:

1. I fill a bucket I use only for tap water with tap water at the same temp as the aquarium water and then add whatever dose of Prime is needed (the buckets are small, only hold 2.5 gals when full) and I do this 2-3 times depending on how much water I take out of the tank. So yes I'm treating the water BEFORE I put it in

2. The filter is moving the surface water, also adding bubbles, and I have a 4" airstone, so I doubt they're lacking oxygen

3. At first I did use the test strips and didn't like them so I did buy the API drop test kit and have been using that for the past week. I've read a lot on cycling (unfortunately can't do a fishless cycle now and I wasn't aware of this and PetSmart didn't say anything about this when I purchased my tank or purchased fish ). I know my ammonia should spike and nitrites should go up, etc, but that hasn't happened yet.

Questions:
-I did post links to video of the fish breathing, if that helps (in the original post above, I edited the post to add the video links so perhaps it was after your replies)

-Why is my tank not cycling, or is it too soon? It's been 3 weeks total, although only a few days in the new tank. I know maybe the larger tank might stall things, but all readings have been constant (ammonia 0.25 or less, nitrates/nitrites 0, ph 7.4-7.6). I've been doing 40% water changes every day to make sure the ammonia isn't hurting the fish. I do a water change every day as habit and then test the water afterwards. Should I test the water before and if the ammonia levels are not over 0.25 should I not do a change and treat with Prime? I did place the old filter on top of the new one since they won't fit side-by-side and the new filter is already accumulating green spots like the old one, so I'm hoping this is good. I also used the substrate and some of the decorations from the old tank.

The white cottony stuff and hairs aren't easy to see and I only saw a couple of tufts when changing water. If it reappears I'll try to get a better photo.

Thanks!