Author Topic: White dots in my tank - what are they? (Read 1019 times)

neverland76uk · « **on:** February 13, 2016, 07:02:29 pm »

Hello,

I am new to this forum, but it looks like there is a huge combined knowledge here.

I have had my guppies for a while now. The tank has been in use for a few years and all went fine, breeding too. Had regular batches of babies

My plants were a little slow in growing, so I got a few new ones last week and have started using fertiliser

I also got 6 new female guppies last week but since then it all has gone downhill

Fish are dying left right and center. I have had white spots in the past and that is not the case this time. I can't see anything obvious wrong with the fish, yet even yesterday there were 5 that died

I replaced water and made sure to condition the water etc.

However, I was just trying to spot dead fish (thank god today no casualties) and not sure how long it has been like this, cause I have been too focused on my fish, but on my filter and on the driftwood there are little white dots. They are really small, like the size of speck of sugar.

I have attached a few pictures.

Would really appreciate it if you can help me identify what this is.

Thanks

TropicalFishForums

kas · « **Reply #1 on:** February 13, 2016, 07:10:45 pm »

The white spots look distinctly egg like? Maybe something was in the the new plants? Could be a fungus ? Do you test your water?

neverland76uk · « **Reply #2 on:** February 13, 2016, 07:15:44 pm »

Yes I have strips to test my water - all is ok on that front. I think you are right, looks like eggs of some sort.

I have a few snails in the water, not sure if it is their eggs or worse, some parasite eggs

[EDIT] I did some googling after your post, and it seems the dots are Nerite snail eggs, which is relieving that at least I know what it is. Doesnt explain the massacre with my guppies... I treated the water for bacterial infection nevertheless

John_Bonn · « **Reply #3 on:** February 13, 2016, 07:34:27 pm »

But test strips won't tell you about ammonia.

In my opinion, whenever you add a number of new fish, or make major changes to the system, you need to do frequent water changes for a week or two to enable the microblighters (tm Vale!) etc to catch up with the increased bio load.

neverland76uk · « **Reply #4 on:** February 13, 2016, 07:45:19 pm »

what do you call frequent? I normally do it once a week when something has changed. When things are stable, I am sometimes a bit more lazy and skip a week

John_Bonn · « **Reply #5 on:** February 13, 2016, 07:50:33 pm »

Quote from: neverland76uk on February 13, 2016, 07:45:19 pm

what do you call frequent? I normally do it once a week when something has changed. When things are stable, I am sometimes a bit more lazy and skip a week

Minimum 20% every other day for 2 weeks (that's my opinion btw, others may disagree about the amount and frequency).

I do minimum 20% changes every 4 or 5 days regardless how long the system has been running (the only exception being holidays).

kas · « **Reply #6 on:** February 13, 2016, 07:55:12 pm »

It's unusual to lose so many fish in a small period of time. The API master test kit is very reliable. You may have had an ammonia spike.

I do a weekly water change of 50%.

neverland76uk · « **Reply #7 on:** February 13, 2016, 08:02:20 pm »

how would I get an ammonia spike?

With new water, I do treat it against ammonia too.

keddre · « **Reply #8 on:** February 13, 2016, 08:17:10 pm »

Ammonia comes from decaying organic matter (fish waste, over feeding, dying plants, etc.)

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

John_Bonn · « **Reply #9 on:** February 13, 2016, 08:19:27 pm »

The biggest source of ammonia is from the fish breathing.

rcarter1991 · « **Reply #10 on:** February 13, 2016, 08:44:55 pm »

You got snails in that tank? Look like nerite snail eggs. Like this:

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Briganti · « **Reply #11 on:** February 13, 2016, 08:45:58 pm »

Sorry you have been loosing fish. Are the fish that have died all been new additions?

plankton · « **Reply #12 on:** February 14, 2016, 10:17:46 am »

Don't worry about the nerite snail eggs, they won't produce live snailets even if they do hatch.
The deaths are another thing though.
It does sound like something has happened to unbalance the tank. If you haven't added a load of fish at once, have you possibly over-cleaned the filter?

neverland76uk · « **Reply #13 on:** February 14, 2016, 10:56:49 pm »

Thanks for all your help,

1) yes i am relieved about the white dots. they do look exactly like the ones in the pictures, so they are the nerite eggs and have nothing to do with the fish

2) yes i did overly clean the filter, which i normally don't do... stupid stupid

3) yes i added plants and new fish to the tank...

damn i did it all at once

the casualties were mixed. Some new ones, some old ones

Briganti · « **Reply #14 on:** February 14, 2016, 11:05:37 pm »

Has your water gone a little cloudy?

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Author Topic: White dots in my tank - what are they? (Read 1019 times)

neverland76uk

neverland76uk

neverland76uk

neverland76uk

neverland76uk