White Sludgey Stuff
- Thread starter kll1221
- Start date
Ok I did a water change and now it is all in the water. I waited 24 hours to see if the filter would filter it out and nope did not. The fish look stressed. They were at the top gasping for air. I did a huge water change and the water still looks cloudy from it it almost looks white however the fish are now back down in the tank and don't look to be gasping too much. This tank has been up and running since last MArch, I mean inside the filter it was covered with this crap I cleaned it out and probably took all the bacteria with it 
. What gives? What should I do? How often for a water change? I don't want the fish to die or get sick etc.
. What gives? What should I do? How often for a water change? I don't want the fish to die or get sick etc.
I'm going through the same problem right now and I just lost 14 cardinal tetra fish in the span of 6 hours because of this "white sludge". They all were gasping for air so i did a huge water change and that didn't do anything, they all died.
From what i've read of the above comments my mistake was feeding them brine shrimp flakes last night and it got moldy really fast? I woke up this morning to the white cloud so i'm assuming it was because of that.
Not sure what my next move should be.....clean everything out and start over? There are still 8 fish left but they don't seem to be effected. 4 blackskirt tetras, 2 penguin tetras, 1 pleco, and 1 flying fox. Its a 32 gallon tank. I checked the water specs and its all good. Filter was recently changed (a month ago) but I changed it again anyways. Took out all the live plants and i'm going to throw them out if they can't be salvaged. This is very distressing
From what i've read of the above comments my mistake was feeding them brine shrimp flakes last night and it got moldy really fast? I woke up this morning to the white cloud so i'm assuming it was because of that.
Not sure what my next move should be.....clean everything out and start over? There are still 8 fish left but they don't seem to be effected. 4 blackskirt tetras, 2 penguin tetras, 1 pleco, and 1 flying fox. Its a 32 gallon tank. I checked the water specs and its all good. Filter was recently changed (a month ago) but I changed it again anyways. Took out all the live plants and i'm going to throw them out if they can't be salvaged. This is very distressing
Well i think i had to change the filter because it was covered in this white "mold" and i just figured it wasn't going to help me get rid of it any faster. After removing everything from the tank-except the fish and gravel-the cloud is diminishing a little bit. I don't know what Prime is but i'll look that up for sure.
Well i did do a big water change yesterday, and added declorinator as new water was put in, and i've done a change that same way for awhile now and i've never had a problem. My husband came up with an interesting theory. I fed my fish brine shrimp last night but that container had been there for a long time (almost a year) he said what if the food itself had mold or something or the beginnings of it and that sparked a bloom? Makes sense to me.
Generally your water being white is going to be a bacteria bloom, and bacteria blooms are not bad, rather they are GOOD because your tank needs that bacteria to stay on track chemically. I think you probably had more than one thing going on here. Doing large water changes and changing filters sounds like a recipe for a bloom. If your water turns white, it is not something to panic about. The other part of it though is that Cardinal tetras really are infamous for being sensitive fish. Did you check your temperature? Did your water flow change at all? Gasping can be from reduced oxygen in the water and that can be caused by a raise in the temperature of the water or less surface agitation.
There are a fair amount of things that will cause fish to die, and unfortunately when you lose one, more are bound to be lost because of stress and changes that you make to the tank following the deaths. I doubt that your food would have caused it...but if it is a year old its probably not too nutritious for them anyway so splurge and get them some good new stuff eh?
There are a fair amount of things that will cause fish to die, and unfortunately when you lose one, more are bound to be lost because of stress and changes that you make to the tank following the deaths. I doubt that your food would have caused it...but if it is a year old its probably not too nutritious for them anyway so splurge and get them some good new stuff eh?