What is this in my fish tank?

Question

I had four goldfish...I cleaned out their tank and the next morning 3 of them died. It has been a week and now the one fish is fine but there is this gooey...jelly looking stuff at the bottom of the tank and on some off the plants. It has orange and white specks...kinda looks like his food. Under the water it looks like clear cotton, but when you take some of it out...its really gooey...anyone know what this could be? Thanks

Answer 1

What you have is probably either Saprolegnia or Achlya (see photo: http://www.visualsunlimited.com/images/watermarked/227/227311.jpg ). These are very similar and would need to be differentiated microscopically. You can find them in most aquarium books lump together as fish "fungus", although they aren't classified as a fungus by biologists anymore. In the photo you see it growing on a dead insect as the stuff looks when it's underwater - this is about one day's growth, but in two days, you probably wouldn't be able to recognize the insect anymore. When you take it out of the water, it will look gooey, as you say. It will grow on anything organic - in your case it sounds like it's on excess food.

You'll have trouble preventing it - it's in most every water supply, so it'll come in every time you do a water change. It can be knocked back with a medication, but it's not likely that it would infect your fishes as long as they're healthy - it's usually secondary to another problem if it ever grows on the fish.

You can reduce the growth by not overfeeding - the fish should only be given what they will eat in about 2 minutes, twice a day. If there's any food left after that time, you should scoop it out with a net.

Answer 2

Usually goldfish can with stand 100% water changes and live in almost bad water conditions. I have had them indoors and outside in a home made pond and never had any trouble with them, a couple times my pond froze along with the fish froze up in the ice because my heater died in the winter. When the ice thawed out the fish were fine! Did you notice any white places on them such as ick spots? Chances are that they either got extremely stressed out or maybe something in the water made them sick.

As far as the gooey stuff, I would say it's most likely eggs. I never really seen any in my pond but I had babies from time to time I would just notice swiming along with the others.

Answer 3

Hopefully,when you clean your tank,you didn't use any kind of soap.That will kill them almost instantly. The cloudy stuff is commonly called "ick".There are many remedies sold at the pet shop.don't go with the most expensive brand,they all work the same.You may have purchased a fish that was already infected with ick,it is hard to notice at first, and is very contagious.Be sure to treat your water every time you change or add new water to your tank.

Answer 4

no idea.
but i cn say that never do a 100% water change in one go.
it changes the chemistry drastically before the fish cud adapt and they die out.
25 % to 30 % is adequate at one time.

Answer 5

It looks more or less like a jelly fish...literally.

Answer 6

water change is hard

Answer 7

poo.... or eggs?