Brown stuff in my betta's jar?

Question

I have a betta in a slightly more than a gallon jar. There is white gravel on the bottom and a plastic plant. He seems to be happy, blowing his bubble nest and swimming around, but there is brown junk accumulating on his plant and gravel. What could this be? Algae? I try to change his water once a week with spring water, last time rinsing out the gravel, but the brown stuff came back. I also add a few pinches of freshwater conditioning salt to the water when I do a water change. Does anyone have any ideas what this stuff is? Will it hurt my fishy?

Also, I feed him 4 or 5 pellets a day, and watch him gobble every one, so I know its not leftover food.

The brown stuff is all over the bottom of the jar, on the gravel, not just here and there, which makes me think its not his waste, plus I change his water frequently, but I don't know for sure.

Answer 1

Clean out the bowl a little better. You can use scalding hot water and let it sit until cool to the touch. You can also use hydrogen peroxide to disinfect safely. Let it dry or drain out from the rocks. It doesn't have to dry completely just make sure there is not too much left on the bottom of the bowl. Try changing the water 2 times a week for a little while. Sounds like brown algae, which thrives on ammonia rich water.
IF that white gravel on the bottom happens to be zeolite or white carbon used for removing ammonia get rid of it and replace with something inert such as pea gravel or glass (marbles, rocks, all glass is safe). Salt and this stuff do not go well together. Ammonia will be completely out of control. The zeolite soaks up ammonia and will replace the ammonia with salt, dumping all the ammonia it has absorbed. Its a very dangerous thing to use if you don't know what your doing. I have killed many of fish making that mistake, and there was always that brown algae assoiciated with it. I hope I've solved your problem for you, good luck.

Answer 2

Its debris most likely rotted food and excrement from the fish add to which dust from outside. Rather than tipping the water away try siphoning it off with a narrow gauge air line thus keeping the bacteria in the gravel in place, your fish should live a little longer this way.

AJ

If you wash everything out and clean everything you will destroy the meagre amount of bacteria in the jar thats working to breakdown the rubbish, thus leading for the water conditions to deteriate till the fish struggles to survive, try not to take out all the water or wash the gravel, just siphon the rubbish off and some of the water.

Answer 3

sounds like a form of algae... I know it sounds uppity *lol*

but wash the plant real good, wash the gravel and bowl real good and use bottled water. (shake the bottle of water to get air "into" the water) it's what I use on my betta's and it stops any algae problems. I import betta's from Thailand and they don't do well on tap water, even when conditioned.. so I found the bottled water (I have a service) does the trick.

It won't hurt your fish though, as long as you keep up with the weekly water changes

Answer 4

its algae -- you need to wipe the inside of the bowl down with paper towels when you clean it. i found using 1 tablespoon of salt dissolved for 5 gallons of water works well at cleaning up this problem. for one gallon that would be just a little more than 1/2 a teaspoon.

Answer 5

Brown algae is the bad king of algae. Do a water change, and scrub everything really well.

Answer 6

sounds like you have a great start .... here are some tips... fake plants are good, silk to prevent the fins from ripping ... but live plants will create more natural materials in the water for the betta fry to eat betta fry also like small food and the more lively the better ... they will eat live brine shrimp and the eggs (freeze dried can do) ... you can also crumble the yolk from a boiled egg into small pices for a cheap and easy feeding solution to breed your betta you can introduce the female to the male for an hour or two every day (after a week of feeding the female rich foods like freeze dried blood worms and bettamin to fatten her up) in a tank with lots of live plants. if the male is interested he will start to build a bubble nest. when the nest is at least four bubbles deep and a diameter of an inch, you can put the female in untill they breed. when they do, don't freak out, the female isn't dead she just floats upsidedown to the top after the male gets her "knocked up" then her eggs will fall to the bottom or float to the top. whichever happens the male will take the eggs and position them in the bubble nest. after this process is repeated, take the female out into a seperate tank the male will care for the eggs for three days until the eggs hatch. then take him out then. (dont worry he isnt eating the eggs he is just cleaning them with a chemical solution in his mouth, that is what dissolves the egg "shell" in three days to allow the fry to hatch) if every thing goes right, you will have new bettas! keep them together in the 10g tank till some start getting aggressive when that happens remove the ones that fight one by one start feeding the fry immeditaly feed them three times a day. if you even miss one feeding, the fry can starve! also try to keep the air temp above the water to the same temp as the water or the fry can get pneumonia and die (you can get cheap live plant bulbs from wal mart ditto the male and female betta, at least that is where i got mine... get lively ones if you get them from there) HAPPY BREEDING!!!

Answer 7

The brown stuff is from the food and waste this is not a problem as long as you maintain good water and make sure you do your water changes.

Answer 8

Sure sounds like algae to me!


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Answer 9

Sounds like algae growing. If it is algae there is a chemical you can buy that helps prevent it for use in fishtanks. However, I have not used any before. Worth a shot though...

Answer 10

Algae, I would change the water, clean the plants, and if all else fails, buy an algae eater.