Hey all, I'm back! Who missed me? Well, when I came home, I RAN to my room, and screamed. Downright screamed. The 30 gallon tank resembled that part in finding nemo, when they dirtied up the tank, only worse. There was this mysterious brown stringy gunky crap coating EVERYTHING. the dividers, the castles, the plants, the glass, I honestly could barely see the fish. The filter media was so blocked up that it was coated in a half an inch of crap and I had to just toss it and send my mom QUICKLY to get a new one. The next thing I noticed was that Merlin was gone. Apparantly, he died on Wednsday, and my mom flushed him. So I scooped out the remaining fish and drained the tank. Hell with cycling right now, because the fish were (and still are) in pretty bad shape. So I emptied the tank, scrubbed everything, filled it, drained it, then filled it and added fish back in slowly. Jenga and sky are still alive, but they look miserable. Damnit, none of the other tanks were like that! what happened? Dory's tank had the brown gunk in it too, but not as bad... what on earth is it? its so odd. All the other tanks were just fine. I did water changes on them all, just to be safe. Only Micah is 100% healthy though. Ugh! And I have no idea what happined, but the indian almond leaf never came, maybe it got lost in the mail?

Oh man that's BAD. I hope everything works out for the remainder fish. It might be dirtier than the other tanks because it was clogged up. :rip: Merlin and good luck mate :drunk:

Where have you been? Yeah! you just dissapear and suddenly suprised all us. :) I hope all your fishs are getting ok now. Poor thing. :)

That sucks!
All I can say is that once in a while that has happened in my girly tank where the filter gets really goopy and I have to take everything out and scrub it - regardless of how perfect I keep the water.

I'm really sorry to hear about your losses.
Hopefully all the remaining kids make it through okay.

Welcome back!

Oh man!

Did you get the IAL?! Did your parents do anything with that?

What a mess!

Thanks guys. No, my parents claim the IAL never came...which is really odd. Sorry, Yeevia, I was gone for 2 weeks at riding camp. Well, I'm back to stay now. But basically I am doing a huge :banghead: for leaving them. I REALLY want to know what that gooey brown slimey gunk was though, and what provoked it in only the 30 gallon and Dory's tank. Sky is going downhill fast, and is doing what merlin did a week or two before he died. Just resting at the bottom, looking almost lifeless, for a wile until someone enters the room, then they perk right up like normal and swim around for food. His scales look kinda scragly like Merlin's did, and he is getting that greyish appearance like Merlin got. I fear that eventually Jenga will catch it too, and I will loose both of them. All I know is, I am NOT buying ANY more fish until whatever this is clears out. I don't care how long that takes, because this is just heart wrenching. and painful. Draining, and re filling, and drainng and refilling a 30 gallon tank with a 4 gallon bucket SUCKS. Well, I will keep fighting for the remaining fish, but if I do lose them, I won't feel AS guilty. And at least whatever the hell this mystery disease is, it doesn't look like it is too painful for the fish.

:wtf: I don't know what the hell happened? I can send more... :wtf:

awah :( i feel soo bad :( you worked soo hard on trying to clear up their fin rot too!!! and now you are going away to penn. :( gosh what are going to do? its hard having fishies with a tight horse showing schedule. hope they get bettr and RIP

I am so sorry about your loss :( The only thing I can think of that is similar to stringy brown crap is a form of algae. If I can remeber the name, or find it on the internet, I will add the link here. Sorry again. I know how sad it is to lose a betta! Hang in there.

Here is a link to a type of algae that is similar to what you described. It is called beard algae. You can also click different links on the page to read about other types of algae
beard algae

This is a link to another form of algae that it could possibly be as well called brown algae
Brown algae

I hope I helped somewhat

Did your parents turn the lights on in the 30g tank while you were gone. If not, it probably is brown algae. I fought it for months until I finally just left the lights on for a couple of weeks straight. Of course now I have green algae . . . . . :banghead:

Poor little Merlin :rip: :bye:

Well, I just found out today that my joy of a mother had opened the shade directly behind my tank for a few days, to 'let the fish have some light' (as if the fluorescent bulb wasn't enough) and pulled it back down after she re read my note saying DO NOT LET TANK HAVE DIRECT SUNLIGHT. So, algae it must have been. There is still some in the tank, I am going to watch it like a HAWK. Sky is definitely going downhill too. We are going to lose him soon. And btw, I was supposed to leave for pennsylvania today, but I cancelled it for many reasons. #1, I hurt al over, due to a stupid mistake of mine yesterday that caused me to fall off of my horse onto a jump, #2, when I was loading my horse off of the trailor, he panicked backing off and sustained some minor injuries that are expected when a horse canters backwards off of a step up trailor, #3, the cost of the show was upwards of 1500 dollars. So, at least my fish will have me again. I still have no idea what happined to the IAL. Thank you everyone for your support.

awah :( are there going to be other shows in penn. you can go. cause that way you have time to take cvare of the wingers lol

Geez... yeah, I'd be kind of pissed if my mom didn't listen to me. You should make her buy you some really sweet fish from Yeevia or something.

Do you have any colloidal you can give Sky? Do you have him in a quarantine tank at all? Poor guy... sounds like he could use some antibiotics and some CLEAN water, you know?

Taco - Random question... what the heck does "awah" mean??

Yeah, I know my mom didn't mean to, because she felt really bad, but still. I left SPECIFIC step by step instructions. No, I don't have sky in a quarantine tank, I just don't want to stress him. And whatever he has, I can tell Jenga is getting it too, he is following the same decline. So right now, I want them both to be in heated, filtered water. All of the algae, or whatever it was, is gone. The water is getting cleaner now that the filter is working, and I'm doing daily water changes. Only time will tell. I'm going to lay off the meds for a while, just because maybe some time in clean water alone might help. They've been on so much for so long, maybe if I just let them be for a while they might get better. I'll try anything.

Sounds like a good plan.
I've had many fish that have come around (Charlie for instance) after having tried every med I can think of - and they miraculously snap out of whatever they have by being in clean fresh water.

Hang in there.

It could be shock and stress from having that algae to you cleaning it all out. The water conditions changed drastically. I really hope they hang in there... I'm prayin for them.

Yeah. The shock was a maor concern when I decided to completely clean out the tank. bUt the way they were laying in that murky water, and how miserable of a scene it was, I knew i had to do something QUICK. And I spent aout a half hour acclimating them to an algae free environment again. Still, I'm sure the stress was there big time, but if any two of my fish coud take it, these two can, they're tough little buggers, and maybe, just MAYBE they'll make it.

I am prayin for your fishees :wub:

BTW I think awah means awwww, as in awww how cute or sad! Not sure though, gotta ask Taco

That's terrible. *Pats* So sorry about your fishies.

Thanks for your support guys. Sky is hanging in there, but he isn't any better or worse. I figure as long as he is still eating and swimming happily, doing the wiggle butt 'feed me' dance and such, that I should just enjoy whatever time I have left with him, and not wallow to much, because his quality of life is still there. And who knows, maybe he'll get over this.

GAR. Still, nothing is better or worse. I hate it when things just...are...and never do a thing. I kinda wish, if it is going to kill my fishies, it would just hurry up and do it so I can move on. But no, whatever this is, is letting my fish linger in misery. GRRRRRRRRRRRR. just had to rant a bit. Does anyone have ANY suggestions? I really REALLY want to get a hold of some blackwater extract or something, and unfortunately, the mailmen seemed to have eaten the IAL that seahorse so nicely sent me. And I'm kinda miffed at the colloidal silver I bought, all it seems to do is exascerbate the problems, and make my water develop brown grungy film on things. (although that might have been something else, I was using other thigs in the water too...) That CAN'T be normal...

the bottle reads, Source Naturals Wellness Colloidal Silver, 4 fl oz, 30 ppm dietary supplement. Ingredients, silver (30 ppm per serving) and deionized water.

The colloidal silver looks like slightly brown water. Is this the right stuff? I am going to set up a little container of old tank water, when I do my WCs and add in some colloidal to see if that was causing the filmy crap.

awah *pats* i hope everything works out!