A ton of debris?!

[Koda]

Ok...I recently got a crayfish which is kept in a 10g with a few ghost shrimp and guppies.I am real careful about not overfeeding any of my fish and my tanks are kept pretty clean.So I thought I was doing good with this one as I didn't see any uneaten food around.Usually my ghost shrimp clean up any leftovers.

All seemed well until I went to do a water change.As I took water out I sniffed it and didn't pick up any real odor,so I would have thought it was pretty clean.But when I added water it stirred up just a ton of debris from the gravel.And much of it looked unlike anything in my other tanks.It looks like small bits of woolly fluff.I vacced like crazy and took some of the gravel out for a thorough cleaning.Rinsed the filter as it got full of the stuff.I think I am going to end up having to take everything out and do a complete change to get rid of this gunk though.

The odd thing is that my water tests fine and all the tank inhabitants are healthy.Any ideas what this stuff is? I suspect it got started from bits of stuff in the burrows that the crayfish makes.I think I am going to have to stir those up and clean them in between regular cleanings.

Koda

 

[Koda]

Wow...32 views and nobody else has seen this kind of stuff in a tank???

I am truly alone in the galaxy

Koda

 

[jordan barnhart]

wooly fluff?

like cotton? or fuzzies?

ive heard this could be fungus

 

[daniodude]

no clue what the stuff is, but I like ur duck tape avatar

 

[Koda]

wooly fluff?

like cotton? or fuzzies?

ive heard this could be fungus

That's what I was thinking.Wondering if crayfish can have a small amount of salt in the water and if that would help prevent it.I've never had fungus in a tank before but crays may be more prone to stuff like that on account of the burrowing.He's constantly making little lurking spots.Guess I'll post the question over in the invertabrate forum.Thanks

Koda

 

[Inchworm]

Hi Koda

Does it look like dandelions when they go to seed? A dot in the center and a ball of white fuzz around it? If so it's uneaten food gone bad. Just vacuum it out and you will have no problems.

 

[Koda]

Hi Koda

Does it look like dandelions when they go to seed? A dot in the center and a ball of white fuzz around it? If so it's uneaten food gone bad. Just vacuum it out and you will have no problems.

Yup...that's exactly what it looks like.Trouble is there was a ton of it and my vacc doesn't seem powerful enough to really get it all out.I am amazed at the amount.I only feed a few fish flakes and a couple of shrimp pellets here and there.The cray has the guppies and ghost shrimp and I thought he'd eat those too but he doesn't get one very often at all.I'd have thought the ghost shrimp would clean up any leftovers but maybe they can't get into his lurking spots and it builds up there.

Koda

 

[Inchworm]

Hi Koda

The shrimp pellets could well be your culprit! Are you using Wardley's, by any chance?

 

[Koda]

Hi Koda

The shrimp pellets could well be your culprit! Are you using Wardley's, by any chance?

Oooohhh...this is spooky....are you peeking in the window?

Yup...it's Wardley's.I don't end up using them for much else.Do you know what would be better for my craycritter?

Thanks


Koda

 

[mwm]

My crayfish ate feeder gold fish uhh i almost fed him hotdog..if this helps..They like dead gold fish also if u LFS can like give u soem dead fish

 

[Da_Oz]

They love bacon but your water don't. I am with MWM if you can go to the LFS and get there dead fish but this is not a real good thing cuase they can go bad quick and you never really know what killed them. Feeder gupps are good. But best is earthworms. Like night crawlers. $2 for a dozen feed like part of one each day and keep them in the fridge. And most can live in salted water. But I would ask about yours first, not sure of they all can but some live in very salted to salt water in the wild.

 

[Koda]

My crayfish ate feeder gold fish

When I brought him home I added a goldfish,several guppies and ghost shrimp.That was a while back and about all he's eaten from the livestock is the goldfish and possibly a shrimp or two.I'm not sure if he killed the fish as I found it stuck on the filter.I wound up sinking it for him and then it finally got eaten.I think I'm going to cut back the shrimp pellets and pick up another feeder goldfish or two and see what happens.Meanwhile I'll give the tank a complete change and siphon out his lurking spots more regularly in the future.

Thanks everyone,

Koda

 

[Koda]

They love bacon but your water don't. I am with MWM if you can go to the LFS and get there dead fish but this is not a real good thing cuase they can go bad quick and you never really know what killed them. Feeder gupps are good. But best is earthworms. Like night crawlers. $2 for a dozen feed like part of one each day and keep them in the fridge. And most can live in salted water. But I would ask about yours first, not sure of they all can but some live in very salted to salt water in the wild.

Thanks...I'll try some of what you suggested.Don't think I'd go around scrounging dead fish from the lfs either though.I can always get feeders and if worse comes to worse I can sacrifice one for him myself

But I suspect if he gets hungry enough he will brush up on his hunting skills


Koda

 

[Amtrak21]

One time, I left my changing water outside for a few days, and when I did a water change, I see tons of little pieces of wood, grass,and hair coming out of the container and into my fish tank! I think this had stuck my nitrite spike that one time.

I wasn't able to see wut was coming out, was I was using an old cat litter container with non see through plastic. Well, at least I learned not to leave bottles outside anymore.