Fry Tank Problem

[dgerow3]

Hi

So i have noticed the last week or so a slow build up of brown slime on my 10 g fry tank. I usually do a water change 25% to 50 % every other day. however the last two weeks my personal life went into chaos and i have spent all my days off at the sick kids hopital in toronto My last water change was on monday and i did about 75% and tried to clean the slime off the sides of the tank, however i now am seeing some of my fry flicking off the air tube in the tank and i have one fry that doesnt look so good, so now i am worried. last night i checked the water stats and both ammonia and nitrites are 0. I have been feeding them first bites about 3 or 4 times a day and they are 1 month old now. Can i now back off how many times i feed them. Is there somethng else i should be doing and does anyone have any suggestions why the fry are flicking off the air tube? Does anyone know what the brown slime might be and was it a bad idea to clean it off?

Edit: I now have lost two of the smaller fry with another not looking to good and 13 others swimming near the top

Lost one of the bigger ones now with a smaller one still not looking good, did a 50% water change, keeping my fingers crossed no other casualties

 

[KittyKat]

Cutting down feeding to twice a day won't harm them, but will slow down the growth rate. The slime is a type of "algae".. your best bet is to keep up with the water changes and keep cleaning it off.

 

[Harlequins]

I've noticed with first bite,liquidfry etc,that the sides of my fry tanks gets a film over they,whether this is because fry food has got of growth building protein in them i don't know.Now the fry are bigger i would give them crushed flakes,i put some month old platy fry in the main tank and all they eat is the same has i feed the adults plus what they find around and about

I'm not sure why the fry are flicking,one thing apart from ich,is that when you do the water changes is the temp of the water closely matched? fluctuations in temp can cause ich i think.

 

[dgerow3]

I've noticed with first bite,liquidfry etc,that the sides of my fry tanks gets a film over they,whether this is because fry food has got of growth building protein in them i don't know.Now the fry are bigger i would give them crushed flakes,i put some month old platy fry in the main tank and all they eat is the same has i feed the adults plus what they find around and about

I'm not sure why the fry are flicking,one thing apart from ich,is that when you do the water changes is the temp of the water closely matched? fluctuations in temp can cause ich i think.

yes i have kept the temp pretty close to the tank temp when doing water chages i will fill up a bucket with tank water and then when put the new water into another bucket i keep checking with my fingers between the two buckets'and then i get my thermomter out to see how close i am before i put the new water in .

 

[OldMan47]

Fluctuations in anything, temperature, pH, hardness, salt or anything else, cannot ever cause ich Harlequins. Ich is a parasite and is caused by the parasite being present. End of statement. If you have the parasite in a tank, it will infest some or all of the fish, if you don't, they can't contract the disease. Although some fish are more susceptible to ich than others, it can only live a very few days without a host. If it finds a host, there will be a fish that shows signs of the disease. If it does not find a host, the parasite in the tank will die out quickly.

For a good description of the entire life cycle of ich and its treatment, follow the ich info link in my signature area.