Oil Slick?

[linda1503]

Hi I recently 'rescued' 6 baby guppies from my tank and have them in a breeding trap in the main tank. They have been there a week now and are eating well (hungry little buggers! lol) and seem to be thriving and growing. The trap is quite a large one and any food that falls to the bottom my other fish take care of by picking at it from below. I have however noticed what seems to be an 'oil slick' on top of the water. I did move the trap around gently and now the oil slick is in the main tank and the filter takes ages getting rid of it. Can anyone tell me what this is and will it harm my fish or babies? Thanks

Oh the tank is a 2ft community tank mature over 12 months old, all stats are fine. Filter is a fluval 2+

 

[lilfishie]

not sure why it does it but mine used to do it too, and if i don't cover my fry tank the same thing happens, i just remove as much as i can

 

[linda1503]

Oh thanks for that lilfishie, thought there was something going terribly wrong, and it was just my tank doing it with having the trap in there. I'll do as you say and try to remove as much as I can each day. It doesn't seem to bother the babies and I'd hate to lose them at this stage. Cheers!

 

[theotheragentm]

Place a paper towel over the surface of the water. You'll pull up the top layer. Done and done.

 

[poopsydrew]

Place a paper towel over the surface of the water. You'll pull up the top layer. Done and done.

I love how simple that is, I would have never though of that
I get that stuff once in a blue moon and just leave it, it goes away.

Drew

 

[CataphractMSH]

I have platy fry in da main tank 2 among da live plants.

except i do water changes on tuesday n thursday.

so i see much surface film at all.

but paper towl is cool 2.

 

[fourthtimelucky]

Have you got very hard water? I get this on top of the bowl I use for growing moss. Looks really blue and oily but I think it must be somehting to do with limescale as I get it on cups of tea too (that really freaked me out when I moved down here from the north!) Paper towels -- genius!!!

 

[linda1503]

No, the water round here is not too bad, slightly harder than the last place we lived though but all my fish survuved the move ok. Paper towels is a genius idea!

 

[fourthtimelucky]

I thought I'd seen something on this before -- if you do a search on all forums for "oily water" various previous threads come up about this. Apparently it is something to do with proteins & surface agitation, not limescale at all! You might want to have a look as various other solutions have ben suggested.

 

[dunchp]

I thought I'd seen something on this before -- if you do a search on all forums for "oily water" various previous threads come up about this. Apparently it is something to do with proteins & surface agitation, not limescale at all! You might want to have a look as various other solutions have ben suggested.

I often get an oily residue on my unfiltered tanks. I find that a small drop of melafix dissipates it but I have never seen it as too much to worry about.