White dots on glass

[Dephea]

Hi

(disclaimer: English is not my first language and I am new to the fish hobby so please go easy on me)

I currently own a 150L tank with tropical fish. It is still a work in progress thing but I am taking it slowly as until about 3 months ago I truly believed I can't keep fish alive.

Inside I have 6 rummy nose tetras (unsexed), 5 gouramis* (1M, 4F) and 3 clown loaches (unsexed). Now before I get told off for the latter - I am fully aware loaches will grow and will require a huge tank. Depending on how my fish tank will do I consider getting a custom made tank that fits in my living room between two chimney breasts. That would be a 750-800L tank that I already had priced so as soon as the living room renovation is done I can order it to be made. If my fish hobby fails I will make sure that the loaches go to a suitable home where they can enjoy a big tank. That was already checked by me with my local fish shop owner so I am confident that one way or another they will have a good home whether here or with someone else.

Ammonia is on 0ppm, Nitrite very rarely shows 0.25ppm, usually I am on 0ppm too. My pH is between 6.5-7.0 (I use the water drop test and I find those two colours very close on the chart so I'm not 100% sure. I have the tank for roughly 3 months now and so far I had zero dead fish so I am going to believe I did well in terms of the water quality. I do water changes weekly, between 20-30L - this is based purely on how long it takes to vacuum the gravel).

Now, to the issue.

The last two fish added to my fish tank were 2 female gouramis. This was done when I was away and since I am the main animal mama in this mini zoo household I did not have a chance to inspect the fish. I know they were introduced to the fish tank properly because my partner knows I'd wreak havoc if he just dropped the fish in without preparation. It's only when I returned I noticed some odd white spots and my male gourami was flashing occasionally. The tank is treated with Interpet Anti white spot, aeration is increased (air stone and Fluval U4 blowing bubbles), temp is around 25 degrees Celsius, I don't really change it as I noticed the stable 25 is best for the fish and plants and doesn't change when my house gets colder / warmer.

I did my research and majority information about white spots is saying that the parasite will eventually fall off the fish and it can attach itself to glass where it's multiplying. As I was cleaning some odd green spot algae I noticed dust like white spots on the glass - those are not air bubbles, doesn't look like Hydra either. I have no snails yet and I am pretty sure those are not snail eggs either. The spots are flat, very small. Used magnifying glass and they don't seem to be moving, I tried to remove them with the magnetic cleaner and they come off very easily. Is it possible that it's the white spot parasite taking over my fish tank? if not is it just some hard water residue?

Apologies if it's a stupid and normal thing in a fish tank, I take the well being of all my animals seriously so I just want to make sure I didn't mess something up.

Thank you very much in advance for any help

* I am unsure if all small gouramis can be refered to as dwarf gouramis, but I do have the small ones, happy to check all names properly if it's needed for the purpose of rectifying the issue

 

[Wills]

Hi welcome to the forum, no need to appologise for the quality of your writing it is perfect !

I am fully aware loaches will grow and will require a huge tank. Depending on how my fish tank will do I consider getting a custom made tank that fits in my living room between two chimney breasts. That would be a 750-800L tank that I already had priced so as soon as the living room renovation is done I can order it to be made. If my fish hobby fails I will make sure that the loaches go to a suitable home where they can enjoy a big tank.

Just wanted to say this is such a great attitude to have to these fish. Clown loaches are a tough fish to house so the fact you have plans at an early stage is really good. They fit into a group of fish for me that due to the numbers you see in stores I think we usually have to be a bit more relaxed about how they are kept, as long as they are in a tank close to 4 foot by the time they get to a good size then it is better than a good 60-70% of them would end up in. So the fact you are talking about 750-800L is fantastic. You know by joining this forum means you are going to have success though dont you So we will be excited to see this tank!

Onto the white spots on the glass, it wont be the ich parasite you are seeing, the parasite off of a fish is in a larval form and would be too small to see. They could be young snails that have started to hatch from plants that have recently been introduced. They could also be some kind of micro fauna that is good to encourage in the tank as it is building the biological maturity of the tank.

Going back to when you mentioned you had some white spot in the tank did you treat it with anything? Such as a medicine, salt or high temperatures?

Wills

 

[Dephea]

Hi Wills,

thank you for your response.

I got my loaches as the first fish that went into the big tank and they are only about 2 inches each - still plenty of time to worry about the size but I always prepare a few options just in case something goes wrong.

I am confident those are not snails. I bought all my plants before I had the fish and all plants were in a 30L tank for roughly 2 weeks before the 150L tank arrived. That tank is still up and running but it is literally just a tank with a few plants and at the moment there are 2 tiny gold fish I am housing for my friend as she is on holiday. I didn't decide what to do with the small tank jut yet so I kept it in case I need a quarantine tank. I know I can't keep it cycled with no fish for too long so that's something to think about too. That tank 100% doesn't have snails and from googling photos it just doesn't look like them. Micro fauna does make sense, I wonder if I should carry on cleaning the glass as I do now? I am relieved it's not the white spot dudes, I truly hate them with passion now.

Going back to when you mentioned you had some white spot in the tank did you treat it with anything? Such as a medicine, salt or high temperatures?

In regards to the treatment I did the following:

The tank is treated with Interpet Anti white spot, aeration is increased (air stone and Fluval U4 blowing bubbles), temp is around 25 degrees Celsius, I don't really change it as I noticed the stable 25 is best for the fish and plants and doesn't change when my house gets colder / warmer.

I am very careful with the temperature as the loaches are being little pricks and they sometimes get behind the heater and one of them just likes to get stuck. I moved the heater a few times, removed the cover as the smallest loach was hiding inside of that too and there was no way for escape - it's a one way death trap. Higher temp on the heater means the heater will be running more often as my house itself is colder and I am absolutely terrified of cooking the fish alive. I work from home so I can check the tank and rescue the little suicideman, but I am somehow not ready to keep waking up during the night to do that

I did order the salt today to have in my fish first aid box but I don't want to use it on top of the actual medication so I thought I will just treat the tank for 2 weeks and take it from there. The flashing gourami seems to be swimming just fine and I can't say any of the fish are doing anything weird, just waiting to see the spots disappearing. I didn't see many of them at all so I want to think I caught it early, unless the other fish have them in their gills only in which case I can only hope the additional aeration can help.

Domi

 

[Guyb93]

Could it not be diatoms? I would possible describe them as little white dots on the glass , a photo would help ?

 

[Essjay]

I am unsure if all small gouramis can be refered to as dwarf gouramis, but I do have the small ones, happy to check all names properly if it's needed for the purpose of rectifying the issue

There are two commonly available small species of gourami - honey gourami and dwarf gourami. Many people refer to honeys as honey dwarf gourami but this can lead to confusion. Properly speaking, dwarf gourami is just one species, Trichogaster lalius.
But the actual species should not affect the issue.

The less common small gouramis include chocolate and sparkling gouramis.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

A photo of the spots would definitely help.

 

[Dephea]

Could it not be diatoms? I would possible describe them as little white dots on the glass , a photo would help ?

Just by googling it I'd say no - I did have the lovely brown algae / diatom bloom at the beginning of having the tank, it cleared out now.

There are two commonly available small species of gourami - honey gourami and dwarf gourami. Many people refer to honeys as honey dwarf gourami but this can lead to confusion. Properly speaking, dwarf gourami is just one species, Trichogaster lalius.
But the actual species should not affect the issue.

Okay so in that case I have both - honey and dwarf. I will read more about those so I can understand the differences. Thank you!

It's hard to take photos because the dots are really tiny but seems like a magnifying glass taped to my phone worked somewhat okay. The green spot algae is clearly green and I only have a small amount of it so I can clean it for now before I get some snails, the white spots don't seem to be linked to the algae itself as they appear all over the glass really, not only around the green bits

 

[Slaphppy7]

Welcome to the forum.
Are the dots moving, or stationary? See what happens when you wipe the green algae, if they come off of the glass.....they're so tiny, it's really hard to tell what they are

 

[Dephea]

Are the dots moving, or stationary? See what happens when you wipe the green algae, if they come off of the glass.....they're so tiny, it's really hard to tell what they are

They seem to be stationary, coming off very easily just by using the magnetic cleaner thing (you know, two pieces of plastic on both sides of the glass with the magnet inside). I need to check if and how fast they come back. Ideally I want to clean the green spots too, but my tank is quite tall so to clean the bottom part I literally need to get nearly my entire arm in (up to my tricep most of the time, I'm short, lol) so waiting for a scraping tool to come from eBay before I try again properly. I don't think the white spots are linked to the green algae as like I said the white dust appears all over the tank whereas the green spots are only in the brightest places but might as well clean it all and see what happens

 

[Slaphppy7]

Did you rinse your filter media very well before setting up the tank?
Many times, ceramic or other types of media can be dusty, when new out of the box....that is what I am thinking this may be...or, dust from other equipment or the tank itself.

 

[Dephea]

Did you rinse your filter media very well before setting up the tank?
Many times, ceramic or other types of media can be dusty, when new out of the box....that is what I am thinking this may be...or, dust from other equipment or the tank itself.

Ha now that might be the answer to my issue! I did give it a good rinse in the bucket filled with the tank water but the filter did spit out some white particles still. I only recently upgraded from Superfish 150 (came as part of the tank) to Fluval U4 and frankly I didn't really notice that many of those white dots before. Either it is caused by the filter or I only noticed it now because of the algae. I cleaned the glass now so I will monitor it and see if it comes back.

For some time I had both filters running in the same tank and I did move some media from Superfish to Fluval to make sure I am not starting with a blank filter again but I did notice the Biomax that came with Fluval was crumbling more so this would make sense. As long as my tank is not all covered in white spot parasites I can relax, I was just freaking out it was dangerous to my fish. Phew what a (hopefully) relief!

Thank you so so much!

 

[Slaphppy7]

More than welcome, I do believe that is what you are seeing on the glass...