Film on decorations-?

[Emerson]

Last night while I was doing a regular partial water change, I noticed a small patch of sort of filmy stuff on one of the decorations. It looked a little scummy or slimey, not green like algae, but transparent. I lifted the decoration out of the water and wiped the film off and didn't really think any more about it.

Today I was looking closely at the decorations in the tank, and can see tiny traces of this same film on a few other areas on both decorations. I'm wondering if this could be from the StressCoat that was I was earlier, or from the AquaSafe I'm currently using. Or is this some sort of fungus?

I'm now wondering if I should remove the decorations and clean them -- and if so, how. Can I just use my algae scrubber on them in the tank? The two decorations in the tank are very large (see pic below) and I'd really hate to remove them. Does anybody know what this film could be, if it needs to be cleaned off, and if so how to it do without causing too much disruption?

[Betta MVP]

If it's not visible but just feels kind of slimy, this is pretty normal, but if you don't like it, you can wipe it off. When I used Stresscoat a long time ago, I did notice that it REALLY slimed up my tanks with the aloe. If you can actually see this stuff or it is stringy and hanging off of stuff, I would think the Stresscoat could be the reason.

You could just wipe it off while the decorations are inside the tank, it shouldn't hurt anything. If it's thick and falls off, suck it out with your turkey baster.

BTW, I really like your tank set up. Looks like loads of fun for Horatio!

[Emerson]

Hi!
Thanks! -- yes, it is kinda stringy, and you can only really see it if you look closely at some of the edges of the decorations. What you say confirms my feeling about the StressCoat.

I think in my next major clean-up, I will use something to wipe around. Is there a good tool for this? It needs to be something small...I'm thinking the algae scraper/pad is going to be too bulky, but maybe not. (By the way, are you in the habit of sticking your arm down into the water to clean or move things around? I've often wondered if this okay to do).

Thanks for the compliment! Horatio loves all of his hideys holes, and is one busy little undersea explorer! LOL

[Megan]

Stresscoat will definitly leave a film, both on the top of the water and on decorations, and Aquasafe probably can as well. Any conditioner with aloe in it, or some ingredient that they claim helps a fishes slime coat, can leave a nasty residue. Some are worse than others, but if you really don't want to deal with the nasty film all over stuff, I would suggest getting a simple water conditioner that has no slime coat additives in it. I wish I could recommend a few to you, but I don't use water conditioners anymore as I now have well water with no chlorine or chloramines in it.

Your tank set up is awesome! You must have one very happy betta! He's lucky his mommy is so good at decorating!

[Emerson]

Good point. I really would like to find something to deal with just the ammonia, chlorine and chloramines and not add anything for slime coat. Might Amquel do the job?

Thanks for the compliment! It's a little hard to tell in the picture (especially with a slightly "hex" tank front), but it's sort of a black forest motif. My husband wanted castles and I wanted trees, so these decorations seemed to satisfy both! LOL Horatio seems to approve, too.

Another question on the topic of cleaning...do either of you ever notice a thin sort of film on the top of the water after you clean or do partial water changes? This has been happening to me lately and I don't know why. It eventually goes away, but it almost looks like "dust" on the surface. Could this just be from stirred up debris? Or could this also be film from the AquaSafe? I really only notice it after a water change.

Yikes, if these products leave so much residue all over the place, what are they doing to our Bettas' gills-

[Megan]

Amquel is a good one, and it does remove chlorine, chloramines, and ammonia. They say you should use it in conjunction with Novaqua, though I don't know why since Amquel does everything, you don't really need the Novaqua as well. I don't think Amquel has any slime coat stuff in it, though Novaqua definitly does.

I think the dust your talking about is exactly that, dust and stirred up debris, as well as small bubbles from the water being stirred up. Unless its filmy or slimey, then its probably not from the Aquasafe.