Question: White slime in my fish tank constantly… I cant stop it?
Hello, i have a 27 Gallon Hexogon Fish tank. For some reason i keep getting this white/clear slimy stuff growing on my rocks. It seems to grow in area’s around the plants and pirate ship and other objects. I’v tried removing some things thinking maybe i had to much in the fish tank as far as objects. However that doesnt stop it, i barely had any fish in my tank and it still growing, all my fish died from it like a month ago at least i think thats what killed them.

I got some new fish last night because all i had were 3 “Huge” Silver dollars, one of those big brown sucktion fish you know the ones that get like 6 inchs long thats how long mine is, and 2 smaller fish i dont know there names. Basicly my tank looked empty. Anyway i got 8 new fish the other day all small ones and 1 inch in length, bright yellow/purple ones and 2 silver/black striped fish. They were only $ 1.66 each.

It seems 2 of the 4 yellow i got are already dead. The others seem fine so far, im sick of my fish dying. I need help i dont know what the problem is. I have plenty of bubbles in the tank from the bubble pump, i have cleaned out the filter and replaced it not to long ago. I did some heavy duty cleaning of my tank not to long ago with the hose that sucks up the crap in the rocks. I used my fish net to get all the slim out of the tank but swooshing the rocks around and using the net in circular motions to capture it all.

So i dunno, i dont feed my fish that much maybe 1 Pinch of food every day or 2. Right now after i found more slim growing in the corner of my tank and under my pirate ship i just totally removed the ship cleaned the slim up. Now my tank is bare rock.. What should i do ?

My fish totalls right now are

3 Large silver dollars “they grew big” bout the size of my palm almost.
1 large sucktion fish ” maybe 5-6 inchs long
2 small Yellow fish maybe 1 inch long
2 Purple fish of the same speciies as the yellow
2 Black striped silver fish maybe the size of a quarter
2 inch long fish that have been in the tank for ages.

So i have 12 fish in a almost 30 gallon tank.

Also i just recently put those silver dollars in my mom didnt want them anymore so i put them in my tank because all i had were 2 fish in my tank, before i had tons of neon tetra’s and other smaller school fish in my tank and 1 black shark with the red fins. However all those died after the slim came. The 2 recent fish that died i mentioned the yellow ones, i found inside the pirate ship when i removed it they must have gone in there when i turned the light off and just died i dunno..
Nooo its not due to overpopulating did you read what i said. ? My tank ahs had 3 fish in it for the last month and still had white/clear slime growing.

The 3 silver dollars are only recent i put them in like a week ago.

When i said a bunch of neons i only had like 5 of them. Ok i found a website with a list of tropical fish and this is what i had originally in my tank

4-5 Neon etra
4 Black Neon Tetra
1 Common Pleco
1 Clown loach
1 Red tailed black shard

Thats what i had in my tank originally. I had 8 tiny tetra’s basicly, and 1 shard, 1 pleco, and a clown loach and your telling me thats to much 1 30 gallon hexegon tank ?

Right now i have

3 Silver dollars
1 Pleco
1 Black neon tetra
2 Black widow tetra
1 Bleeding heart tetra
1 Knife LiveBearer “the yellow fish”
1 other yellow fish with a black tail i cant find its picture on this website

Answer:

Answer by Sarah
The fact that you added all of those fish to your aquarium at the same time, it put stress on them as well as raised the ammonia and nitrite levels as the aquarium is not used to housing that many fish. This is why you must add fish slowly, max three fish every week.

Silver dollar fish are schooling fish that thrive when kept in groups of at least six. They grow to be around 6″, so a 30g tank is not suitable for them. I recommend at least a 60g tank for a school of six silver dollars.

What kind of “sucktion” fish? Common pleco’s grow to be around 3-4ft in length and need to be in very large overfiltered aquariums/ponds. Your tank is suitable for one of the “dwarf” varieties of the common pleco, including the zebra, clown and bristlenose. They only grow to be around 4-6″.

A 30g tank won’t support “tons of neon tetras… and 1 black shark with the red fins” because it’s not large enough. A school of 10-12 neon tetras will thrive in a 30g, but red tailed sharks grow to be around 6″ and are schooling fish, I don’t recommend anything under 120g for a school.

Unfortunately, that’s all I can tell you. I don’t know what other kinds of fish you’re keeping, and frankly neither do you if you’re calling them “small Yellow fish”, “Purple fish of the same speciies as the yellow” “Black striped silver fish” and “inch long fish”. You should only buy fish unless you’ve done your research and you know all about their needs and requirements inside and out.

The slime is due to overstocking. Please return your fish.