No...the rust colour stuff is diatoms...microscopic things who use up any silicates in your water..they often appear in a cycling or newly-cycled tank. Scrape em off if they bug you, they'll die-off eventually.
You can't see the good bugs...they're too small and most of them will be in your filter.
Pami.
Sick GS Puff
Forum rules
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
Hi Pami,Pamela wrote:No...the rust colour stuff is diatoms...microscopic things who use up any silicates in your water..they often appear in a cycling or newly-cycled tank. Scrape em off if they bug you, they'll die-off eventually.
You can't see the good bugs...they're too small and most of them will be in your filter.
Pami.
Are these diatoms a good thing or a bad thing? Should it be scraped off? Or does it not matter?
On a side note, the tank's cycling great. My ammonia's back to zero and have yet to check the rest of the parameters.
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Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
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I'd let them bloom and then die off...if you keep scraping them off, they'll always re-establish themselves, but if you let them flourish, they'll get too populous and die off. They're horrid-looking, and feel yuk, but just turn a blind eye. It can be a sign, though, that there's a lot of organic compounds in your tank, but as you're still cycling and getting the tank to settle, that may change.
Pami.
Pami.
Well, Frankie finally died last night 
I think he had a worm eating away at him from the inside out. I never could tell until his last hours when he looked really emaciated. I was trying soo hard to keep him alive too.
I should have known better though, because he looked like that the day I got him. I'm sure he had it all along. I learned my lesson, no more buying fish on-line.
I think he had a worm eating away at him from the inside out. I never could tell until his last hours when he looked really emaciated. I was trying soo hard to keep him alive too. I should have known better though, because he looked like that the day I got him. I'm sure he had it all along. I learned my lesson, no more buying fish on-line.
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Feathers&Fins
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 201
- Joined: Sat Jun 04, 2005 5:42 pm
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Pufferless since Nova passed; had 2 red T.miuris, 4 T.biocellatus for many years.
- Location (country): KY (USA)
- Location: (US) Kentucky
Thanks Pami. Your help has been appreciated 
I bought him at Aquariumfish.net The site is helpful, however, in my mind their fish supplier isn't the best. All my fish came in pretty ruff shape. I've found a local shop since that seems to be great. Thats where I'm getting my next puffer. His gsp's look great as do his porcupine's and dog faces.
I bought him at Aquariumfish.net The site is helpful, however, in my mind their fish supplier isn't the best. All my fish came in pretty ruff shape. I've found a local shop since that seems to be great. Thats where I'm getting my next puffer. His gsp's look great as do his porcupine's and dog faces.
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Feathers&Fins
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 201
- Joined: Sat Jun 04, 2005 5:42 pm
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Pufferless since Nova passed; had 2 red T.miuris, 4 T.biocellatus for many years.
- Location (country): KY (USA)
- Location: (US) Kentucky