Clear Type Bubbles On My Fishtanks Glass!

[brappinseven]

Hey guys

im new to fish and all so please excuse my ignorance if any
i went out and bought a 50ltr tank, threw some pebbles in it and some goldfish
they kept dying

so i went out and bought these small tropical fish which have now been in the cold water for 3 or 4 weeks
i then went out and bought some cold water fish, similar to the tropical small fish, but with blue stripes and they are living too

the last day or 2 i noticed that there are some white bubbles on the glass, at the top of the water.
what could this be ?

heres a pic of the bubbles and some of the fish, as im not sure what fish they are

plz help!

http/img251.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00140zh5.jpg <--- bubble egg type things
http/img365.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00141ul5.jpg <--- fishies
http/img237.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00145ld1.jpg

the last image is of 1 of the fish, which is the fattest of them all, its belly its pretty dark!

what do you guys think?

i also have a huge snail, which is like half the size of a bottle cork

any feedback would be appreciated

 

[GoldLenny]

The first picture of the "Bubbles" stuck to the glass could be an egg cluster from your snail. Can you take a picture of your snail from a couple of angles and post links to them? Most apple snail species lay egg clusters right above the water line like that. Try to take another picture of the possible egg cluster from a little further away so it won't be blurry. Since your tank isn't large enough to handle a bunch of babies, if it is an egg cluster, you may want to remove it or at least most of it.

The other thing that first picture could be is a Betta's bubble nest but I did not see a Betta in your pictures. Do you have any other fish that are not in the pictures?

I'm not familiar with the fish in the second link. Do you have an idea of what they are? If not, maybe someone here will recognize them.

The third link is to a Zebra Danio... looks like a female. How many ZD's do you have?

Do you know what the water temperature is in your tank?

Do you know what size tank you have? It definitely appears to be too small for goldfish. I know the pet stores show small tanks with goldfish in them but goldfish get much too large.

 

[brappinseven]

Hey

here are a couple pics of the snail, altho it seems to be sleeping or something
Zebra Danio is the name of 1 of the fish that i recall
heres another pic of the unknown tropical fish too

http/img246.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00146qe1.jpg
http/img263.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00147kk0.jpg
http/img294.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00148ly8.jpg
http/img294.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00149xd9.jpg
http/img183.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00150pb0.jpg

the snail is only new, we bought it no less then 48hours ago
not sure what the water temp is
we bought a ph test kit, originally the water was around 7.8 which is fairly high, over the last 24hours its made its way down to 7.3
Our tank is only small (34 Litre) as we only wanted 2 Goldies, but they keep dying for various reasons
we just moved houses and our last 2 goldfish died a few days later, 1 died of a red spot and the other, well, he just suddenly died with no notice

Just noticed that some of the bubbles have disappeared
we did have some small Apple snails, around 5 or 6, really small ones but they died a day or 2 after we moved houses aswell ;s
a few days before the last apple snail died, it was clinging to the glass in some sticky type stuff (similar to the bubbles in the pics) which we thought it might be laying eggs, but it was probably no more then 2months old, and still on the really small side for a snail

 

[J4MES]

The unknown tropical fish are golden barbs, these and your zebra danios require warmer temperatures of about 26-28C. I would recommend you buy a heater for your tank.

J4MES

 

[brappinseven]

Hi J4MES

these fish have been living in our tank for weeks and weeks now
its the goldfish which end up dying ;s

 

[J4MES]

I would still recommend a heater, the fish you have are tropical and require warmer temperatures than goldfish etc. For your tank I would think a 20W heater would be adequate. This wont cost you much and your fish will be a lot happier.

J4MES

 

[SnBMeg]

Those definitely aren't apple snail eggs. Their eggs are pale to medium pink, uniformly ~2mm in diameter, and are layed in clusters above the waterline, not on the waterline.

Ah, here we go (had to dig around in oldold photos), these are apple snail eggs:

This particular cluster was a little over an inch long.

I see you've got something in the tank that's producing bubbles (an airstone or bubble wand, or something similar?), and my guess would be that that's where the bubbles came from. If one of your snails was crawling around near the surface, it is possible that it left a bit of sticky behind long enough for bubbles to catch in the same area. It's not 100% for sure, but based on everything so far that would be my best guess.

 

[brappinseven]

hey

nah we dont have anything which makes bubbles
the way the pump is, it sucks the water into a filter which sits above the tank
the water then filters out through 5 little holes spread over 10cm and they dribble down into the centre of the tank, so thats the only thing that could cause bubbles i guess
and it is possible that the snail has left sticky stuff along the top of the water line

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

You definately need to do some research on the fish you have bought and on understanding how the water quality in your tank works as otherwise your fish will continue to die of water quality problems or desease and you could be putting them through a lot of unesarsary stress through lack on knowledge on them and the tank.

Recommended important reading on water quality/nitrogen cycle and keeping tanks healthy;

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=10099

http/www.fishforums.net/Beginner-Resouce...ere-t88643.html

Fish species index;

http/www.fishforums.net/Fish-Species-Index-f36.html


A 50litre tank would have been too small for two goldfish in the long run either way and its likely that they died from water quality problems from the tank cycling or stress-related health or desease problems brought about from the stress of the cycling tank conditions.
A 50litre tank is not that big a tank and is very easy to overstock it or put unsuitable fish in it if you are not careful and do not thoroughly research your fish before buying them, some fish you own may already be unsuited to the tank depending on what they are. There are thousands of fish readily available in tropical, sub-tropical, coldwater, freshwater, brackish and marine fishkeeping etc- some grow to less than 1inch long, others grow to over 4ft long, some are very agressive while others are very peaceful etc- the need to do research on your fish before going to the store to buy them is thus vital if you intend on keeping a healthy and properly stocked and maintained aquarium/s .
Right now i'd advise reading up as much as posible on cycling tanks/avoiding and treating new tank syndrome in the above links i gave you.

Right now what gear do you have for the tank- do you have a filter which is suitable for the size tank you have and heater and themometre? Do you have dechlorinator/water conditioner and how many fish do you have?

Tropical fish need to be kept in tropical temps (24degrees or more), sub-tropical fish need to be kept in sub-tropical temps (19-23degree's) and coldwater fish need to be kept in coldwater temps (18degrees or colder). Each type of fish will have its own specific preffered temp- for example danios are sub-tropical fish, and 22-24degree's is very good for them, while guppys are tropical fish and 24-26degree's is ideal for them etc. Many fish can live in a wide variety of temps, but to keep the fish in good health you should aim to keep it in its most ideal water temp range.
Keeping the right fish in the right temps is very important- the temperature of the water surrounding the fish has a great effect on the fishes metabolism, and keeping fish in the wrong temps will cause it to have too fast or too slow metabolism which can make the fish ill/sick or not live as long and happy life as it would normally do. The metabolism of a fish effects its digestion, activity levels and immune system and more- this is one of the main reasons why keeping fish like coldwater fish with tropical fish is not recommended.

The "bubble's" are probably the product of some type of bug/insect which got into the tank, they do not look like snail or fish eggs to me- to be honest they don't look harmful and i would just wipe them out of the tank with a fresh clean sponge .

 

[GoldLenny]

While Zebra Danio's are cool/cold water fish but many people do keep them in tropical tanks. They actually prefer temps below 75F. http/fish.mongabay.com/species/Brachydanio_rerio.html

Most barbs prefer tropical temperatures. Someone mentioned the other fish being Golden Barbs and I did not see a profile on that common name on Mongabay. I found profile for Golden Barbs and Gold Barbs at other sources and this one, called a Gold Barb (with no scientific name) has a picture that looks like your fish... http/www.fishlore.com/profile-goldbarb.htm and here is the Fishbase.org profile http/fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=12150.

You snail is definitely one of the apple snail family. The picture posted of apple snail egg clusters is a common type but there are other types of egg clusters. The color ranges from white to pink but I know I read there were also certain apple snail family species that also laid eggs under water. Here's a profile that has links to pictures of some other egg clusters. http/www.biol.andrews.edu/Everglades/org...snail_index.htm

 

[brappinseven]

Hey guys

thanks for all the replies

How can i tell if a fish is male/female?
how can i tell if its pregnant or not ?

1 of my Zebra Danio's (pictured above) is becoming really fat compared to the others
someone here also mentioned that its a female

how can you tell ?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Hey guys

thanks for all the replies

How can i tell if a fish is male/female?
how can i tell if its pregnant or not ?

1 of my Zebra Danio's (pictured above) is becoming really fat compared to the others
someone here also mentioned that its a female

how can you tell ?

It depends a great deal on the type of fish. With zebra danio's, mature females are a lot more curvy and plump looking than the males and are often slightly larger, while mature male danios are a lot more slender/slim looking.
(male zebra top, female bottom);

http/badmanstropicalfish.com/sbs/cyprini...20sbs_zebra.jpg

Danios are egg layers, they thus become egg laden and not pregnant when carrying eggs and when they spawn they lay eggs which the male then fertilises.
Livebearer fish (fish which give birth to fry/baby fish and not eggs) would be fish like guppys, mollys, swordtails, platys etc.
Female danio's often carry eggs on a regular basis and even after they lay they they often retain their egg laden look, however the chances of any fry successfully hatching and surviving is very slim in the average community fish tank- to have an chance of successfully breeding danio's you need to set up a tank dedicated to spawning them and then raising the fry as both the eggs and fry are extremely vunerable.
Right now though i would just advise concentrating on getting your tank sorted out and research more on your tank and fish- a 34litre tank is too small for danio's either way in the long run, so you should consider upgrading the tank or rehoming the danio's at some point. They may be small fish but they are very active and need to be in shoals of at least 6+ of their own kind as they are shoaling fish and will feel very stressed and vunerable in groups too small. Because they are so active, a long tank is best (i would go for at least a 2ft long by 8inch wide and 10inch tall tank minimum).

 

[GoldLenny]

That picture that Tokis linked to does not show it clearly but male ZD's have a golden/yellow tint to them and are more "colorful" than the females which are more of a plain black/white color. I agree that the females are a little fatter and sometimes much fatter.

Isn't it funny how nature mimics reality? Just kidding ladies!