HELP!

[dolphinstj]

OK, I take a two day trip to chicago and I come home and my 20 gallon has went haywire. All my fish were dead except my pleco. The fish in my other three tanks were fine, just this one tank went bad. Upon closer insepction I noticed something on my fake plant. It kinda looks like a thick spiders web under water if that can give you a visual. It was not there when I left the tank. Also, there are tiny itty bitty worms things crawling on the glass and occationally floating around. I am guessing these things are what killed the fish but what are they and why is my pleco still untouched after a week???

 

[Dane]

they may be some sort of parasite, you may want to try to research something on it, if someone could actually give you a name for them.

 

[Erised]

Did you leave anyone else in charge of feeding, or just didnt feed at all?
To me it sounds like the tank got overfed.

Have a look at the symptoms of overfeeding on this website, and see if thats anything like it: http/www.bestfish.com/overfeed.html

 

[FishDan]

The "spider web" is probably a fungus or other growth. The little worms are likely planaria. Neither by themselves could have killed your fish. Unless the worms are something else, give us a description. Though I'd still doubt they are the cause of your deaths. Both the fungus/growth and the worms can be signs of overfeeding, or may just be a result of a sudden imbalance in the water. Check your parameters to make sure everything is alright. You didn't mention of you tested your water, and that's the first thing you should do when you have unexplained fish deaths.

\Dan