# What's this stuff on my hortwort?



## 11thEarlOfMars (May 15, 2021)

Apologies if this isn't the right place for this post. This is wild-collected hornwort/coontail from central Florida (Ceratophylum demersum) in a 40 gallon low-tech Walstad biotope NPT. All plants and animals in the tank were collected by myself from local waterways, and this plant has been in there for at least 6 weeks. I just found this thin blobby stuff growing on some of it. Not sure if it's fungus, algae, eggs, snail slime, an interdimensional meta-being from the hyperplanet Zarquonex-Epsilon 3A in the Fomalhaut sector, or what? Other tank inhabitants include least killies, bluefin killies, gambusia, sailfin mollies, a golden topminnow, a swamp darter, a tadpole madtom, a baby pleco, a variety of snails (including 3 large apple snails), clams, and grass shrimp, all of whom are doing well. Substrate is MTS under sand, and I do have wood aquascaping. Water parameters are all good and the only algae is on the shells of a couple apple snails. It's a biotope tank, so I'm not seeking a "perfect" show tank with unnaturally clear water and a sterile looking environment, I just want to maintain a healthy, balanced ecosystem. Is this stuff anything I should be concerned about?


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## spaquarista (Jun 23, 2021)

I'm no expert, nor very experienced, but my first thought is that is seems to be..some sort of snail eggs? But if it's getting bigger...than maybe some biofilm sort of thing, if not algae. Hopefully not harmful. Anyways, better wait for someone else to chip in!


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

I see tiny white dots in the clear matrix which make me think snail eggs. If the individual blobs get larger, then I am probably wrong. If they stay the same size, then disappear as the presumed eggs hatch, then I amprobably right. If so, you will see more blobs as the snails lay more eggs.

Please show us a photo of your tank. Few people attempt biotopes, I'd like to see yours.


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## 11thEarlOfMars (May 15, 2021)

This is a month old picture, the tank now has more plants and fish and the giant snails have been removed as well as the plastic floating rings... but you can get the general idea. This is an Upper St. Johns River biotope, which basically means the south half of mainland Brevard County and all of mainland Indian River County in East Central Florida. I collected all of the plants, fish, and invertebrates from the wild within that zone. I also built the stand and the lights myself, in an attempt to be as DIY as possible. The tank has a small circulation pump with foam over the intake, but no filter as such.

It's had some hiccups along the way, but one of the primary purposes of this was to learn, which I certainly have done. The tank is pretty stable now, and the fish are happy and _always_ hungry and begging for food! They get fed probably more than they need, but it's fun to watch them eat so I don't mind and the plants are handling it all just fine.

Livestock includes lots of least killifish, bluefin killifish, sailfin mollies, golden topminnows, eastern mosquitofish, one awesome little swamp darter, and a tadpole madtom that I never see except with a flashlight at night. There used to be tons of grass shrimp, but I think the madtom has been munching on them to the point there's almost none left. There are all sorts of snails, again there were tons to start with, but they have gradually disappeared. I had three giant apple snails which we really got attached to, but I had to take them out because even feeding them large leafy green veggies daily wasn't enough to keep them from eating all of our plants. Oh yes, a dozen clams too. I'm still trying to collect some flagfish, which is the species I originally started out on this whole project to keep! Lol

Plants include hornwort, duckweed, salvinia, water lettuce, bacopa, Hydrocotyle, hydrilla, and a couple of things I'm still trying to identify... since everything is collected in the wild, I sometimes end up with interesting plants that I know are from the local ecosystem, which get put in the tank before I even positively identify it. I ended up with alligator weed which is invasive however at the moment I felt it was more important to get as much plant life growing then to get too picky over what it actually was. I've got loose eelgrass (Vallisneria americans) leaves, but the snails ate all the ones with roots I planted. Ultimately of course I'd like to close in on having nothing but natives, both plants and animals.


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## skrimpfan (Dec 28, 2021)

Hey OP, what happened to your mystery blob? I have the exact thing growing in my tank, others have suggested snail egg as well. I'm in washington, curious what kind of snails I'm getting


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## 11thEarlOfMars (May 15, 2021)

Well, I found more blobs when I did tank maintenance, mostly on the plants nearest the bottom but a little up top. It's only on the hornwort. My current thinking is it may be a colony of fungus or bacteria that springs up where sizeable chunks of fish food got stuck on the plant, and weren't taken care of by the fish or shrimp or snails. I see no evidence of it having any negative effect upon the tank, except aesthetically. It still _might_ be snail eggs, I suppose, but I haven't seen any tiny snails at all (though it's likely any baby snails would get consumed pretty quickly by the fish).


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## skrimpfan (Dec 28, 2021)

Got it, good to know. I read from your other thread you have a nature style tank, me as well, so I saw you also have a more tea colored water in your tank. So far my critters seem happy as well


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## 11thEarlOfMars (May 15, 2021)

Yeah, I actually noticed that the color/clarity of my tank is a close match for the water where most of the critters came from. The tannins aren't harmful at all, nor does it bother the fish. It's definitely a more natural look. However I have been doing some partial water changes, just to try to remove some of the tannins simply so I can see through to the back of the tank! I also have a tough time seeing the sparkle of fish near the bottom, due to the combined shading effect of the water and duckweed/salvinia surface cover, except when the sun hits the front of the tank in the late afternoon and then it's quite spectacular.

I have a bunch of pics and captions made up, I'll get around to posting a tank journal eventually.


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## 11thEarlOfMars (May 15, 2021)

Oh yeah, one other thing... I now have 5 flagfish (Jordanella floridae) in the tank, and have observed them spending lots of time carefully picking stray food particles and just random "stuff" off the hornwort (without hurting the hornwort at all). Maybe they will keep it clean and the weird fuzzy fungus/bacteria/eggs/bacon protoplasm gunk will abate? We'll see. I can't recommend flagfish enough, they're such personable and pretty little fish and adapt really well to life in a well-planted tank!


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## skrimpfan (Dec 28, 2021)

Thanks for the recommendation, if I see flagfish in my LFS I'd definitely consider it. 

On the vort. colonies, I made the mistake of shaking it when I first found it on the root of my floaters, so a few days later I had to clear out colonies on my baby tear and hair grass and pearl weeds. I did a salt dip for my floaters and put them in quarantine, and that seem to kill the colonies, altho a few days later I can spot tiny bit of growth on the floaters still. This seem to be an ongoing maintenance issue going forward..


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## skrimpfan (Dec 28, 2021)

I hope your flagfish eats these things!


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## Joergen (7 mo ago)

I have the exact same blobs, and the middle image is showing them near by developing without the white dots yet.

what are those?


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

My guess is filter feeding protozoan colony. I forgot their name.


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## FernKing (4 mo ago)

11thEarlOfMars said:


> View attachment 74066
> 
> 
> Apologies if this isn't the right place for this post. This is wild-collected hornwort/coontail from central Florida (Ceratophylum demersum) in a 40 gallon low-tech Walstad biotope NPT. All plants and animals in the tank were collected by myself from local waterways, and this plant has been in there for at least 6 weeks. I just found this thin blobby stuff growing on some of it. Not sure if it's fungus, algae, eggs, snail slime, an interdimensional meta-being from the hyperplanet Zarquonex-Epsilon 3A in the Fomalhaut sector, or what? Other tank inhabitants include least killies, bluefin killies, gambusia, sailfin mollies, a golden topminnow, a swamp darter, a tadpole madtom, a baby pleco, a variety of snails (including 3 large apple snails), clams, and grass shrimp, all of whom are doing well. Substrate is MTS under sand, and I do have wood aquascaping. Water parameters are all good and the only algae is on the shells of a couple apple snails. It's a biotope tank, so I'm not seeking a "perfect" show tank with unnaturally clear water and a sterile looking environment, I just want to maintain a healthy, balanced ecosystem. Is this stuff anything I should be concerned about?


I’m in Florida and I want to create a Walstad-style native Florida tank! Do you have more pictures and info?


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## skrimpfan (Dec 28, 2021)

That's vorticella 

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