# looks like my leafy plant has this stuff growing, looks like tangled black hair



## jilly (Feb 16, 2008)

all along the end of the fronds, they are starting to grow this black, stringy sort of stuff that actually looks like little black hairballs. There are also some rusty looking spots on top of my garishly neoen rainbow colored walmart caves. 

(ok be gentle, it's our first tank! I wasn't expecting to get anything but a betta fish in that cup, and then sadly show my daughter the circle of life as we flushed him off to fishy heaven in a week or so.. and here I am 3 tanks later, the original betta did unfortunately go with the ferryman to the other side (we placed mini-m&m's on her fishy eyes to pay the ferryman, as I told her the ferryman down below out toilet swould be more interested in chocolate than gold)


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

Sounds like bba. Tank parameters, fertilizing schedles, etc, would help to let us know how to direct you. 

Mini M&M's, huh?


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## jilly (Feb 16, 2008)

now today it also looks like there are white spots on the plant too - should I just pull the plant itself? Is it beyond saving?

The tank is a 10 gallon tank, has about 7 smallish live plants, 2 apple snails about 10 (and ever more appearing) little mini brown snails, 2 neon pink tetras, 3 rainbow tetras, i orange platy, and 2 silver triangle-y tetras. We've been feeding them once a day, and I check the levels of the water every few days. I think last time i checked it, (yesterday or the day before) the ammonia was high and i put an ammonia clear tablet in...
We've had it for about 3-4 weeks and have done a 20% water change each week..


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## lauraleellbp (Jan 31, 2008)

Any chance you could post a picture of the plant in question?

Just a suspicion- but it's common for petstores to sell plants that really are not aquatic and will die underwater; you may have one of those?

Ammonia should always read 0ppm in a healthy tank. Anything over 0.25ppm is increasingly unhealthy/dangerous for fish. 

My guess is that you did not cycle this tank before adding your fish. Adding an ammonia tablet will not help in the long run, unfortuately.

You need to do daily water changes, enough to get your ammonia down to 0.25ppm if your fish are going to have a shot at surviving the "New Tank Syndrome" that is currently occuring in your tank. Your tank needs to cycle in order to be able to support fish.

Here's the basics of cycling:

Fish waste is ammonia and nitrIte. These are chemicals are toxic to fish (imagine swimming in your own pee and poop). In an established tank, enough nitrogen-fixing bacteria (N-bacteria) are present to convert ammonia into nitrIte in the first step, and then nitrIte into nitrAte in the second step. NitrAte is the goal of cycling- it is less toxic to fish, and also food for plants.

In a new tank, it takes time for the N-bacteria colony to grow to the point that the ammonia and nitrIte are converted quickly enough into nitrAte that the water remains safe for the fish. A new tank is very unstable during the time period it takes this to happen, and the water parameters can change dramatically from day to day. It is not uncommon for it to take a month or longer for things to balance out. During that time, you will need to do very frequent water changes to keep those ammonia levels down to as safe a level as possible if the fish will have any chance of surviving.

This whole cycling process is incredibly hard on fish, and is also the main reason that first-time fishkeepers give up and leave the hobby- they didn't understand how to properly get their tank cycled and kept killing all their fish. Once a tank is properly cycled, however, the hard part is over and you can just get to the work of enjoying your fish and plants!


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