weird stuff on bottom of tank

Question
Chris,
Thanks for the quick response.  I appreciate it, but I should have included in the previous email that this started occuring about 1 week after we cleaned the tank.  Before we cleaned it the water was very gloomy, but now much more clear.  We made sure to go to our local pet store for instructions before cleaning the tank.  My husband made mention that he thought he saw some of the stuff coming out/off of one of the fish before it dropped to the rocks.  I also took a closer look at the white cloudy substance on the outside of the sacs and it resembles cotton a bit better.  Please advise..thank you very much.-------------------------

Followup To
Question -
Chris,
I hope that you can help us.  We have a sucker fish, 4 beta fishes and i am not sure of the others.  There are about 10 fish total.  For about 2 weeks now we have noticed peachy/pinkish sacs with what appear to be silverish balls/bubbles on the inside of them.  They seem to be on one side of the tank and the fish all relocated to that same side of the tank.  At first there were just a few and now it seems to be taking over.  There is like a white coating on the outside of these..not too dark though.  It resembles, at best a small piece of wet toilet paper falling apart.  I am afraid this may be harming the fish.  Please let me know as soon as you can.  Thanks!
Answer -
Hi Misty;

Sounds like rotting leftover food and/or waste. The white stuff is saprolegnia fungus and can be dangerous to your fish. Make a 25% water change and vacuum the little nasties out. Don't remove more than 25% though. It can shock the fish. You can do it again every day if you don't think it all got picked up. Just not more than 25% in one day.

Cut back on feeding so that it doesn't do that again. We all overfeed from time to time. We just have to remember to clean up after ourselves when we do.

Followups welcome

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins

Come on over and join us on the freshwater fish forum at About.com to get even more information too;
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Answer
Hi Misty;

It could be decaying eggs that one of the fish has laid. Fish will lay eggs after a water change because it makes them feel like spring rains have come. It is nature's call to breed. The eggs are now infected with fungus because they are infertile. Saprolegnia fungus looks just like cotton on the surfaces it is trying to consume. It only takes a couple of days for it to start growing. It still could be decaying food as well. It grows several times larger than the organic matter it is enveloping, making it look like a little colored center. Decaying food often looks pink or brown in the center and eggs usually look whitish, brownish or yellowish. So who knows? The important thing is to get it out of there. The best way is to siphon it with an aquarium vacuum.

The cloudy water you had before the cleaning could be from new tank syndrome, overfeeding, overcrowding, overcleaning, or even a filter cleaning or replacement. These are all possible causes for the bacterial balance to be disturbed. In a fully established tank that has been set up for 8 weeks or more, there should be a healthy colony of beneficial bacteria in the filter and gravel to consume the fish wastes. When these colonies of helpful bacteria are disturbed or overtaxed, there is often cloudiness, water smells, and the fish can get sick too.

Make sure that when you feed the fish you only feed once a day and only enough for them to consume from everywhere in the tank in 5 minutes. Even if the fish eat all of it over a longer time, they are getting too much. They just can't digest it properly so it just comes out as excess waste. (Yuck!)

More Followups welcome

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins

Come on over and join us on the freshwater fish forum at About.com to get even more information too;
http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/questionsanswers/a/naavigateforum.htm

My member name is ChrisR62. See You There!