stringy slimy

Question
Hello,
I've had a 10 gallon tank for about two weeks now and yesterday afternoon, I added 7 new fish. After being out for a couple of hours, when I got home, I noticed some stringy, slimy looking stuff clinging to my fake plants and some floating around my water, it has no color. My fish are fine however. It's still there today, and I think it might be getting worse. My boyfriend which has had fish his entire life, said it didn't look normal. If you could please help me determine what this is, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you, Stephanie.

Answer
Hi Stephanie
That could be slime coat from the fish.  Did you have any fish in there before adding the new fish?  Or it could be from the new fish, when water quality is poor(which could be your tank since it's new if you did have other fish in before adding these), or maybe the pet store had bad water, fish's slime coat can build up and it may have fallen off in your tank.  That would probably be my guess.  It could also be from a parasite infection or a bacterial infection on the fish, again that can cause the slime coat to build up.  Go ahead and remove it, and keep an eye on the fish.  Also, if you have a test kit, test your ammonia and nitrite levels.  In a cycled tank, those should be reading 0 ppm and nitrates under 20 ppm.  For a new tank that's cycling, the ammonia or nitrites will spike high first before leveling off to 0 ppm.  

Let me know if you have more questions, or if the fish start showing any problems/symptoms.

Christy