Help! Bacterial bloom or fungus?

[ImperialKit]

Hello! I’m very sad to introduce my little baby Tomie this way...

About 2-3 weeks ago, and this wispy stuff appeared on my spider/mopani wood (pictured below). I had boiled and soaked the wood before hand. When I put in the wood, everything was clean for about a week until in just a few hours, when I came back at the end of the day,the wood had the wisps. I did some research and it seemed to be bacterial bloom and not a fungus because she wasn’t affected in any way since it came (my tank isn’t cycled, I added beneficial bacteria and use seachem prime to detoxify anything that may harm her). The bloom however didn’t seem to go away and instead became all brown and mushy, I got some shrimp to help eat it up but she’s been snacking on it.

My anxiety now is coming from the fact that I was cleaning her tank 2 days ago and accidentally scooped her up as I was trying to clean some of the floating wisps. I felt very bad as she hid in her tank all through yesterday and the tip of her tail was curled (Yes I have cleaned her tank before without her getting stressed, so I assumed it was the net accidentally scooping her thar freaked her out). Today however, she stepped out of her cave but I started to freak because I saw this blueish white stuff on the top of one of her gills (pictured below). She is only a baby only 6-7 months old, wild type, gfp, so I’m not sure if this is a colouration as she grows or it is a fungus caused by stress. Nevertheless, I just tubbed her right now in declorinated, fresh tap water to take clear pictures of her gills and prevent further infection or anything.

Despite me trying to cycle the tank with her in it, she has never shown any signs of stress, was eating and pooping regularly(she actually just pooped in the tub right now), and seemed very happy. Yes I know I should’ve cycled beforehand, this is my first ever pet however for therapy reasons and I didn’t know about cycling until the day before I got her.

TD;LR- I’m not sure if what I have in my tank is bacterial bloom or a fungus. I also don’t know if what Tomie has is a fungus or just coloration. She is stressed from her last tank cleaning and the “supposed” fungus only came two days after her tank cleaning.

I am a 16 year old keeper so I don’t have too much experience but I’m trying my best and I only want the best for her!

 

[Calgarycoppers]

What you are seeing on the wood is biofilm. Normal but gross.

I dont see the tell tail cotton fluff of "fungus" on your axolotls gills.

As for cycling....

Are you testing your tank with a master test kit daily?

Using prime to detoxify everything for 24 hours also means it can never "feed" the bacteria to create the bed of bacteria and convert the toxic at any level ammonia to toxic at any level nitrite and then less toxic nitrate.

 

[ImperialKit]

What you are seeing on the wood is biofilm. Normal but gross.

I dont see the tell tail cotton fluff of "fungus" on your axolotls gills.

As for cycling....

Are you testing your tank with a master test kit daily?

Using prime to detoxify everything for 24 hours also means it can never "feed" the bacteria to create the bed of bacteria and convert the toxic at any level ammonia to toxic at any level nitrite and then less toxic nitrate.

Oh that makes me much less worried! Do you know how I can get rid of the bio film or will it just go away on it's own?

Also yes I am testing frequently to make sure water levels are not dangerous. I don't add prime every 24 hours as to allow SOME bacteria to allow it to feed. Also I am making sure it's not getting too dangerous. And I have prepared a plan and tub so that if/when the ammonia levels rise to a dangerous level, I can keep her safe.

 

[Calgarycoppers]

Adding a bunch of ghost shrimp would help as they will eat the biofilm otherwise you may need to tank out give a scrub and replace.

Any ammonia and nitrite is toxic so be careful.

Oh that makes me much less worried! Do you know how I can get rid of the bio film or will it just go away on it's own?

Also yes I am testing frequently to make sure water levels are not dangerous. I don't add prime every 24 hours as to allow SOME bacteria to allow it to feed. Also I am making sure it's not getting too dangerous. And I have prepared a plan and tub so that if/when the ammonia levels rise to a dangerous level, I can keep her safe.

 

[ImperialKit]

Adding a bunch of ghost shrimp would help as they will eat the biofilm otherwise you may need to tank out give a scrub and replace.

Any ammonia and nitrite is toxic so be careful.

Ok! I did buy some ghost shrimp, 4 in fact, but Tomie snacked on two of em'. However I am planning to get more.

I do have some beneficial bacteria to speed up the process. Tomie is in her favourite spot right now and she isn't hiding in her cave anymore so to me that signifies that she's getting less stressed/better.