AGreenDarkness
New member
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- Jun 5, 2008
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- Location
- Waynesburg, Pennsylvania
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- United States
- Display Name
- AGreenDarkness
Ok, new developments. Any input is helpful!
Woke up this morning, Squish was sitting on the bottom of her tank as usual, but her legs were all pointed in strange angles and she didn't appear to be moving at all. In true Kati fashion, I panicked and woke up everyone in the room to come look at her. She was very pale and there was seriously no movement. Her gills were not moving, she was not moving. I was terrified.
After about 10 minutes her gills seemed to do a small wiggle and I was like AH! She is alive!!
I have been doing water changes as often as possible and I try to take at least 20-30% of the water out and replace it every day to keep the tank clean.
I have been trying to contact my mom about whether or not it would just be better to sell her to someone or to give her to someone who can give her a better home than a ten gallon tank in a dorm room. Unfortunately, recent events have caused my mom and I to stop talking and I can not talk to her anymore. Until I talk to her I cannot in good conscious give away or sell Squishy.
Because of this I sat around for two hours today racking my brain as to what could be causing this illness, is the water quality off at the school? Is there a bacteria that is in the tank? Is the water too hot? too cold?
I sat staring at the tank and then I saw it, I am amazed that I have missed it this long.
There are small purple patches of what appears to be a jelly like substance on the side of the tank. Not many, just a few in the corners, along the bottom edges etc. I stared at it. What is this!? Then I notice purple wispy strands hanging out the bottom of the sucking part on the filter, the filter appears to be completely clogged by this purple goo.
I sat there for a good ten minutes thinking to myself what is this purple stuff and where is it coming from!
Then it hit me. THE SAND! A few months ago when I replaced Squishy's rocks with sand, I bought pretty purple sand that the pet store guy told me was perfect for aquariums.
When I brought it home and put it in the tank i noticed that it was turning the water purple, I did post a thread about it asking and Kaysie mentioned that it was calcium sand and it would dissolve into the tank.
So now it hits me, slowly over the last few months my sand has been dissolving into the tank, the sand dissolves and leaves the color floating, the color grabs on and forms these patches on the tank. The color gets a hold of little pieces of dirt and clogs the filter.
After I found this I spent an hour or two cleaning the tank, I made sure to only clean the jelly patches and leave anything that didn't look dirty so I didn't get rid of all of my healthy bacteria, the filter was a different story. I had to completely disassemble my filter, clean everything with Q-tips and wash everything. IT WAS DISGUSTING!
After everything was cleaned and not covered in purple goo I began to do a water change just to make sure all the yuck was gone. I removed all her decor from the tank and attempted to get Squish out so I could do a 100% water change. Squish had a huge panic attack which ended in a cut tail so I left her in there and just kept taking water out, putting water in, taking water out, putting water in along with trying to get most of the sand out, impossible to get all the sand out with her still in the tank. Eventually it seemed that all the disgusting-ness was getting out and I was beginning to relax and began to think maybe I could do this whole dorm room axolotl.
As I was finishing filling up the final bucket to put into the tank, I walk into the room and find Squish doing intense acrobatics...possibly seizures? After about 45 seconds she stopped and now seems fine, if not angry that most of her sand is gone and her tank is rearranged.
Advice? Anyone?
I will try to post a picture of too
Woke up this morning, Squish was sitting on the bottom of her tank as usual, but her legs were all pointed in strange angles and she didn't appear to be moving at all. In true Kati fashion, I panicked and woke up everyone in the room to come look at her. She was very pale and there was seriously no movement. Her gills were not moving, she was not moving. I was terrified.
After about 10 minutes her gills seemed to do a small wiggle and I was like AH! She is alive!!
I have been doing water changes as often as possible and I try to take at least 20-30% of the water out and replace it every day to keep the tank clean.
I have been trying to contact my mom about whether or not it would just be better to sell her to someone or to give her to someone who can give her a better home than a ten gallon tank in a dorm room. Unfortunately, recent events have caused my mom and I to stop talking and I can not talk to her anymore. Until I talk to her I cannot in good conscious give away or sell Squishy.
Because of this I sat around for two hours today racking my brain as to what could be causing this illness, is the water quality off at the school? Is there a bacteria that is in the tank? Is the water too hot? too cold?
I sat staring at the tank and then I saw it, I am amazed that I have missed it this long.
There are small purple patches of what appears to be a jelly like substance on the side of the tank. Not many, just a few in the corners, along the bottom edges etc. I stared at it. What is this!? Then I notice purple wispy strands hanging out the bottom of the sucking part on the filter, the filter appears to be completely clogged by this purple goo.
I sat there for a good ten minutes thinking to myself what is this purple stuff and where is it coming from!
Then it hit me. THE SAND! A few months ago when I replaced Squishy's rocks with sand, I bought pretty purple sand that the pet store guy told me was perfect for aquariums.
When I brought it home and put it in the tank i noticed that it was turning the water purple, I did post a thread about it asking and Kaysie mentioned that it was calcium sand and it would dissolve into the tank.
So now it hits me, slowly over the last few months my sand has been dissolving into the tank, the sand dissolves and leaves the color floating, the color grabs on and forms these patches on the tank. The color gets a hold of little pieces of dirt and clogs the filter.
After I found this I spent an hour or two cleaning the tank, I made sure to only clean the jelly patches and leave anything that didn't look dirty so I didn't get rid of all of my healthy bacteria, the filter was a different story. I had to completely disassemble my filter, clean everything with Q-tips and wash everything. IT WAS DISGUSTING!
After everything was cleaned and not covered in purple goo I began to do a water change just to make sure all the yuck was gone. I removed all her decor from the tank and attempted to get Squish out so I could do a 100% water change. Squish had a huge panic attack which ended in a cut tail so I left her in there and just kept taking water out, putting water in, taking water out, putting water in along with trying to get most of the sand out, impossible to get all the sand out with her still in the tank. Eventually it seemed that all the disgusting-ness was getting out and I was beginning to relax and began to think maybe I could do this whole dorm room axolotl.
As I was finishing filling up the final bucket to put into the tank, I walk into the room and find Squish doing intense acrobatics...possibly seizures? After about 45 seconds she stopped and now seems fine, if not angry that most of her sand is gone and her tank is rearranged.
Advice? Anyone?
I will try to post a picture of too
