Tank with eggs on gets film on water?!

[mroli123]

I have recently been given some axolotl eggs, they are pretty much developed and you can see their gills and stuff, so hopefully they will hatch soon!

I have them in a large plastic shoe storage box, with a moss ball, some strands of other plants from my larger tank, a plastic plant and a terracotta pot which has been cut in half, also some larger rocks to add hiding places

I don't have a filter, and I change the water every other day.

The problem I am having is I get a thick build up this slim stuff on the water surface, I know you get it sometimes on larger tanks (I get it in my larger tank but not as bad, I think a little of it is good) but it gets so thick that I can't see into the tank and when I wipe it away to see how the eggs are doing it turns into white stringy stuff?
Does anyone have any idea of what it might be? Or if it is anything to worry about?

Once the eggs have hatched I plan to put them in individual tubs to stop them eating
each other and just make it easier to clean

 

[melfly]

Hey Oli
I dont think its anything to worry about. What dechlorinator do you use, it could just be this, or the fact that the water is not bein airated. It shouldn't cause any problems to your babies.

Good luck with the babies! Cant wait to see pics

Mel

 

[mroli123]

I use Aqua safe, I've never had any problems with it before, but its good to hear that its probably nothing to worry about, I thought the same but didn't want to risk losing the eggs! My girlfriend said she caught our house rabbit sniffing around it the other day and may of been drinking from it! So I have done a 75% water change just incase anything untoward might of got in, hopefully they will hatch soon!

 

[carsona246]

I've heard of a lot of reasons for that kind of film to appear. Surface agitation is usually the solution, but I don't think it's harmful at all.

 

[mroli123]

I have been scrapping it away from the surface, it tends to just break up and some clumps of white stringy stuff lays around, I was wondering if it was to do with the eggs as they are sticky, maybe it one of them has broken or something it might of been leaking out, but then I decided that it was a dumb idea!

 

[bayhicoach]

The scum on the surface of your tank is protein - frequently the product of bacteria. It could be a problem from the standpoint of not allowing appropriate gas exchange through the surface of the water. This is especially important in a tank with no circulation. As you know, aerators don't really add oxygen to the tank - they move the water so that the water at the bottom of the tank can come to the surface and while there take on some more oxygen. What is the capacity of your box? You may need to slowly agitate the water to prevent this from occurring. You can do this with a very slowly moving airstone.

 

[mroli123]

The box isn't that big, its just a standard storage box I picked up for cheap not so long ago, It is about 1/4 full of water, probably around 5 litres of water at a guess!

I don't have any power suply in my spare room (where they are living at the moment) once they hatch I plan to move them downstairs close to the rest of them but space is at a minimum!

Is there anything I can/should do?

 

[melfly]

If your concerned do a partial water change daily.

Mel

 

[mroli123]

Thanks Mel, I did a 75% water change a couple of days ago to try get rid of all the left over bits, it hasn't come back so hopefully it won't be an issue! Still haven't hatched! They are moving around in the eggs though so hopefully won't be too long!

 

[wickedzik]

Hello Oli,

I think we have the same situation, does it somehow look like this?

I was observing it very carefully where the scum is coming from, I'm not sure if it's coming from the bloody fluids that scatter when I feed my newts bloodworms. So I was just wondering, what do you feed to your Axos? And lastly, found this site which provides details regarding it.

LINK => Elusive Surface Scum

Hope it helps. Good luck man.

 

[mroli123]

Yeah mine looks like that, but sometimes it gets really thick and gunky which is when I scrape it all off and do a big water change

I feel my axies a variety of things, frozen bloodworm, earth worms, maggots, daphnea,
I did wonder if it was one of the foods producing it but could never be sure which one. I haven't had a problem for a while and I haven't really done anyting different so don't know what it was! I did notice that it tends to hang around on floating plants more (my axie enjoys uprooting them so when I come home they float around the surface, sometimes with gunky stuff around them)

 

[Morrison]

I sometimes have that in my filtered tanks as well. Sometimes it's worse than other times. I guess when I accidentally feed them a bit too much pellets or bloodworms. Today I have the same in one of my tanks. I've heard that they're probably dead bacteria, and if you touch it the layer 'crumbles' into pieces.

The thing I always do: I put a little cup or a bottle and I put it slightly under the water surface so that the 'eew goo' will suck into the cup/bottle. I repeat this till everything (or most of it) is gone. For the 'less serious' times I use a paper towel and lay it on top of the water surface so that the towel sucks up the 'eew-ness'.

I always try to aim the end of the filter spray thingy on the water surface so that it keeps in motion. Most of the time it works, sometimes it doesn't (like today -_-')