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Is The Unknown Moss In My Tank Deadly To My Discus??

1297 Views 3 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  em_em
Hi~ and thank you for viewing my post... Hopefully u can help me to figure out what the hell is growin in my tank. But its freakin me out- and i dont want my fish to die :)

OK- I have 1 discus and 2 kauli (not sure of spelling) loaches (little eel-type things, live under the gravel) in my tank.

I also have one living plant (other than this moss thats growing EVERYWHERE) not sure what type of plant it is, but it is growing out of a peice of drift wood and it was growing health UNTIL this moss over took my tank and its really thick on the plants leaves, which are starting to die.

The MOSS itself is dark green, long/tall enough to sway in the water currant and is attatching itself to EVERYTHING- The heater, all plastic plants and rocks, the glass... it looks like fine little hair- type moss that grows in single little clumps, close together.
Where it is really thick- it looks like velvety furr.

Its been in my tank for months, but lately its starting to really take over. My loaches have been acting strange (well- i think they are acting strange- they NEVER come out and iv had one sitting near the top of the tank, hanging around the filter. It doesnt appear to be sick but just stays stationary until i delibertley disturb it and it swims almost like its tryin to get out of the water!! but just stays at the top of the tank. The past couple of days, i havent seen it.

Im contemplating moving my fish into another tank and destoying all the moss and plants in my big tank and starting over- BECAUSE im cluess to what it is and i dont want it to kill my fish.
BUT ive always wanted moss to grow in my tank (Plants to grow even, im not good at keepin plants alive) and i dont want to kill it if it is ok to have in my tank.
But i would rather my fish-LOL- than the moss... ANYDAY!

PLEASE HELP!!
Im not a noob at keeping fish- just not very in-the-know when it comes to plants, ect

~Em Em;)
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That sounds more like you have an algae taking over than a moss. Have you looked through the algae finder in the gold bar at the top of the page to see if anything in there matches the description of what you have? It sounds kinda like bba (black beard algae) which can be green.

If the plants leaves are covered the plant can't photosynthesize and will die. I've had mosses partially attach to leaves but then it's fairly easy to remove. Only algae clings on so firmly to everything in the tank.
I wonder if your "moss" is really caldophora, a type of algae. Look here http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm
Page down until you see what may be your "moss".

I've never heard of caldo being dangerous to fish. It may be that the algae is shading your plants and causing them to die and rot, which will in turn, raise the ammonia levels in your tank, which could harm your fish.
hi guys!
thanks for your replies!
Yup- definetly bba!! my fish will b moving house tomoro- lol
thanks heaps!!!!

ur replies are worth your weight in gold!

Ema
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