# small plant/growth on driftwood - photo



## drella (Mar 22, 2011)

Hello, I'm 6 months into the hobby, and I noticed these small growths in my fry tank, and snapped a photo of 3 of them, but there are several attached to the driftwood. Is it a snail, an anemone, a fungus? It's almost tulip shaped and gray with a yellow center. I don't want them to hurt my fry... Any advice from experienced hobbyists would be appreciated!! Thank you!


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## DKRST (Jan 11, 2011)

It's hard to tell but it looks, to me, like a fish food (pellet?) that has fungus growing on it. Do you have snails in your tank and what type of food are you feeding?


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## drella (Mar 22, 2011)

DKRST said:


> It's hard to tell but it looks, to me, like a fish food (pellet?) that has fungus growing on it. Do you have snails in your tank and what type of food are you feeding?


Thanks for the reply! I do have snails in there but it doesn't look like snail eggs to me. I'm feeding crushed flakes to the fry in this tank. I think of fungi as kind of fuzzy stuff and these have a distinct shape with a small yellow ball in the center.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## DKRST (Jan 11, 2011)

Welcome to the forum!
Unfortunately then, I have no idea what it is, sorry!


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## drella (Mar 22, 2011)

Thanks for trying! 

_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Amethyst123 (Mar 4, 2011)

drella said:


> Thanks for the reply! I do have snails in there but it doesn't look like snail eggs to me. I'm feeding crushed flakes to the fry in this tank. I think of fungi as kind of fuzzy stuff and these have a distinct shape with a small yellow ball in the center.
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


It's definitely not any kind of snail eggs I've ever seen, and I think anemones only grow in salt water, so I'd rule that out, too. I think it's fungus. Yeah, I think of fuzzy stuff, too, when I think of fungus in a tank. But, as you probably know, mushrooms, toadstools, etc., are also fungi. What you have reminds me of the kinds of fungus you see growing on fallen wood in a forest. Where did you get the driftwood? If it came from the great outdoors, it could have had fungus spores on it when you put it in the tank. As for whether it's safe - no idea. I do have some ideas about what types of fungus growing in nature are safe vs poisonous for human consumption, but no idea if the same rules would apply to fish. 

I think if it were me, I'd keep a very close eye on both the fungus (if that is what you have) and on the fish. If the fish appear to develop any problems, and/or if the fungus starts to take over the tank, I'd take the wood out, give it a good scrub, and then boil it to kill anything that didn't get scrubbed off. I also might do that now, rather than wait to see if problems develop. Especially with fry, because they are so tiny, by the time you realize you have a problem it might be too late. 

Good luck with your fry! What kind are they? I have about 85 fry at the moment. About half are guppies, the rest are from two platy drops, different mommies, and from the look of them, different daddies. The guppies and 1 batch of platys are 8 days old, and the others are 2 days old. Lots of fun.


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## drella (Mar 22, 2011)

Amethyst123, thanks so much for the insight! Maybe it is some kind of toadstool. The driftwood was ordered online, and it's supposed to be Malaysian wood for aquariums. I work at a university, so I think I'm going to head over to one of the science labs with the photo on my break and see if someone can help me out...

I have about 30-40 fry in this tank... half are gold and black mollies, half are bright red and orange platys, and there are 4 Dalmatian mollies in the mix, all different ages, but less the 2 months. It's getting crazy with all the babies. People say to let nature take it's course, but when I see them I have to rescue them! Thankfully my LFS is taking them at 3 mos old for store credit 

I've attached an action shot of the gang. Thanks for your interest!


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## Amethyst123 (Mar 4, 2011)

I'm interested in what you find out about the fungus, or whatever it is. 

I love your tank. Your platys look like they have black markings, but it's hard to tell if I'm looking at black tails or black markings on the end of their bodies. I'm assuming they are either wag tail, or mickey mouse? They appear to be about the color of my orange/red mickey mouse platys, but I've definitely seen wags that color, too. 

My fry tank is pretty bare - a few rocks, some handfuls of moss, not much else except lots of babies. I have found 7 more platy babies in the divided 10g where they were born, and transferred them to the 20g with the rest, so I now have 89 fry in there. At the moment, none of them are more than 1/3" long, so it looks pretty empty. By the time they are an inch long, I'll be at 195% capacity, with only 46% of the needed filtration, with my AquaClear 50. And even then they're probably still too small for the lfs that says they'll take them when they get old enough to sell. Don't know what I'm going to do with them till they get big enough. Maybe invest in a couple of large Rubbermaid tubs - cheaper than more big tanks! 

I've tried to take pix, but they're still so tiny that I don't get much detail - my camera doesn't do well with such tiny detail, even on HD setting. My guppies have a half-blue mommy, and the daddy could be any of 3 "turquoise" males, with the blue ranging from turquoise and lavender to midnight blue/almost black, or a red/black tux. The mom of the first platy drop is a sunset, and the dad might be a bright orange or an orange/red mickey mouse. They are all yellow so far, but so were both the possible daddies at this age. The other platys have an orange/red mickey mouse mom, but most of the babies have neon black scales on their sides, so their daddy must be my neon black painted platy. It will be really interesting to see what I end up with.

By the way, I have a total of 10 adult guppies (3m, 7f), 9 adult and almost adult platys (3m, 6f), 2 adult swordfish (1m, 1f), and 2 almost adult mollies (1m, 1f), so if I didn't let nature take its course most of the time, I'd have up to 1000 fry every 3 or 4 weeks, and I'd have to hang myself (not really, of course). This is the first time I've raised more than 2 or 3 from any one drop, and how it came about is a longish story, so I won't incude it here.


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## drella (Mar 22, 2011)

*Update*

Hi! I just wanted to provide an update. I found out it was assassin snail eggs! I probably should have mentioned I had assassins in there! I now have tons of baby assassins. So in case anyone searches this forum with a similar question - I wanted to let you know what that stuff turned out to be! :-D


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