I’ve owned my female betta Peach for less than a year. Recently, whenever I change the tank water it appears to get some kind of slimy film(?) on it. I don’t recall this ever happening before. What’s going on?
https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1f408x1
Posted by sunray_s
4 Comments
Tank Size: 5.5 gallon
Heater: No
Filter: Yes
Tank Temperature: I don’t know
Parameters: I’m not sure what this means
How long I’ve had the tank and betta: About 5 months
Tank Cleaning: I clean it about every 2 weeks. My process begins with moving Peach to a cup. I remove and rinse the decorations and put them to the side. Next I take out the filter and replace the piece inside of it, and then wipe down the filter. I then get my gravel vacuum and start pumping it until the poops are all gone. If I run out of water to keep vacuuming I pour some more in until I am done vacuuming the poop. I then rinse the tank with water and clean the walls with a wet towel to clean any residue. I reattach the filter, put the decorations back, and pour the water back in. After that I use the water cleaner (about 50 drops) and let it spread with the filter on for about 30 minutes. Lastly, I put peach back in
Tankmates: none
Feeding: two pellets in the morning and two pellets during dinner
Decorations: a few fake plants, and a cave
Biofilm clean out your filter or adjust the flow a little higher to break it up this can make it hard for your betta to breathe from the surface so use a paper towel and lay it on top to soak it up right away
Bettas need a heater. You need to understand water parameters meaning ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, ph, GH and KH levels. Please do some more research OP. Hope you know about the nitrogen cycle. In regards to the photo that’s biofilm. Need more surface agitation but could be caused by a number of things hence we need parameters to tell. Invest in a master API liquid test kit. Your betta will thank you. Take a look at live plants too 🙂
Trick we use is to get a mister and put hydrogen peroxide in it to spray the biofilm. A spritze or 2. It eats the biofilm without causing harm. There is a lot of great info on peroxide use in tanks on YouTube