STUMPED and frustrated!

[Cerulean]

I apoligize if this mesage gets posted more than once as my computer is being dumb and i keep losing it so i will write it for the third time.

You guys helped me many times already but i need help one more time. I was able to get my fish healthy again and got him a new house too. He got a bettabow 2.5 gallon and is doing great. Healthier and happier than ever. He is more active and more colorful than ever before and seems to love his new house. So after a month or more of this i chose to get a few tank mates as was suggested on this site, i tried a shimp and snail. He ate the shrimp after one day(oops) so i sucked up the bits and did a few extra water changes over the next week to help out. Shortly after this when doing my suction of fish poo, which i usually do every couple of days, just to get the solid stuff off the bottom that the filter doesn't get, i noticed a bunch of white debree float up when stirred up. It appears to be tiny white ovals and alot of it, although it doesn't seem to move on its own at all. I have looked very carefully and done more water suctions but it is still there. I have no idea what it is and it only appeared in this last week. Before this the only thing that i was able to suck up was the fish poo. So stumped and i want it gone. I have searched a ton on the net and it doesn't appear to be a critter as it doesn't even seem visable unless you move the sand and the water is crystal clear. I am not over feeding as he only gets to pellets a day, although for a day or two i put in some flakes to help feed the snail but though it might be contributing so i stopped , and have done several more water changes and suctions to try and get it out. Any one have any suggestions? I would really like to go back to the way it was and i want it to be healthy in there and look nice. i am now regretting adding the friends but i am not positive that was the problem, it is just the fact that this is when it was noticed. Please help. (again it looks like a bunch of white flakes and white ovals, very very tiny though and nothing moves when you look at it unless stirred up, but there seems to be more every time i clean it.) Thanks and sorry for the long message

[lvandert]

Do you have a picture of your fish? he might be a she. Those sound like eggs that were dropped.

[Cerulean]

No pic sorry. They do kind of look like eggs to me too but he is definitely a male. He has the big throat collar when he flares up and boy does he flare up well and blows bubble nests too. He gets all big and puffy and puts on a show and his fins are large. When the stuff is stirred up he eats it then spits it right out too so I think if it were eggs wouldn't he eat them? All I know is it is gross and I don't want it there and want to get rid of whatever it is. Thanks for the reply any other thoughts?

[toad]

...Maybe they're snail eggs?

[lvandert]

hmmmm. Now i am just as confused as you. Snail eggs are a good possibility. do you have a snail with him? what kind?

[Cerulean]

Yes this all started after I added the shrimP, now dead, and a mystery snail. However I researched snail eggs thoroughly and they are stuck in clusters on something and usually just out of the water and have a specific color and look to them plus are in a sack like thing. That was my first thought too. Anyone got anything else?

[Bladezero]

Mystery snails breed like bastards and don't need anything for it..
One of my boys LOVES eating snail eggs, the others just curios and spit them out after they taste it.. but they keep tasting it again and again..

Without a picture I can't really tell.. As for one shrimp dying doubt it has anything to do with making it..

About the big throat thingy, one of my girls is bigger then all my boys and has a throat thingy large as them when she flares :P Check for the nipple :P

Low quality pebbles \ derbis lose their color quite fast in hard or acidic waters Don't know if its a scientific fact but happend to me with my first bowl and pebbles that came with it..

Worst case you can always sanitize it, Sorry its early for me just woke up.. but is the betta different in any way?

[DiiQue]

It's hard to say for sure without pictures, but a quick google search turned up this site:

http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...-your-aquarium

Check out the freshwater limpet... Dont know if what you are experiencing is indeed that, but it will help narrow down the list of likely candidates.

[lvandert]

wow, that could be it... I'm anxious to hear what their opinion is on it.

[prodrumernate]

from reading the info and looking at the link that DiiQue posted.id have to go along the lines of a bug of some sort.this is new to me.and i never noticed anything like that in my tank.even with feeder fish which arent kept very clean or anything considering they are used to feed reptiles and other fish.but id have to agree about either eggs or a bug.

to me it sounds like Seed Shrimp, Ostracoda..after looking at the pix.