A layer of oil on the surface of water

**waterscape_aq** · 1st Nov 2005, 09:59

hi nothing to worry one to two molly will do the job. add in today and tomorrow the oil will be gone! i always use that in all the tank i've setup

**valice** · 1st Nov 2005, 13:15

mollies seem very hard to find these days...
i went to c328 and some shop in je also cannot find...

**Digimon** · 4th Nov 2005, 16:09

For those who wan to get rid of this protein film using critters, you can also try Oto. My Oto like the protein film. Mollies and Platys are also very helpful but I'm not sure if they will eat your shrimps if you have them in the same tank.

My 1 feet cube tank basically consists of Cherry Shrimps, various Boraras and 1 Oto. So far they co-exist happliy, even the baby shrimps which was born in the tank few weeks ago. Tank is planted with Cryptos, Nanas, Java Ferns and dun know wat moss.

**wasabi8888** · 4th Nov 2005, 16:31

Riccia

using juwel 70.. 2 ft tank.... need to check with them... other alternative is to introudce mollies and otos...

**Johnc** · 4th Nov 2005, 17:20

If you have floating plants, forget about surface skimmers. It will get choked all the time. Have not tried oto, but mollies (any kind) are excellent. Ask the LFS owner to sell/give you one or two from their feeder tank. Or go catch one lesser sailfin mollie... plenty everywhere. Make sure you quarantine though.

/John

**Justikanz** · 4th Nov 2005, 17:24

Oh yes... A lot of the feeder mollies actually look good... Got sailfins somemore!... But hor, how to keep them alive for long periods? I always have these feeder mollies die on me... What a pity...

**Johnc** · 4th Nov 2005, 17:36

Hmm... strangely not my own experience.

My son's lesser sailfins caught off West Coast have lasted more than a year and a half and have reproduced in his practically zero-maintenance tank. He even feeds them with sunshine bread. My 5 year old daughter's red mollies recovered from ich and have reproduced in her 'pond'. Maybe they don't like too much attention

**XnSdVd** · 7th Nov 2005, 01:31

LOL, seems your kids are doing alot better than us "experts". More proof that a simple setup is best.

**sonique** · 7th Nov 2005, 02:40

for those looking for black mollies, u can find them beside the NA shop....

**Justikanz** · 7th Nov 2005, 16:45

Oh yes... And they are not all balloons...

Very black too... Nice...

**valice** · 7th Nov 2005, 17:45

the black non balloons sure looks prettier than the balloons...
more like a fish... hahaha... and not like a floating ball...

**ahkarboy** · 7th Nov 2005, 21:03

throw in a molly and the oil should be gone in a few days

**scotworm** · 10th Nov 2005, 20:22

Hello reader !!

Thanks a lot for replying to my mail !! Now, the layer of protein is still visible.
But i can only scoop it up everyday while i'm adding water to it (due to evaporation).

All my shrimps died about 2weeks ago due to a mishap but i managed to savaged about 20% of them. Now, i've refurbished my tank.
I wanna show a picture of my tank but i don't know how to do it.
can someone teach me how to post pictures onto this board?

Thank you reader, for all your sharings with me. It's been about 3months i'm into planted tank.. My tank though disturbed, plants inside are 3months old.
Thank you.

Alvin

**bclee** · 10th Nov 2005, 20:34

The surface film appears to be some kind of by-product from the plants' photosynthesis. This usually occurs in high light, high CO2 tanks, especially those with little or no surface agitation.

I used to get it what I was having my high-tech tank. This film will still be there even I do not feed my fishes for up to a week. Now after converting to low-tech, the film disappears. I figured that the film might have something to do with the plant photosynthesis.

Surface agitation will break up and break down this film. A surface skimmer can be use too. Mollies, swordtails or maybe guppies will eat this film. For me, I was never bothered by it, I left it alone.

BC

**plumboy21** · 22nd Nov 2005, 16:38

I am back! I blew my fan throughout the night & the layer of whatever is gone by morning. Think stagnant surface water have the tenancy to grow protein layers. I read somewhere that still water also breed staghorn easily. That why my E. tenullus ended up with alot of staghorn

Maybe we can relates these to still water being a cause.