# What is this slime?



## characinfan (Dec 24, 2008)

Does anyone have an idea what this is? It is growing only on a new piece of driftwood.


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## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*slime*

do u have fish in tank .. I had the same thing happen to my freshwater tank with wood in a few days it was all gone and effects at all ...


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## default (May 28, 2011)

It's just decay on the wood, either fungal or bacterial that is consuming the wood surface. Aside from a foul smell and appearance, it'll clear up in a few days without any problems. If you have shrimp or fish, theyll pick at it and some will consume it.


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## characinfan (Dec 24, 2008)

Thanks, Tom and default. This stuff doesn't smell bad. I don't know what kingdom it is. It has been growing there for about a week. I think it is starting to slow down. I have been scraping it off when I changed the water. My catfish is the only fish in the tank and I've seen him pick at it but he is not very into it, and neither are the snails. I guess the main thing I wanted to know is whether I should do anything about it, but if I can ignore it without causing problems, that's what I'll do.


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## default (May 28, 2011)

characinfan said:


> Thanks, Tom and default. This stuff doesn't smell bad. I don't know what kingdom it is. It has been growing there for about a week. I think it is starting to slow down. I have been scraping it off when I changed the water. My catfish is the only fish in the tank and I've seen him pick at it but he is not very into it, and neither are the snails. I guess the main thing I wanted to know is whether I should do anything about it, but if I can ignore it without causing problems, that's what I'll do.


I would just continue the passive approach and remove whenever you change the water. This will not do any harm.

If this piece of wood was not a truly dried piece or is a softwood, oils would be a concern and can be dangerous, but this definitely doesn't look like that. Especially considering that you've had a catfish with it without problems, I would say you're perfectly fine and it's just a fungal/bacterial bloom consuming the top layer of the wood.


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## characinfan (Dec 24, 2008)

Slime update: not quite a week later, the slime is maybe 75% gone. The MTS are eating it. In fact, there has been an MTS population explosion in my tank because of the abundance of slime as a food source.

Good riddance to the slime.


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## orangeversion (Jul 7, 2020)

characinfan said:


> Does anyone have an idea what this is? It is growing only on a new piece of driftwood.


Maybe it is just fungal or bacterial that is growing in the wood. If you have fish in your tank, then don't worry. Your fish will eat them up. And if it has a foul smell then you should change it.


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## characinfan (Dec 24, 2008)

Slime update: it has been completely gone for a few weeks now.

FWIW, it could have been something other than bacterial or fungal, for instance, it could have been an oomycete, but who knows at this point.


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