help! there's oily looking stuff on the surface of one of my tanks!?

How can I get rid of it? I'll admit... it's probably lotion residue or something similar... I feel so bad! It's a betta tank, too so he goes up there to breathe! It isn't a full surface problem, but I can see it... I know in the ocean with oil spills they use dish soap to heard the oil to the shore... but I'm not about to do that in my fish tank. What can I do?

i would suggest putting the fish in a temporary liveing space and cleaning the hole tank with viniger, bleach, or non iodized salt.

i dont know alot of fish but i assume you reach in the water then? if its a betta tank its probibly not that large , why not just do a water change

is there a filter? I used to have this problem in my tank when I didn't have a filter.

-----

yes, I know what it was... but it looks like an oily build up so I thought that might be your problem. thanks, but I'm not the one with the question ;)

if it's not a hang on the back filter or something that agitates the water it can still be the same problem. I know a lot of people are afraid to have those kinds of filters with betters but I've never had a problem so if it's not a filter like that I'd suggest trying one.

is there a reason you think it might be lotion? if so I'd suggest a water change and try not to do anything with the tank unless you've rinsed off your hands very well.

Take a dry paper napkins and unfold it and drop it on the surface. The dry napkin will absorb the oily gunk before the water hits it. So if you put different parts of the napkin in at a time then you can absorb a bunch of oily gunk that way. It might take a few napkins but you can get rid of it that way. Then put it along the edge of the top to absorb most of the gunk there, all you can get. Then siphon some of the water out of the tank and the rest will stick to the glass. Take a napkin and wipe the gunk off the glass. Siphone some more out and wipe off the gunk. Then put new water in to refill the tank.