Correct. It is a little funny, the color and texture of the precipitate, this is just one of those things you have to learn by experience. Finely divided metal may not be shiny. For example, finely divided (precipitated) platinum, or nickel are often black. So look at it this way, you're now ahead of the other chemistry noobs. I hope, when you answer their questions on this forum, you're as subtle as we are.
As to the bubbles, I'm not really sure. I'm sure I saw them, back in the day, but couldn't figure them out either. Transition metal salts, in solution, do function as Lewis acids, with water, leaving more H+ free, so maybe that was hydrogen, from an acid reaction? Again, it's something you now know, that you didn't before.