Fungus, Ick or something else??

[Kelly Preussner]

1 of my black mollies has some weird disease. Just noticed it this morning. All the other fish in the tank look fine. At first I thought it was Ick but then noticed it is actually bumps on his tail but only 1 side. Seems to have white spots on his body & his color is not as black. Water conditions are all good in the tank. Tomorrow is my water change day so nitrates are around 20.
should I take him out & treat him? Treat for what?
please help!

 

[DerpPH]

Could be velvet disease. Quarantine the fish and treat with meds

 

[Salty&Onion]

It doesn't look like the fish is going to survive. Looks like swim bladder to me. Your nitrates are around or are 20ppm? That is too high.
What are your ammonia and nitrites? Don't trust stores when they say that everything's fine with your water as they often don't know what they say.
Mollies, just like any other common livebearers, are hard water fish and they need water hardness of 250ppm and over (14dGH and over) and a pH above 7.0. What is your water hardness, pH, GH and KH?
Please do get your own water testing kit. API Master Test Kit is a bit pricey, but its really good and really worth the money.
@Colin_T did I get it right this time?

 

[Kelly Preussner]

What meds? I just put him in a quarantine tank that has a heater but no filter. I don’t have a true emergency tank.

 

[Salty&Onion]

Could be velvet disease. Quarantine the fish and treat with meds

I highly doubt that. Velvet is a golden sheen on a fish.

What meds? I just put him in a quarantine tank that has a heater but no filter. I don’t have a true emergency tank.

Please don't start treating the fish. Please wait for @Colin_T to come, he's the expert in fish disease. And don't put a fish in a tank without a filter ever.

 

[Kelly Preussner]

It doesn't look like the fish is going to survive. Looks like swim bladder to me. Your nitrates are around or are 20ppm? That is too high.
What are your ammonia and nitrites? Don't trust stores when they say that everything's fine with your water as they often don't know what they say.
Mollies, just like any other common livebearers, are hard water fish and they need water hardness of 250ppm and over (14dGH and over) and a pH above 7.0. What is your water hardness, pH, GH and KH?
Please do get your own water testing kit. API Master Test Kit is a bit pricey, but its really good and really worth the money.
@Colin_T did I get it right this time?

I have the api master test kit & everything is perfect. Ammonia is 0, nitrites are 0, pH 8.0 (has always been this) & nitrates are 5.0 (sorry, I thought they were 2, not 20.

 

[Kelly Preussner]

I highly doubt that. Velvet is a golden sheen on a fish.

Please don't start treating the fish. Please wait for @Colin_T to come, he's the expert in fish disease. And don't put a fish in a tank without a filter ever.

Ugh! I just removed the fish because I don’t want him to get everyone else sick. Should I put him back?? I do have a betta tank with a filter. I can put the betta in the emergency tank with no filter & the Molly in betta tank??? Help!

 

[Salty&Onion]

I have the api master test kit & everything is perfect. Ammonia is 0, nitrites are 0, pH 8.0 (has always been this) & nitrates are 5.0 (sorry, I thought they were 2, not 20.

What is your hardness? pH, GH and KH?

Ugh! I just removed the fish because I don’t want him to get everyone else sick. Should I put him back?? I do have a betta tank with a filter. I can put the betta in the emergency tank with no filter & the Molly in betta tank??? Help!

Don't put the molly in any other tank. I suspect its swim bladder and it won't be passed to other fish.

 

[Kelly Preussner]

What is your hardness? pH, GH and KH?

Don't put the molly in any other tank. I suspect its swim bladder and it won't be passed to other fish.

Swim bladder? He is not exhibiting symptoms of that. He is actually acting totally normal. I will leave him where he is & hope @Colin_T replies.

 

[Salty&Onion]

Swim bladder? He is not exhibiting symptoms of that. He is actually acting totally normal. I will leave him where he is & hope @Colin_T replies.

Could you provide a 30 second video of the fish please? Sounds like the fish has shimmies. Classic scenario of shimmies is when mollies are put in soft water. Please provide us with your GH and KH please. This you can also find on your local water providers page.

 

[Salty&Onion]

@Colin_T why is my #2 post is so funny?

 

[Colin_T]

It's not swim bladder problems or velvet.

It helps if the pictures have the correct orientation.

The fish is covered in excess mucous and has white lumps on its face and tail. The white lumps on the tail look too big for white spot.

The excess mucous is normally caused by something irritating the fish. This can be poor water quality, chemicals or external parasites. The fact only one fish has this and the water tests appear fine, would suggest an external parasite/ protozoan infection.

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How long have you had the fish for?
Have you added anything new to the tank in the last 2 weeks?

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There's no point moving the fish out of the main tank because the disease or whatever is causing this is in the tank.

The only time you move a sick fish out of the main tank is if it is severely injured and or the other fish are picking at it. Then you isolate the fish to minimise stress on it.

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I'm not sure what the white lumps are but I would check the GH and make sure that is around 250ppm.

I'm not sure what other fish are in the tank but I would do the following:
Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.
Clean the filter.
Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate.
Add salt.
Post some pictures of the tank and remaining fish so we can check them for disease.

If there's no improvement after a few days of salt, then post more pictures.

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Directions for using salt are below.
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 2 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water.

If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate (4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will affect some plants and some snails. The lower dose rate will not affect plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

 

[Colin_T]

@Colin_T did I get it right this time?

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@Colin_T why is my #2 post is so funny?

You asked if you got it right this time

 

[Salty&Onion]

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You asked if you got it right this time

And this is funny?

 

[Colin_T]

it was to me