High Nitrate Level.. Now This

[armiger]

Hi everyone.

This being my first post, I'll do a quick intro.

Name is Darryl
age 42
got into fish through a relative unfortunately passing away.

That's the short story.

I have a 55 gal tank, no live plants.
8 angels (few years old)
3 plecos (4 if you include the surviving offspring)
3 black mollies less than 3 weeks in tank.

two of my mollies have developed white on their bodies, one has a cloudy eye. Both are still active as are all the other fish. No other fish has shown signs of this condition.

I had my water tested and was told that the nitrate levels were a bit high.....

***EDIT****

I should mention also that I use softened water (home softener)

***Edit End***

I've vaccumed the substrate (gravel) and changed about 25% of the water since discovering my nitrate levels were high about 1 week ago.

I believe through reading that this is either ich, cloud eye, or a combination of both.... looking for some input as to your thoughts and the best way to treat them.

oh yeah, the water is kept at 81 degrees and was told that the rest of the water tested fine.

Before you say it, yes I will be getting testing equipment for my tanks very soon to avoid issues.

here is a link to the picture

Sick Molly

Thank you in advance

Darryl W. Van Gaal

 

[FreedomFighter]

Yep looks like Ich to me.

Could've been caused by the nitrates stressing the mollies out.

I suggest adding some salt (check if all fish can tolerate salt first) and then pick up an anti-white spot treatment.

I've had success using Interpet anti-white spot. I'm sure many others can suggest effective treatments.

Ich can be fatal if it gets to the gills, but the fish should be okay if you react quickly.

I'm sorry to hear about how you came to be in the fishkeeping world, but I hope you can come to love keeping fish in the near future.

FF.

 

[armiger]

Thanks for the information FreedomFighter.

I do like keeping fish already (had the tank for about 1.5 years) but was getting sick of looking at the angels and the plecos....

Wanted some variety so I picked up the mollies. Was debating getting some clown loaches also, but am putting that on hold until I learn more. I don't want to injure/kill any more fish!

 

[karin]

I second the ich. And I second getting a good anti-ich med and follow the direction precisely. Ich can be stubborn. You are looking at 14 days of treatment, see first link below. Salt and higher temps (up to 85F or 30C) are good and for some this is all it takes. I needed the meds last time I had issues with ich. The higher temps accelerates the lifecycle of ich which includes several stages. The following are some good websites.

http/fins.actwin.com/articles/disease/ick2.php
http/www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/ich.shtml

Also if you raise the temperatures understand that this will deplete oxygen in the tank so lower the water level so the filter(s) splash more or throw and airstone in the tank.

Good Luck, this is all part of fishkeeping.

 

[Essjay]

using water from a softener isn't a good idea. Isn't there supposed to be a bypass for drinking water? If there is, use water from there instead.

In days gone by - maybe water softeners have changed from this in recent years - the water softener removed the 'hard' minerals, mainly calcium and magnesium, and replaced them with sodium. So the resulting water still has lots of minerals in it, just not the ones that occur in the wild that the fish have evolved with.
Ignore this bit if modern water softeners are different