Molly fish sick?

[TO KYO]

What in the world just happened to my alpha male molly overnight. I woke up and his as left eye is swollen. Also, losing its color with some white spots.

 

[Colin_T]

The fish has excess mucous on its body and eye. It probably damaged its eye during the night.

Check the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.
Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate.
Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks.
Add some salt.

You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

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 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt 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 will affect some plants. The lower dose rate will not affect plants.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that.

 

[TO KYO]

The fish has excess mucous on its body and eye. It probably damaged its eye during the night.

Check the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.
Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate.
Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks.
Add some salt.

You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

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 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt 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 will affect some plants. The lower dose rate will not affect plants.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that.

I moved him to a new tank added some aquarium salt and melafix because out of 10+ mollies he’s the only one with this problem. My water is good since I changed it last Sunday. He had like a cloudy eye yesterday and today it’s swollen. Also, like I mentioned earlier, he’s the alpha so it wasn’t from a fight or anything

 

[FishGuest5123]

I don’t see the slime coat excess, myself. Can’t be certain but it looks like Popeye and ich to me. Read up on Popeye and see if it has those symptoms. If so, you’ll need an antibiotic such as Kanaplex and Furan-2 combined. A great med is Spectrogram which has both meds already in it. I believe it is sold by American Aquarium Products. If any other fish get the white spots then treat for ich too. Good luck.

 

[Colin_T]

Also, like I mentioned earlier, he’s the alpha so it wasn’t from a fight or anything

If you have more than one male in the tank, it could well be from fighting. If another male got in his face or wanted to take over the group, they would fight and he might have had his ass kicked by another male.

By moving him out of the main tank, you will have messed up the pecking order so watch them closely when you put him back in the tank.

Until then, monitor him and see how he goes. Eyes generally heal up quickly and if it's excess mucous, it should clear up pretty quickly.

I don’t see the slime coat excess, myself.

It's the white spots/ patches on the body, fins and eye.

 

[TO KYO]

If you have more than one male in the tank, it could well be from fighting. If another male got in his face or wanted to take over the group, they would fight and he might have had his ass kicked by another male.

By moving him out of the main tank, you will have messed up the pecking order so watch them closely when you put him back in the tank.

Until then, monitor him and see how he goes. Eyes generally heal up quickly and if it's excess mucous, it should clear up pretty quickly.



It's the white spots/ patches on the body, fins and eye.

I’m a 100% sure it wasn’t from a fight . The other male is way smaller and fears him..he knows his place. In the other hand, my alpha male had fungus/cloudy eyes like 2 months ago, but his eyes never swollen unlike now

 

[Colin_T]

I would just salt them up and monitor over the next week.

Mollies can tolerate heaps of salt, up to sea water strength, so don't be afraid to add some.