Yellow Stain On Molly?

I just found one of my female mollies dead

When I pulled her out of the water, I noticed that on her underside between her fins and towards her head was all a gross yellow colour.. what on earth does that mean!??!

This morning she was fine!!

My male molly has been acting strange lately too, just lying on the bottom of the tank playing dead, but when I try to scoop him out with the net he starts swimming and acting fine again but as soon as I leave the tank he lies down the bottom again..

I'm worried now that one of the females has died with a gross stain/mark.. I medicated the tank with Melafix just incase (a fish medication/stress thing I was recommended at work)..

Does anyone know what this yellow mark/stain is? What could treat it? And will the Melafix help anything?

I'm desperate.. I especially don't want my alpha molly to die

Oh dear, sorry to hear about that. Hard to say what the yellow stain could be because it's quite usual to find fish that have died having strange colourations depending on what caused their death.

As your other fish doesn't seem too happy either, I think we need to have a look at your tank set-up to see if there is any reason for this.

Can you let us know your tank size, number and types of fish and if you have a testing kit could you let us know what your water test results are please?

How long has the tank been set up? How often are you doing your partial water changes?

Won't bombard you with too many questions in one go, let's give you a chance to answer some of those first LOL.

Regards, Athena

Athena said:

Oh dear, sorry to hear about that. Hard to say what the yellow stain could be because it's quite usual to find fish that have died having strange colourations depending on what caused their death.

As your other fish doesn't seem too happy either, I think we need to have a look at your tank set-up to see if there is any reason for this.

Can you let us know your tank size, number and types of fish and if you have a testing kit could you let us know what your water test results are please?

How long has the tank been set up? How often are you doing your partial water changes?

Won't bombard you with too many questions in one go, let's give you a chance to answer some of those first LOL.

Regards, Athena

Click to expand...

Ok well in answer to your questions:

Tank Size: 21.6L Hexagonal shape, 2 artificial plants (soon to be replaced with live ones when I can find the right ones I want)

Number of fish: 8 tiny mollies, one being alpha male

I don't have a testing kit as of yet but I plan to buy one A.S.A.P now!! The tank has been set up and running for about a week, and I have added one tablespoon of aquarium salt as I read this is beneficial to mollies. I do a (roughly) 20% water change every 2 days. My thermometer measures the tanks temperature at 26.5*C.

I added 2.5mL of Melafix (as per instructions for my tank size on the back of the bottle) as this is supposed to help with stress/diseases. I only just added this however, so I have yet to see if it does anything.

Thanks for your quick response! I took some photos of the stain on my dead fish and I will try to upload them now.

Hello again!

Ok, first thing I noticed is that you only set up the tank a week ago. Did you use any mature filter media when setting up the tank or is this a completely new set up with new filter etc? If you put the fish straight into an uncycled tank with an unmatured filter then that's the reason for the illness in your fish, I'm afraid.

Also, I would think that 8 mollies in a small tank like that is just a few too many. To be honest, I wouldn't put mollies in a tank that size as they do grow to around 3-4" and they can become aggressive if they are kept in cramped conditions. It may not look cramped in our eyes, but to the fish it will be and they will begin bullying/get stressed/get sick.

Regards, Athena

ps - also re the Melafix - I tend to always under-dose on this if I use it because certain fish find it a little too strong and it can do more harm than good in some cases.

Just seen the pics - that could well be ammonia poisoning but other members will hopefully give their opinions too.

Athena said:

Hello again!

Ok, first thing I noticed is that you only set up the tank a week ago. Did you use any mature filter media when setting up the tank or is this a completely new set up with new filter etc? If you put the fish straight into an uncycled tank with an unmatured filter then that's the reason for the illness in your fish, I'm afraid.

Also, I would think that 8 mollies in a small tank like that is just a few too many. To be honest, I wouldn't put mollies in a tank that size as they do grow to around 3-4" and they can become aggressive if they are kept in cramped conditions. It may not look cramped in our eyes, but to the fish it will be and they will begin bullying/get stressed/get sick.

Regards, Athena

ps - also re the Melafix - I tend to always under-dose on this if I use it because certain fish find it a little too strong and it can do more harm than good in some cases.

Just seen the pics - that could well be ammonia poisoning but other members will hopefully give their opinions too.

Click to expand...

Hi,

Thanks for replying again. I used Nitrofin Cycle in the tank and the fish didn't enter it straight away.. it was running a few days first.

I just found a second dead female in the tank.. this one had green stuff coming out of its butt, a green mark under its face and a few bright red streaks on its side around the fins.. #129###!!

But I'm down to 7 mollies now anyway.. at this rate I'll end up with only one in the tank :\ I more put them in a smaller tank so I could salt them and for breeding purposes.. which now won't work out with them dropping like flies..

Two more pics of both deceased fish.. just for further info..

Aww, poor things! Well, I still believe this is some sort of toxic burning/poisoning. Ammonia burning can cause those red streaks/patches. The stuff coming out of the orange molly's anal opening is either internal organs/bleeding or just fish poop - I thought maybe it could have been trying to give birth but its belly doesn't really look rounded enough for that.

That Nitrofin Cycle stuff isn't really recommended as a way of cycling the tank properly. There are lots of pinned notes on the forums on how to cycle a tank using ammonia (fish-free cycling) or if you go down the route of fish-in cycling there are notes for that, too.

If you have another tank (or a friend with a tank), a good way to kick-start your filter is to use a piece of the filter media from an established filter (a piece of the sponge - don't wash it, just cut a piece off and put it into your new filter to seed it). The good bacteria multiply quickly so long as they have a constant food source (i.e. ammonia from the fish/food waste) and good oxygen supply.

For now, you will need to do a good water change in this tank - 50%, to help reduce the level of toxins present.

I really recommend getting that test kit asap as that will be your guide as to what is going on with the tank water.

As you are basically doing a fish-in cycle on this tank, you will need to do a partial water change every day to prevent the other fish being poisoned.

Hope that helps a bit.

Athena

ps - just for info here's a link to some info on ammonia poisoning:

http/freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disease/p/ammoniapoison.htm

Don't forget to mention the nitrites that usually come after the ammonia levels drop. I lost all 13 of my neons due to high nitrites. Which was weird because I never got the usual ammonia spike, which is why I thought my tank was safe for the fish. Good luck !!!

Actually that is one other question I have.. for the 50% water change, will I need to re-add warm water? Or cold water? Because the heater may not warm up cold water in time and it could be harmful to the remaining fish?

I will definitely do that water change regardless though. I think I have 2 more dead mollies at the bottom of the tank

I always try to get the temperature close to what it is in the tank. As long as it's close, it shouldn't hurt.

Just curious as to how the fish are doing today? Any more deaths over the weekend?

When you did the water change did you remember to use dechlor treatment with it? (e.g. Aquasafe).

Regards, Athena

How are you getting on?

Great advice from Athena. Make sure you use a dechlorinator and match the temperature of the water to the tank water.
You dose dechlorinator by the volume you are adding it to.
If you add it to a bucket then you use the volume of water in the bucket for working out hom much to add.
If you add it straight to the tank then you need to use the volume of water the tank holds.

I would suggest at least 80%+ water changes until your testing kit arrives as the toxin level is killing your fish.