What’s on my Molly fish?

KBall

New Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2020
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Location
USA
Just notice that 2 of my balloon mollies have Y shaped looking infections/parasites? I have never seen this on my fish before, please let me know if you know what these are. Lighter in color. On one, it appears white and fuzzy at the base of the 2 clustered. have two of these each, on top and one has one side fin.
Only molly fish are in the tank, was cleaned last week, water all testing normal and ammonia levels are good. I don’t have live plants, feeding them tropical flake mix.

I would appreciate any help! Thank you.
 

Attachments

  • 9EBDB402-3DF5-4B15-A898-0BC6D53190E2.jpeg
    9EBDB402-3DF5-4B15-A898-0BC6D53190E2.jpeg
    1.1 MB · Views: 56
  • 3CB23616-03D9-47C2-924B-45EF83644DB7.jpeg
    3CB23616-03D9-47C2-924B-45EF83644DB7.jpeg
    771.6 KB · Views: 59
  • BE3D4AE4-A88F-4965-A749-0F750EECB861.jpeg
    BE3D4AE4-A88F-4965-A749-0F750EECB861.jpeg
    950.5 KB · Views: 67
Do daily water changes and add salt, 2 table spoon of salt per 20 liters of water. try this while we wait for @Colin_T to answer
 
Yes it's anchorworm.

You can catch the fish and use a pair of tweezers to pull the parasites off the fish but it usually leaves a wound.

Treat the tank with 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 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.
 

Most reactions

Back
Top