SICK MOLLY?

Good Morning everyone
I got up this morning and found that one of the black mollies had this white on it (See pic) it looks very similar to cotton wool and you can actually see a bit hanging like dead skin. My first thought was white spot but its just this area at the moment. We also have cat fish and snails so if treatment required we don't want to loose these. Please HELP!!!!!

It looks like fungus to me.

You should immediately do a water change.

try soaking the food you feed him in garlic, garlic helps improve the immune system of fish.

Also you should do daily 50-75% water changes daily while feeding your fish garlic soaked food and see if that helps. Clean water is very important with any disease and is also important for medications to work properly. If he still gets noticeably worse after doing what I recommended, then I would advise to use some sort of medication for fungus and follow the directions, and make sure to keep your water clean.

Hopefully this helps your Molly!

Yohance1130 said:

It looks like fungus to me.

You should immediately do a water change.

try soaking the food you feed him in garlic, garlic helps improve the immune system of fish.

Also you should do daily 50-75% water changes daily while feeding your fish garlic soaked food and see if that helps. Clean water is very important with any disease and is also important for medications to work properly. If he still gets noticeably worse after doing what I recommended, then I would advise to use some sort of medication for fungus and follow the directions, and make sure to keep your water clean.

Hopefully this helps your Molly!

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Hi Thank you very much for your advise. We do regular water changes but will do daily ones. How many changes do you recommend before adding treatment? Regards Yvonne

Swordtailmolly said:

Hi Thank you very much for your advise. We do regular water changes but will do daily ones. How many changes do you recommend before adding treatment? Regards Yvonne

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Np, I would recommend to do daily water changes and see how the fish is, if he starts improving and acting normal or the fungus starts decreasing I would continue doing daily water changes and feeding the fish food with garlic until it is all gone, after the fungus is gone do 1 more 50-75% water change and you should be ok doing your normal aquarium maintenance. Just monitor him for the first couple of weeks.

If the fungus continues to increase, he starts to swim weirdly and act abnormally and not his normal self even after the daily water changes and garlic. I would advise to do 1 more 50-75% water change and after the water change, you can add An aquarium medication that treats for fungus and follow the directions the bottle tells you to do. Follow the water change schedule the medication bottle tells you to do for which ever medication you choose.

Garlic: You can buy seachem garlic guard which is garlic extract, or you can make your own garlic extract, by crushing garlic cloves to make garlic extract. For best results you can soak the fish food in garlic extract overnight in your fridge to use to feed the next day for your Molly. If you do not want to put fish food in your fridge you can also soak your fish food in garlic extract for at least 30 mins (can be in your fridge or not), the longer you soak them the better, and then feed the fish food that will be soaked in garlic to your Molly.

Thank you. This is going to sound like a stupid question but The garlic soaked fish food will be eaten by all the fish and i assume it won't do any of them any harm. If afterbthey garlic and water changes the fungus goes away how long before i go back to normal feeding and water maintenance? I really appreciate your help.

Swordtailmolly said:

Thank you. This is going to sound like a stupid question but The garlic soaked fish food will be eaten by all the fish and i assume it won't do any of them any harm. If afterbthey garlic and water changes the fungus goes away how long before i go back to normal feeding and water maintenance? I really appreciate your help.

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No question is stupid don't worry! Yes every fish will eat the garlic soaked fish food and will not do any harm. Actually Garlic is commonly used to encourage fish who are not eating to eat and also encourage fish to eat food they never ate before. Fish are really attracted to the smell of garlic.

If the fungus goes away after the garlic and water changes. To be on the safe side I would say continue to do daily water changes and feeding garlic for at least a week, a water change never hurts. Also that we'll most likely guarantee and limit the chance for the fungus to come back.

Most fish can naturally fight off any disease when they are happy and healthy, the only time a disease has a chance to attack your fish is when your fish is injured or stressed. for the most part fish become stressed because of the water they are in, from traces of ammonia, nitrite, high nitrates etc... by doing these daily water changes you will prevent any chance for ammonia or nitrite, nitrate levels to be high enough to stress out your fish. The water changes will help fish be stressed free and also the garlic well help boost your fishes immune system which will help him become healthy and strong enough to fight off any diseases.

After a week of doing this, after the fungus has been gone. He we'll be strong enough to combat what ever tries to attack him and you will be able to do your regular feeding and water maintenance, if you want you can also add garlic to your fish food once a week or once in a while.

Yohance1130 said:

No question is stupid don't worry! Yes every fish will eat the garlic soaked fish food and will not do any harm. Actually Garlic is commonly used to encourage fish who are not eating to eat and also encourage fish to eat food they never ate before. Fish are really attracted to the smell of garlic.

If the fungus goes away after the garlic and water changes. To be on the safe side I would say continue to do daily water changes and feeding garlic for at least a week, a water change never hurts. Also that we'll most likely guarantee and limit the chance for the fungus to come back.

Most fish can naturally fight off any disease when they are happy and healthy, the only time a disease has a chance to attack your fish is when your fish is injured or stressed. for the most part fish become stressed because of the water they are in, from traces of ammonia, nitrite, high nitrates etc... by doing these daily water changes you will prevent any chance for ammonia or nitrite, nitrate levels to be high enough to stress out your fish. The water changes will help fish be stressed free and also the garlic well help boost your fishes immune system which will help him become healthy and strong enough to fight off any diseases.

After a week of doing this, after the fungus has been gone. He we'll be strong enough to combat what ever tries to attack him and you will be able to do your regular feeding and water maintenance, if you want you can also add garlic to your fish food once a week or once in a while.

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Thank you so much. I am clinically vunerable and can't just pop out to the shops (well not a shop that will sell garlic haha), as a interim measure would king British Disease Clear be of any help and if so is it ok catfish and snails? I will definatley get the garlic tomorrow though. Once again many thanks.

Yes np anytime! I am not familiar with any of the uk products since I do not have them available over here where I live, so I would have to let someone else who his familiar with UK medication products to help you sorry.

sounds good!

Hopefully you can find someone to help you with finding a medication!

Yohance1130 said:

Yes np anytime! I am not familiar with any of the uk products since I do not have them available over here where I live, so I would have to let someone else who his familiar with UK medication products to help you sorry.

sounds good!

Hopefully you can find someone to help you with finding a medication!

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OK many thanks. I have added a new post and see what happens. I will let you know how Mary my Molly gets on.

Does the white stuff stick out from the body?
How long has the white stuff been on the fish?
How long have you had the fish for?
Have you added anything to the tank in the 2 weeks before this started?

Fungus gets into open wounds, so if it is fungus, then the fish was damaged and the fungus has infected the wound.

Fungus can be treated with salt.

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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, Bettas & 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 (1-2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will not affect fish, 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.

Hi many thanks. The white appeared mid morning and all was clear prior to that becaise every morning I check both tanks closely for anything unusual and to also say my good mornings to them.

We have had this Molly for approx 9 months and we have noticed that some of the white stuff has come off her but she still has a patch. Once again many thanks on the salt advice which I will follow.