Hi! I have a 20 Gal tank and I am relatively new to fish keeping. One of my ballon mollies started growing some white stuff on her gill and its been going on for a while. I kept her in a hospital tank for about a month treating her with anti fungal and ani parasitic medications but nothing worked. I’m not sure what it is. It keeps growing and I’m worried about her health!
HELP! I can’t figure out what’s wrong with my balloon Molly
- Thread starter Gabysoto
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- balloon molly help
Uberhoust
Fish Herder
Sorry your fish looks very unhappy. First off I really don't have a lot of experience with fish diseases so take anything I say with a grain of salt. You mentioned treating this fish with both Antifungals and Antiparasitics. I am typically not an advocate of the shotgun approach but you might try an antibiotic, if you do you may want to use your hospital tank because the medicine may kill all your beneficial bacteria in the tank.
Looking at the fish I see white coatings, swollen tissues, and active red lesions, with these symptoms in mind it seems like columnaris is a possibility. Again I don't have any experience with this disease so hopefully someone weighs into the conversation. You might want to look at these websites - Identify and Treat Columnaris (Saddle Back Disease) (fishlab.com) - Treating Columnaris or Body Fungus – Not a True Fungus | CFLAS - Molly Fish Diseases, Parasites & Remedies - AquariumNexus
With the amount of tissue involved I would be considering euthanasia unless the fish did not seem affected by the infection, not a choice I like to make.
Looking at the fish I see white coatings, swollen tissues, and active red lesions, with these symptoms in mind it seems like columnaris is a possibility. Again I don't have any experience with this disease so hopefully someone weighs into the conversation. You might want to look at these websites - Identify and Treat Columnaris (Saddle Back Disease) (fishlab.com) - Treating Columnaris or Body Fungus – Not a True Fungus | CFLAS - Molly Fish Diseases, Parasites & Remedies - AquariumNexus
With the amount of tissue involved I would be considering euthanasia unless the fish did not seem affected by the infection, not a choice I like to make.
The problem with balloon mollies is just that...they're "balloon mollies"...purposely bred with deformities that are detrimental to their health...they usually don't live long.
If it's in a tank on its own, add a heap of 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.
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.
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