Ick Or Fin Rot?

[taterbugsmoma]

I have a female molly who I thought had ick. I treated the tank and she looked better but now about a week latter it has come back with a vengenceand it looks like it is eating the fin away. It is white spots on the fin and body. Does this mean she has ick and fin rot or do I just keep treating for the ick?

Brooke

I feel like I should know this as long as I have had my tanks.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Could be both, but i've noticed that fish suffering from whitespot can have general fin loss in bad cases of the parasite, how large are the spots? Do they look like this;

http/www.fishkeepinguk.co.uk/Images/whitespot.JPG

? What med are you using to treat the fish and what is the temp in the tank?

 

[taterbugsmoma]

She has some that look like that when she is in the light but they are really had to tell. I guess because of her color. The damage is so hard to see you have to get right up on the tank and watch for her to move right in the light to tell. I just took over 50 pics and these were the best I could get that show her.

http/i19.photobucket.com/albums/b179/jmhblnd/molly1.jpg
http/i19.photobucket.com/albums/b179/jmhblnd/molly.jpg

The temp is sitting at 73 degrees and I am using QuICK Cure The bottle says Cures Ick in 2 days. A fast, effective, cure for tropical fish parasite infestations like Ick, ect. made by Aquarium products.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Its hard to see any spots from the pics, so i can't say for sure your molly has whitespot, hmm...Personally this is what i would do;
a. Its imposible to kill off whitespot in 2 days, i know from experience that "Anti whitespot" by Interpet is a very effective med against whitespot- personally i would opt for this med and follow its instructions than the quick cure one.
b. Try and get hold of some Pimafix- this is an excellent med that treats external and internal bacterial infections as well as fungal ones and can be used at the same time as other meds- your molly looks like its got a skin infection of sorts from the pics (can you get any close-up pics?), and Pimafix is excellent at treating general infections on fish due to the wide range of deseases it can treat/cure .

Does the molly look like it has a fine dusting of yellow/gold spots on it at all?

 

[WILDER]

Yes finrot is common with whitespot.

 

[taterbugsmoma]

http/media.putfile.com/sick-fish

http/i19.photobucket.com/albums/b179/jmhblnd/40600028.jpg

I think these are going to be the best I can get. They don't show much more. The first is a video clip that shows that she is having truoble swiming. I hope it isn't too late for her.

 

[WILDER]

Looks like the shimmies to me, look at shimmies in the link.
http/www.fish-disease.net/diseases.htm

SHAKES AND SHIMMIES Fish wags and shakes while standing still.

http/www.waterlife.co.uk/waterlife/treat16.htm

 

[taterbugsmoma]

Hubby will be happy with a new tank being set up. It will only be the 4th in this one room. I just started working for a pet store on the weekends so I will see what I can find to treat them with. I am thinking if she doesn't make it I am going to try to get hubby to stick with platies, swords and maybe guppies. He is agressive and has killed several other fish already.

Oh and thanks for that site. I am going to bookmark it and keep it around.

 

[kimmers318]

You might also want to try some stress coat for her. I use it for treating my tap, but have also had luck treating fish for ick and fin rot. My daughters tetras got ick...did a quick water change and added stress coat for the whole tank. When my female platy suffered fin damage from my dwarf puffer I squirted some directly on her a couple of days in a row and she is happy now! I know a lot of people don't think stress coat can do much...but in my experience, I have never used anything but stress coat and cycle (for new tanks) and have always had fish pull thru any of their injuries/illness (not that there have been many) but hubby on the other hand went the medicine route for his oscar tank....first with ich...then some type of external parasite...and lastly about 4 bouts of fin rotting. He has used ridich, melafix, and pemafix, and it just keeps recurring. IMO, if the fish are healthy to begin with, a little help is all they need for a lot of issues to regain their strength and let nature take it's course. On the flip side...the stress coat doesn't hurt anything so using it along with other medications isn't going to do any harm.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Hubby will be happy with a new tank being set up. It will only be the 4th in this one room. I just started working for a pet store on the weekends so I will see what I can find to treat them with. I am thinking if she doesn't make it I am going to try to get hubby to stick with platies, swords and maybe guppies. He is agressive and has killed several other fish already.

Oh and thanks for that site. I am going to bookmark it and keep it around.

Shimmies in mollys, from my experience is either of two things;
a. Early signs or symptoms of a current desease, usually fungal or bacterial, or (and much more commonly in mollys),
b. Mineral/vitamin deficiency- buying some liquid aquarium mineral/vitamin supliments is the easiest way to treat this in your tank; mollys often don't get enough salt in their diets and this can bring on the shimmies, a lot of freshwater fish like catfish and tetras cannot tolerate salt very well though.
If you set up a second hospital/quarentine tank (5 to 10gals should be sufficient) with a small heater and filter, treat the tank with a half dose of aquarium salt (you should be able to get this from your local fish store), the molly should perk up a lot over the next couple of days and the shimmies disapear after a while . Aquarium salt is generally quite handy to have around as it can be used as a med to treat a variety of fish deseases on certain fish . I would also invest in a bottle of Pimafix as well, i always keep some of this med around as it has saved many a fish when other meds have failed- its sibling med, Melafix, is also a very handy med to have around .

 

[taterbugsmoma]

Yeah I was looking at some stress coat at work today and I think when I get paid I am going to get some just to have around.

Good news. After two days of treating for the Ick she has gotten rid of the shemmies and is a little more active and acting a little more normal. She also looks better.

Thanks for all the advise and I am going to see about getting these recomended meds in my stash since the one I have doesn't seem to be that great.

As far as the fish being healthy in the first place I have had her several months and this is the first time she has had a problem. I brought home a molly that I thought was pregnant a little before she got sick and it all the sudden got skinny and I figure she aborted or the babies were eaten ( I have an aggressive male in there and a few other fish) but then about 4 days latter she blew up like she was going to bust over night She was fine when we went to bed (I look in the tank every evening and morning) and when we got up she was huge and her tail kept floating up. I put her in a breeder box and she died the same day.

I think I am done with mollies unless I get a tank to make brackish.