Molly with Ick and gasping for air! Help!

[GuppyPerson89586]

Hi everyone! Recently, I bought some mollies from the local fish store, and some other mollies, that were in another tank, were under quarantine because of ick/ich. The local store had said that the other mollies were free of ick, and so I had bought 3 and put them in my 29 gallon tank.
However, all of them had come down with ick, and one of them is currently gasping for air. The water Quality is fine and it seems like the other fish (guppies and tetras) don't seem to have any signs of ick, so it doesn't look like it was about the tank, diet, etc.
The mollies look really weak and I really don't want them to die! please help!

 

[Byron]

If it is ich, then the mollies were clearly not "free" of it. No idea what the store did to think this, nor how they treated them. Your tank is now infected unfortunately. Any fish under stress will succumb to the ich. I would raise the temperature to 86F/30C for two weeks. Do a major water change now, increasing the temp a couple degrees with the fresh water, turn the heater up to the higher temp. Do a thorough vacuum of the substrate. You can do water changes during this, just make sure the water temp is never below 86F/30C for the two weeks.

A photo might help, just in case. The fish in your signature will not have any adverse effects from the higher temperature.

There are other possible issues, but let's do one thing at a time.

 

[GuppyPerson89586]

Thanks! I'm going to do that right now! My Molly is doing better, and I'm also wondering something else. Should I q the mollies, or not?

 

[GuppyPerson89586]

I am going to send a photo if things get worse though, thanks!

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Thanks! I'm going to do that right now! My Molly is doing better, and I'm also wondering something else. Should I q the mollies, or not?

No, there's no point quarantining the mollies or any other fish now. Whether it's ick or not, the whole main tank is contaminated/infected now, so all of the fish will need to be treated, whether they're showing symptoms or not. Moving fish to another tank will only mean you have to treat two tanks now, spreading the infection.

Ick is tiny parasites, easily spread through water (the shop likely had a shared water system, shared nets and equipment between tank etc, for future reference, don't buy fish from a store when you see ick or other disease in any of the tanks! Also quarantine any new fish for a minimum of two weeks before adding to your main tank, to avoid situations like this!) - sorry, I know this is too late for you now, but including it for lurkers and so you'll be prepared for the future!

Heat treatment and lots of water changes is the way to ride out ick. We do need photos to confirm it's ick, though. There are other diseases that can be easily mistaken for ick.

Resist the temptation to buy meds and throw them in the tank as well. Many are ineffective, and any medicine places additional stress on fish. They're already under stress, so adding more is the last thing you want to do, but many people who are new to the hobby just want to throw anything in that might help, in a sincere desire to fix the problem and save the fish, not knowing it's only making things worse. So resist that temptation! Keep the temp where byron said, and add extra aeration (another airstone or bubbler of some kind) since higher temps mean less oxygen in the water.

If you're feeling at a loss and wanting to do something, do a thorough gravel vac/clean of the substrate and a large water change. Cleaning the substrate means removing some of the parasites that fall off of the fish, meaning the fish have less parasites to fight off. Lots of fresh clean water that's low in nitrAtes boosts fishes immune systems and gives them the best chance of fighting off infection/disease/parasites. Those two things, combined with the heat, will give the fish a much better chance of recovery than any medicine you can buy, I assure you.

When doing water changes, make sure to use a water conditioner, and to temperature match the temp of the new water to the tank temperature before adding it to the tank.

So, photos please! And do you have any other tanks? If so, don't share equipment between tanks and wash hands thoroughly after touching a single tank before going to the next etc.

 

[jaylach]

If the initial tank was infected with Ich doing a quarantine of the initial fish means nothing as the Ich would still be in the initial tank and would affect any added fish.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Let me share one of my resources on the subject of ich. While we as fishkeepers have to deal with many problems, we are of much lessor value to the industry of catching, breeding and raising fish for sale. Food fish far exceeds what we have in the hobby and then aquaculturing of ornamental fish as well as taking them from the wild is a bigger industry than keeping fish in tanks in our homes.

It is important to understand that any form of scientific research cost a money to perform. So when it comes to fish, most of that money is directed towards issues faced in that part of the industry. What we have to do iss cherry pick the parts of such research that applies equally to us as it does to the aquaculture industry.

That said before I offer the link, many will notice the article was written in 1998. However, the organization involved still exists today and is University involved. Revisions that might have been need would have been made since then. But pretty much a lot of what you will read is as true today as it was 1998. I will offer two short quotes which mat temp folks to click through and read.

Ich is a common name for the parasite Ichthyophthirius multifiliis and the disease that it causes. The parasite is capable of killing large
numbers of fish in a short period of time. Early diagnosis and treatment are essential for controlling Ich and reducing fish losses.
Prevention of this disease is, of course, the best method of avoiding fish mortalities.

The amount of time needed for Ich to complete its life cycle is temperature dependent. Ich commonly infects fish between 68°
and 77° F (20° to 25° C), but infections do occur at colder temperatures (as low as 33° F, 1° C). Typically, Ich cannot reproduce
properly at water temperatures above 85° F (30° C), so the parasite usually does not cause problems in warm summer months.
However, in a case in central Florida, Ich was responsible for killing fish at 92° F (33° C). To complete its life cycle, Ich requires
from less than 4 days (at temperatures higher than 75° F or 24° C) to more than 5 weeks (at temperatures lower than 45° F or 7° C).

SRAC Publication No. 476

For the truly curious SRAC has a lot of papers on just about everything fish from diseases on. Their papers on ammonia and nitrite are quite good and i quoted one in of of the Fish-In Cycling Rescue Articles.
https://tal.ifas.ufl.edu/extension-and-outreach/extension-publications/

edited to fix spelling and typos

 

[GuppyPerson89586]

thanks everyone! I took two photos, sorry if they're kinda blurry, my fish are more active than before! The grey one, if you look closely, the fins have white spots on them, and the black and white has them on her tail. I also turned to temperature to 30c and becky, the black and white one, bio longer has clamped fins!
And yes, I have 2 other tanks, although one is a 6 gal (fry tank), and the other is currently empty.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Adding salt will kill faster than heat alone. I cannot see spots as you describe, but I have old eyes. Gasping is a symptom of Ich as it can infect only the gills, so you do not see spots at all.

If you want to use salt, below is what you will need to do.

You need to get Morton Kosher Salt which is pure salt with no additives. This is coarser than table salt, so you need to use more of it. For example, to use kosher salt in place of 1 teaspoon of table salt, you will need to add another 1/4 teaspoon to the measurement.

You also need to calculate the volume of water you have. Start with the advertised tank size and then multiply that by .85 to get your actual gallons.

There are 3 levels of salt one can use below and their kosher salt equivalents. Divide your actual gallons above by 3 and then use that as the factor to calculate how many 1.25 tablespoons of kosher salt to add.

Level 1: 1 tablespoon/3 gallons water. This means you add 1.25 tablespoons of kosher salt x the factor above.
Level 2: 2 tablespoon/3 gallons water which means 2.5 tablespoons of kosher salt. Add the same factored amount of salt again.
Level 3: 1 tablespoon/1 gallons water which means 1.25 tablespoons of kosher salt. Add the same factored amount of salt again.

Start with Level 1 and if in a week you see no improvement, go to Level 2. If after another week you still see ich, go to level 3 for a week.

When you add the salt do not just dump it into the tank. Remove a about 1 quart of water and dissolve the salt in that, the pour that across the surface of the tank so it gets spread around.

If you have you change water during the treatment, then you need to add salt to the changing water to replace what you removed.

WARNING: The way to know if the amount of salt in the water is too much for any fish id by how it behaves. It will act as if it were drunk when there is too much salt. If it is just one fish you can take it out of the tank and put it into salt-free water. If it is all the the fish than you have to do a big water change,

When you have eliminated the ich, you need to remove the salt. This can only be done via water changes. Do as big a one as possible. That means 75% or more is OK.

 

[GuppyPerson89586]

Thanks! I'll try it!

 

[ninky]

The tank glass suggests there is more going on that you probably should tend to as well.

 

[GuppyPerson89586]

The tank glass suggests there is more going on that you probably should tend to as well.

Yeah, there is an algae problem that I (hopefully) fixed yesterday. Thanks though!