Sick gold dust molly

[ajdktank]

Tank size: 10 gallons
ammonia: 0ppm (check weekly)
Nitrite/Nitrates are part of the same test.
tank temp: 82 degrees F
Fish Symptoms: Male molly, has ich and is being treated but also some other internal growths in his tail that move and change numbers. Got him from store 3 weeks ago.
25% water change every 3 days as the tank is being treated with ich disease treatment and aquarium salt.
Tank inhabitants: 3 adult mollies and 1 baby
Other fish don’t show any of the same symptoms. Help!

 

[Colin_T]

I can't see much on the tail besides whitespot, which is also on his body and fins. However, he does have brown spots/ patches that look like parasitic worms in his back and caudal peduncle region (where the tail meets the body).

The white spot is easy to treat just make sure you continue treatment for 1 week after all the white spots have gone.

The parasitic worms sometimes respond to Praziquantel or other fish deworming medications.

 

[ajdktank]

Is it safe to treat both at once? Or should I treat the ich first?

 

[ajdktank]

Also, is it safe to treat the tank with the fry. Found another baby this morning.

 

[Colin_T]

Treat the whitespot (ich) first because it will kill everything in the tank if you don't.

The worms in the body will not spread to other fish and won't harm the fish that much. They are more a nuisance than a threat.

Depending on the medication you are using, it might harm baby fish. You can increase the tank temperature to 30C (86F) and that will kill Ich. Just keep the temperature at 30C for at least 2 weeks after all the white dots have gone. No medication needed.

Increase aeration/ surface turbulence if you raise the temperature because warm water holds less oxygen than cool water.

The other treatment for Ich is Praziquantel, which also happens to treat tapeworm in dogs, cats and fish. You can use Praziquantel with heat and that should do the worms and Ich, depending on the species of worm in the fish. But try heat first and look for Praziquantel while you are heat treating.

Praziquantel will be fine for the baby fish.

Do a big water change (75%) before treating the fish with medication or heat. And gravel clean the entire tank, and clean the filter, (wash filter media in a bucket of tank water before doing the water change). The big water change and gravel clean will dilute the number of whitespot parasites in the water & gravel, and it will remove a lot of the gunk from the substrate that would break down and use oxygen.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

 

[ajdktank]

Will do thank you so much! I’ll let you know how it’s going in a few days