parrotheadX5

My daughter noticed white dots all over one of her black mollies this morning. I checked water paramaters and all is well in that department. Weird thing is I fed them (she has a variety of mollies) yesterday morning, another black mollie ate like crazy, went over to a corner and died! That was a bit shocking. Anyone know what's happening to these black ones? The rest seem to be doing well. I'll be near a petsmart today and will check back frequently if I should pick up any medications for the white dots! Temp is also 75.

Thanks for this awesome site!

Shawnie

sorry for the loss of your molly mollies are tropical fish and need at least 80 in temp..but turning it up to 83 for two weeks with daily water changes should help the white spots ...aka ICH (if its salt like)

make sure you vaccuum the gravel as ich spores hang out there also ...

Steve113

Sorry for the cut and paste job but:

If it looks like specks of salt it's most likely ich - It will get steadily worse. And it will be very harmful if not checked soon.


Ich parasite dislikes warm water, so bring the water up to 84ºF just over 30ºC. (slow and steady temp raise - I cranked mine up by a couple of degrees every hour and a half or there abouts)

Read up on Ich - It's easy to cure but don't be tempted to dose your tank - You'll kill the ich - but could also kill some fish. If you catch it early, your fish will be fine. Leave your tank running hot for a couple of weeks and once you have a few few completely Ich free days, you can start to lower your temp.

Another good idea is to add a little salt to your tank as a tonic to your fish. as for ammount of salt, use the chart on the box of salt or just ask someone here -I don't know what size tank you have but when I add salt to my aquarium, If I'm honest it's usually guesswork!

Frequent water changes are a must - Due to the ich parasite being suspended in the water at certain stages in it's life cycle - If you drain water away, you will undoubtedly be draining away ich parasites that you can not see with your water. The more the better!

If you do dose, only do so as a last result and be aware that scale-less fish are very succeptable to poisoning by such medications and you will have to remove any charcoal filtration. I strongly advise you don't dose with any meds though as you want to avoid any un necessary chemicals in your tank.

I got Ich on my first week of fish and lost a couple before I learned about the tank tem treatment method - it saved my fish within days.

Please pm me if you have any queries or need advice. I'm on most of the day so I'll get back to you promptly.

Try these for refrence:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichthyo...us_multifiliis
http://www.fishlore.com/Articles/CuringIch.htm

There is lots of Ich info out there if you look for it, and there are a few threads here re this same problem. It is very common and I'd say everyone will experience this at some point. It's brought on by stress / poor water quality. So check your set up and you should be fine.

.
Coloring or Ich

parrotheadX5

Thank you Steve and Shawnie for your responses! I will certainly try to go the higher temp and salt method first. I raise salamanders so this whole fish thing is new. It's my daughter's 10 gallon tank. I added salt at start up but I'm always hesitant to add more at water changings for fear of adding too much since salt doesn't evaporate.

Will do a water change, add salts and raise temps today.

Thanks again!

Steve113

cool.
Careful with the water changes and salt as you can't be sure how it's building up.

I just add a little. Not even so I can taste it in the water.

Shawnie

I personally dont use salt...although Ive read mollies dont mind it, but im too skeered!

ShaynaB

If the temp thing doesn't work (as it didn't for my mollies) you can get some Rid Ich from a major chain store. It's organic so it shouldn't hurt anything. (It did turn my tank water a tiny bit brown but it went away with water changes.)

How many mollies do you have in the tank?

Welcome to Fishlore!

parrotheadX5

Hi Shayna,
She has 7 mollies in her tank. I checked on the spots tonight and they appear to have lessened in numbers and no other fish seem to be ill with it. (Yet!) I also did a water change, paid attention to cleaning the gravel, increased the temp a bit. Also changed the filter media.
I didn't use much salt in the beginning as I was leary too and skimped to just a level teaspoon. Today I did add the appropriate amount.

ShaynaB

I'm glad the Ich seems to be going away!

Keep doing the water changes. 7 mollies is a lot for that tank!

Steve113

Good job.
Stick at it and keep doing this for a few days after you see the last of the spots.

parrotheadX5

Well, I questioned whether 8 was too much but that's what she came home with from her Grandpa. Petsmart didn't seem to intervene but I have issues with our local store anyway.

ShaynaB

Big chain stores are notorious for not caring about fish. They sell whatever the customer wants, regardless if it's good for the fish/tank or not. I can promise you, you're not alone!

The rule for *small* fish is 1 inch of adult fish per gallon of water. The reason I say small fish is that some fish, like Oscars, get around 10 inches long but couldn't go in a 10 gallon tank. 10 gallon tank means 10 inches of fish.

You may want to watch out for babies. Mollies are notorious for breeding like bunnies. I ran into this problem with mollies when I kept them...

You may have problems keeping ammonia down in the future, they're also big eaters which means they're big waste producers!

UNTAMED

im realivly new to this fish stuff but one thing i can say im almost an expert on is white spot / ich. They probably have white spot. This bacteria forms small white cysts all over fish. Once the cysts mature they break open releasing the infectious phase of the organism. Ich can be hard to sight on white fish but since you have black mollys shouldn't be a problem It often makes it's way into established aquariums when a new fish is added. To treat whitespot try raising the water temperature to 30 degrees until they all fall off then keep it at that temperature a bit longer still. This may take a number of weeks until the bacteria has gone through it's lifecycle and detached from the fish.

This raised temperature will kill the bacteria without the use and side effects of medications. Although suitable for many tropical fish this treatment method is not suited to coldwater fish such as goldfish. In these situations commercial white spot tratments should be used instead. Typical ingredients in such solutions include formaldehyde and malachite green. Avoid staining porous items with the malachite green by removing them before treatment. Filter charcoal will also need to be taken out or it will absorb the treatment before it has had a chance to be effective.

When treating with either method the oxygen in the water can become depleted more readily so add an air stone if required.

UNTAMED

Also Salt Is Not Nesscerary And Even Though I Am Inexperinced I Have Delt With White Spot Lots, It Does Not Tend 2 Speed Up Or Benift The Fish In Any Way Correct Me If Im Wrong

Devon

Note he means 30C... it would be 83-84F for us Americans. Don't want anyone getting confuzzled.

osama

there is a medicine for white spots in all acuarum stores

Devon

Welcome.

I think most people here will agree though, that medicine should be used only as necessary; there are plenty of ways to get rid of ich without using harsh and expensive meds that will stress your fish. I've treated for ich several times and have never used a single med for it.

Steve113

Salt seems to be a bit taboo on here for tropicals...

I have mentioned that I put a bit of salt in my tank as a tonic for the fish when curing Ich.

Whin I had Ich, I did this, and just do it now as a habit. I put a small pinch of salt in the buckets during a water change as a tonic for the fish. If you look for the info, yuou'l find that it does them no harm and intoduces natural minerals to the water that would be present in the wild.

Some fish are even said to thrive with a bit of salt. And some will even acclimate to rising salt levels so they can be kept in brackish water.

The opposite is also true: A frind of mine has a Puffer that has been acclimated to stay in fresh water as opposed to Brackish!

You'll see I semi copied this response to Lucy's thread re adding salt. - Slightly changed it so check there too :]

UNTAMED

I agree the last thing you want 2 do is put nasty chemicals into your tank, the time difference for getting rid of ich with meds or the natural way is not that great plus your fish will live longer and be more happy if you dont poision them even if it dont kill the fish it cant be good for there heath!