Help with Black Molly

[trizz]

Hey everybody! Longtime user of the site but just finally registered and first time post-

40 gallon tank - did water tests on both my main 40g and my 20g long for hospital/quarantine tank and both were well within the parameters for the fish I have

I have a female black molly who looks a little rough, scales coming off on one side, and like lighter color/silver/gray looking marks.

About a month and an half ago I had to treat the tank for C-Worm with levamisole hydrochloride. That was successful and I did not lose any fish. The black molly I’m dealing with now was the main one affected by the worms, but up until a few days ago she didn’t have anything wrong. My gf said she looked it up and said she thinks it has Velvet, but I’ve seen a lot of people online say Velvet is like really apparent and obvious if they have it and I can not tell if it’s just the color of the fish or a “gold dusting” as the description says.

Every other fish in the tank looks fine, none of the scale loss or markings that the black molly has are present on any of them. They all (black molly included) eat the same as they always do and aren’t showing any signs of being sick.

Last night I finally put black molly in 20g long by herself just to see if maybe her body will heal without the other fish chasing or rubbing up against her. I have all tank lights off, and am also in the process of turning up the temperature in both tanks to 82+ as I read that helps speed up the life cycle of the parasite.

Any thoughts, advice, or tips on what to treat this with and how to avoid it in the future?

(will try to take and attach pictures when my gf gets home, the rear camera on my phone is buggy and doesn’t focus right)

 

[A201]

Unless you have made recent additions to the tank, Velvet - Oodinium is unlikely.

 

[GlennO]

Mollies won't do well in the long term unless your tap water is hard. The addition of some salt can do wonders for them too, but it will need to be in the QT tank if the other fish are not livebearers or can tolerate salt.

 

[Fishfur]

Hey everybody! Longtime user of the site but just finally registered and first time post-

40 gallon tank - did water tests on both my main 40g and my 20g long for hospital/quarantine tank and both were well within the parameters for the fish I have

I have a female black molly who looks a little rough, scales coming off on one side, and like lighter color/silver/gray looking marks.

Welcome to Fishlore.

Just so you know, whether or not you can see Velvet, there are some classic symptoms that it causes.

The very first sign, which many keepers don’t notice, is laboured breathing. This is because piscinoodinium parasites preferentially attack the gills first. They aren’t visible while they’re inside the gills but the fish will be breathing faster.

From the gills they spread to the operculum & under the head & then upward & backward on the body.

(You can usually see them once they progress this far, using a flashlight and angling the light beam variably. The ‘velvet’ looks like a rusty or goldish or even dirty whitish sheen but not a highly reflective metallic shine.)

The next signs are flashing and clamped fins - usually very tightly clamped fins because by this time the poor fish is absolutely miserable.

If your fish isn’t clamping its fins tightly, looking miserable and depressed and flashing, it doesn’t have Velvet.

Velvet doesn’t cause scale loss though it can cause more slime to be produced, thanks to the intense irritation of the skin that it causes.

 

[RayClem]

With mollies, the first remedy for nearly any disease is to add some aquarium salt. Mollies are native to brackish waters of Central America, although most of them found in the aquarium trade are likely farm raised. Brackish water comes from the mouth of rivers and creeks and wetlands where fresh water from inland mixes with tidal flow from oceans and seas. The water is hard, alkaline, and has some salinity. Thus, mollies do best in water that mimics their natural habitat. If kept in water that is too soft, they will be subject to disease.