WHAT THE HECK IS MY MOLLIE SICK WITH?

b.greene

b.greene

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Jan 30, 2008
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Northern Michigan
:help:My son has a 10 gallon tank with 2 mollies and a mystery snail. The tank has been up and running for about 2 months.

I just added one of the Mollies a week and a half ago. That gal looks great. The problem is, our other Mollie has some gross disease. I can't tell if it is Ich or columnaris. There are small raised white granual type spots on the tail and body (harder to see on the body because she is a dalmation mollie). This looks like ich.
The weird things is there are bigger spots on the fins that look more like a fungus - slightly larger and maybe a little fuzzy looking?
I just noticed this today...I am treating with the 2tsp salt per gallon recommendation but I am scared it may not be ich...
I panicked after adding the salt water (with a water change) because I realized this might kill the snail. I scooped him out and put him in a 1 gallon tank until we get things figured out.
I don't have a camera to post pics...any help out there??? :wall:
 
show us a pic and we will have a look initially sounds like whitespot but you say they are 'fuzzy' looking ?? get your pics out and lets see! if you cannot send a pic , my guess would be whitespot a very common disease do the 'spots' look like grains of sugar??? you can get some medicine for this at any pet shop. how long has the fish suffered from this??
 
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I am unable to get pics at this time. I checked my levels and my nitrites were 0 and my nitrates<20.
The spots are raised and look like grains of salt or sugar. The ones one the fins are a little bigger than that and look more like a flake of dandruff (maybe just slightly fuzzy?).

She made it through the night. I am worried about her, particularly because she is pregnant :(

What is whitespot? Will the meds harm the babies she is carrying?
 
Well, good news and bad news:

The good news is that the larger white spots, although unknown, is either Ich or Fungus. The treatment for Ich you are doing, and as for the fungus, it's cause is poor water conditions which can be easily corrected through WCs.

The bad news is yes, any treatment can easily effect new fry as they simply do not have the immune system developed to fight off disease or other ailments, and they are less hardy and more suspectable to the stress of a treatment. This does not spell doomsday per se; however, they are prolific breeders.
 
white spot is british for ich (sorry) best thin to do is to turn up your heater a degree and treat with salt and malachite green but be very carefull it can easily kill them if overdosing occures. i have had ich with quite a few of my fish and - through my own experiance - if the fish are healthy and well fed they can come through it by themselves. fish DO have an immunity system! it may last a week or so and they can look a bit groggy but i have never lost a fish through ich.
 
and for future reference, mystery snails can tolerate salt concentrations for ich treatment, however its always best to move them if possible. Good luck and I hope that your fish recover quickly.
 
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