Sick fish

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pbecot01

AC Members
Dec 27, 2004
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McGuire AFB, NJ
A new molly in my tank has a white film or something like it around her mouth. Looks like some kind of growth, or like she has rabies :(

What do you think it is, and how would you proceed?
 
it is probably cotton fungus, I'm not sure though so you should do some research, type in fish disease on google or one of them and try to find some pics. Then you can go to your LFS and tell them what the problem is and they can recommend a product. IMO mollies are sort of hard to keep, they do best in brackish water and seem very disease prone without it. I will probably never keept them again!
 
Holly9937 said:
it is probably cotton fungus, I'm not sure though so you should do some research, type in fish disease on google or one of them and try to find some pics. Then you can go to your LFS and tell them what the problem is and they can recommend a product. IMO mollies are sort of hard to keep, they do best in brackish water and seem very disease prone without it. I will probably never keept them again!
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I think this is the second time in a few days I have seen you post something like this so I just wanted to see if I could correct a common misconception regarding mollies. Mollies do just fine in freshwater. They need alkaline water, not necessarily brackish. I keep mine in hard, alkaline freshwater and they are not at all hard to keep or disease prone.
 
I agree with you Harlock - mollies are pretty low-maintenance fish - atleast my experience has been so.
 
I have found that the hybrid types are more prone to desease. This is usually due to stress and some salt seems to help keep the stress down. They also like to be kept with more of their own kind, and doing this keeps the stress down.
 
I wouldn't label this as a "misconception", more so a frequently debated issue among fish keepers. Plus, it certainly won't be bad for them to be in brackish, so I've just passed that along. I see alot of posts about sick mollies, so its just an idea that some could try if they want a brackish only tank! Didn't mean to step on any toes :D
 
:( From those links I determined it was columnaris or something like that... I went to the LFS and got the proper medicine for it...

After treating she started acting better, swimming around a lot and the growth starting receding (it had grown on her back too, but I didn't notice) ... but she died this morning :(

I guess this is what people mean about chain petstores having sick fish... when I thought about it, I had a number of fish die when I first got the tank in a similar manner, but I didn't know what it was.

My only question now... I still have 2 mollies and a dwarf gourami in the tank. Should I put the carbon back in my filter, or continue the medication?
 
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