Molly seems to be sick, Help please

Yo_Loach

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Nov 28, 2004
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Hi, my silver molly has black spots on it, it started out with just one, and now it has many. It swims at sort of a slant and sometimes in circles, and once it swam to the bottom, and my algea eater got on it and sucked it, but it shook it off and has been acting normally since, also sometimes it will corkscrew towards the surface, very rarely, like once a week. another molly and a black tetra swim head first into a wall and swimm up and down really fast, for like a few seconds, and then stop and continue on normally.

and suggestions as to what this is, if its anything and not just my fish that are wierd. I couldnt find any of the symptoms online, except for some, but they did not show other signs of that, I think it might be something parasitic?

thanks for your time.
 
Not sure about first but the second is just normal aquarium behaviour. The fish hits the glass and panics as it is suddenly faced with a wall that doesnt look like a wall-transparent and all, panics a bit then is distracted or gives up. This behaviour is common in small tanks-similar to pacing syndrome. If the fish spends more than an hour a day doing this, likely the tank is too small.
 
The more time you spend watching your fish the more you learn, and quickly too. Not only the species specific behaviour but interactions with others how it 'normally' behaves given the tank size and so forth. It is actually vimportant to spend time with your fish to know what is normal and when its out of the ordinary.:D
 
If the spots look like something parasitic (as opposed to changes in pigment), try searching Google for 'Black Spot Disease' (diplopstomiasis). It's caused by a parasite, much like ich. Any fish that 'corkscrews' would worry me - hopefully you can find what's wrong. Good luck :)
 
Yah, OK The molly definetly has black spot diease, which is bad news, but good news is, one of my black mollies seems to be pregnant. I've fashioned a breeding net out of pantyhose and k'nex. Im not sure when I should put it in. its been like this for 3 days.
 
If your fish are sick, they're already stressed. I wouldn't stress them further by using a breeding net - JMO. If you put some feathery plants (plastic or living) into the tank, some fry will likely survive. If not, the mollies will have plenty more, don't worry.
I think that most medications for Ich will kill black spot, though I'm not sure if salt/heat/water changes will work for black spot since I don't know about its life cycle. If it behaves similarly to Ich, you can probably use this method to cure it if you like.
Keep us posted :)
 
OK, well the black spot has not spread to any other fish than a silver molly, luky for me the black one is pregnant. As I said in the other post, Ill wait it out, The mollies belly isnt that big yet so I'll wait a few more days, I got some fry food just incase. thanks for the help! ^___^
 
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