What is on my Molly?

flutterbye75

Friend, not Foe!!
Mar 17, 2005
130
0
0
50
BC, Canada
I went to feed my fish this morning and to my surprise, my black molly male has what looks to be white patches on the surface of his body. I can rule out Ich because we have had that before. It almost looks like mould. Does anyone know what this is because I have no idea.
 
It sounds like a fungus in your tank. I would check water quality and do more water changes. I would first do a 25%-35% water change in your tank. And maybe pick up some Eurythomyacine should help.
 
Do a google/ask search for cotton fungus and see if that is what it looks like
 
Check this site out and see if anything rings a bell with what your molly may have:
http://www.fishprofiles.com/interactive/disease/

It has a place where you can identify the disease if ya can't find a pic that looks right.

Meanwhile, if you already haven't, I would put your little buddy in a hospital tank and get some Pima Fix and Mela Fix in his tank. Make sure there is arration with him with those meds. If it is some kind of fungus and you caught it in time, the Pima fix works wonders. The Mela fix is a just in case the Pima fix misses whatever may be wrong with him until you figure out the illness.

Just a suggestion. A strong suggestion, but non the less a suggestion :dance2:

Hope I've helped a bit - Lakota
 
Looks like Mould, eh? Hmm....

Here's what I could dig up:
Oh no....It's called mouth fungus(columnaris), but the "cotton" can appear pretty much anywhere else on the body. First, make sure your water conditions are doing OK (a.k.a. pH, ammonia, nitrite, natrate, etc) and as said before, do some water changes!
A few cures that would most likely help are: Fungus Eliminator, Fungus Cure, Furacyn, Furan-2, Triple Sulfa, E.M. Tablets. If you haven't heard of them, try googling them.
Also: act quickly, if you don't the patches might turn into open sores! Yowch!

Good luck,
;)
~hc
 
If it is columnaris (which, from what I've read, attacks Mollies pretty frequently), I've had better luck with frequent (at least daily) 50% water changes than meds. For me, it's started to recede within a couple of days, and then I've scaled back the water changes to every other day.
 
I am looking in my fish encyclopedia and it could possible be mouth or body fungus (sorry I am neek). They "say" that it comes from exteme stress such as fighting, parasites or poor water quality. It may also come from a body abrasion such as with a rock or another fish??? Could be over the gill if extreme...

You may have to isolate and treat with fungus control or rx promethyasul...

Sorry to hear...
 
mrakins said:
If it is columnaris (which, from what I've read, attacks Mollies pretty frequently), I've had better luck with frequent (at least daily) 50% water changes than meds. For me, it's started to recede within a couple of days, and then I've scaled back the water changes to every other day.

Water changes work best for me too. And yes, mollies seem to be prone to this, or at least in my neck of the woods. Every molly(5) Ive owned has gotten this, and three have died. Honestly, the two I have now started developing it last week. To tell you the truth it kinda pisses me off. I see disease less and less these days. I keep up with my maintenance, I keep other fish with higher water requirements, and there isnt any obvious thing stressing them out. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.............

okay, I feel better.

Just curious, how long have you had them?
 
flyfly said:
Just curious, how long have you had them?


I have had the two mollies for about 5 months. It is only the male that has it. I have been doing 50% water changes everyday and it seems to be going away. My ammonia was up to .25 and now it is back to normal. I believe that it was fungus. I will continue to treat it until it is gone. Thanks for all your input. I never know where to start.
 
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