lyretail molly

[dbeckwit]

1.) Hey all, need some help. My cremesicle lyretail Molly has some sort of growth/ fungus on her back. It started out on top of her head and slowly moved backward from there. It is a collection of brown spots/ dots. Doesn't look like ick, velvet, or anything else I've seen pics of. I just noticed she is losing her top fin now. The front half of her top fin is gone. any ideas? Also, her gills have been red since start of this as well. Haven't seen her rubbing on anything though, and all other fish look perfect.

2.) Last check of parameters was:
78 degree from heater
0 ammonia
0 nitrate
Roughly 25 ppm nitrates
Ph 7.8ish ( I used Ph reg. But it kept coming back up. I decided to leave it and let them acclimate as opposed to continual changes)

3.) 20 Gal. tank, fish in it for over 1 year. (i've only had for 6 months though)
4.) Penguin 100B & Aquaeon Quietflow 20
5.) Other Fish: 4" sailfin dalmation molly, 2" silver lyretail molly, 1.5" gold twin-bar platy, 4 neon tetras, 3 zebra danios, 4 ghost shrimp, 1 mystery snail
6.) 30% water change/gravel vacuum on Sunday.
8.) removed 1/3 of gravel, and replaced left 1/3 of tank with sand. (fish was sick before this though)
9.) been feeding aqueon tropical flakes, and 3 days ago started feeding frozen bloodworms

 

[dkpate]

It might be some sort of fungus, or it could be bacterial. I would find a good med (QT her if you can) and treat ASAP, since it's spreading.

 

[dbeckwit]

It might be some sort of fungus, or it could be bacterial. I would find a good med (QT her if you can) and treat ASAP, since it's spreading.

I've started treating with both melafix and pimafix, will see if this helps the fungus over the next week. Weird part is that i'm pretty certain she was pregnant and just gave birth. I've got 5 fry that look a lot like a combo of her (cremesicle lyretail) and my male dalmation sailfin. The fry all look perfectly healthy.

 

[dkpate]

Well, I will keep my fingers crossed that it doesn't spread to them.

I hope the meds work for you, and she recovers nicely! Good luck.

 

[dbeckwit]

Just took some pictures of penny. You can see the fungus above her head. And you can see the shortened fin in the first picture. The front half of her top fin is gone. They tail is still in great shape though, so don't think its fin rot? Also, my gold twinbar platy got a couple of these dots at the same time as Penny, but they didn't spread. Weird that only my two orange fish have it?

Suggestions other than using pimafix and melafix which im currently doing?

 

[dbeckwit]

Well, I had to put her our of her misery. She ended up getting some sort of swim bladder problem. Lost almost complete control of her tail also. Swam Round head down, tail up.
Can anyone Id the dark spots on her back? I think they were at the root of it, and she got worse after 1 week of dosing pimafix and melafix.

 

[dkpate]

Weird, I have never seen anything like it.
If your fish ever get swim bladder issues again, you can try feeding boiled, shelled peas, which are a laxative.

 

[dbeckwit]

Weird, I have never seen anything like it.
If your fish ever get swim bladder issues again, you can try feeding boiled, shelled peas, which are a laxative.

thanks for the tip for next time.

 

[Fishies86]

It couldn't possibly be burns from an uncovered heater could it?

 

[dbeckwit]

Hmm, don't think so, but not sure. I've got a marineland stealth, so I'm pretty sure it's not open. And I don't recall her going over there much.

 

[OhNeil1969]

Sorry to hear about your fish. I know it's too late now but black spots with what appears to be swim bladder problems could be indicative of fish TB. If that is the case you did the right thing by putting it out of it's misery. I recently had a black molly with the same conditions. She also had what looked like curved spine. I got her out of the tank as soon as possible to make sure she didn't infect my other fish. One thing you should know: fish TB is contagious to humans also. It's a bacterial infection. It's recommended that you handle infected fish with gloves and clean all items that have come in contact with the sick fish.

 

[dbeckwit]

Hmmm, good to know that its infectious. Thanks

No one else is showing signs of it yet.