Sick Mollies

[aerofish]

I am hoping someone can shed some light on an issue that I am having. I have had a 36G tank with some Mollies in it for a couple years without issues. A little while ago a few raised bumps 1/16-1/8" in diameter have shown up on a few of the fish. I treated the tank with the standard general purpose medication from Petsmart to see if it would help. I have noticed now that a fish had died and it seems that more are getting these bumps on them. Some are fairly large and noticeable mostly orangish bumps. No open sores or anything like that. The fish are eating normally and appear to be normally active. The water parameters have been checked and all are where they need to be. I have been doing weekly 5G water changes and added a tablespoon of salt. I have looked through many photos and sites recently and can't find any information or anything that looks like what they have. I will try to get a good picture of it and update as I can. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

 

[Scelzin1]

How quickly did the fish die after you noticed the bumps. Are they eating. Research velvet disease. It could be that

 

[aerofish]

Thank you for the idea. The fish didn't rapidly die, I have lost two, but chalked that up to old age and a medication treatment. No rapid deaths, no signs of distress other than these orange bumps.

 

[Scelzin1]

I would look up marine velvet. And then also just look up orange spots on fish in general

 

[TheTodd]

Marine Velvet is more of a grey/white fine powdery coating...almost looks like you rolled your fish in dust/flour. It also kills really fast, so if that was it, they would be gone quick. Is it a female? Maybe pregnant? There are lots of posts out there with people swearing that their pregnant mollies got orange spots. I've never witnessed it, but maybe a possibility?

 

[aerofish]

Thank you again for the ideas. Definitely not the velvet you describe. I have searched for quite some time online, and looked through probably 500+ photos of different diseases without any luck finding something. Just in case I started a Tetracycline dose today. I am still getting baby mollies and everything is still checking out. I was finally able to get a photo of one of the fish. Pretty difficult since they keep moving around. Hope this may give someone an idea. Thank you again.