Orange spots?

[wabyrd]

I've been treating my 50 gallon (mollies, platys, and guppies) because a few of my fish had died as I had previously posted. Since there are so many fish in the tank, I decided to go ahead and treat the whole tank for disease as apposed to losing $150+ worth of fish. I'd been using Maracyn-Two (Minocycline) for the treatment. On the 3rd day of treatment, I decided it would be best to continue to treat the tank for a second round when I found one of my black mollies was appearing a little fuzzy and ulcerated. Now I am on day 3 of the second round of treatment (8th day total) and I have noticed orange spots on some of my fish. One of the male Dalmation Sailfin Mollies has the orange "trim" all along the top of his dorsal fin. One female clearly has some orange dots on her sides and on the top of her head. These orange spots are most noticeable on my dalmations and silver mollies in the tank. They don't appear to be fuzzy or ulcers of any sort. I was wondering if the Maracyn-two is causing it or is this some other problem I'm going to have to deal with? There are about 50 fish in this tank, but the water quality is PERFECT. I have an Emperor 280 and a Penguin 125 filter both on this tank to keep toxin levels low. Since starting treatment, I've taken out the carbon filters from the 280 but left one in the 125 (over 6 days old) so I didn't remove too much antibiotic. I'm trying to take a picture to show the fish, but I can't get a good shot of them. They are still very active. Are these orange spots a sign of badness to come?

[reefrunner69]

Are these orange spots a sign of badness to come?

Possibly, this is a new one on me. Does the maracyn have any vitamin additives?? SW maracyn will stain the water yellow cause of the vitamins, I suppose it is possible that it could stain the fish. What I think is more likely is that the orange is actually more of a pink or red and it is a sign of inflamation.

Give us a few more details of the tank, inhabitants, maintenance procedures water parameters, etc...Any visual signs of the previous fish death and let's determine if you should be treating the water at all, and if so make sure your using the right treatment.

[wabyrd]

I checked the packaging for the Maracyn-Two and it does mention B vitamins. The box doesn't really tell much other than the active ingredient is Minocycline. It doesn't list inactive ingredients.

The orange really is orange. It's in odd places such as in between the eyes on one dalmation molly, the top edge of the dorsal fin on another sailfin dalmation molly, and behind the pectoral fins on one of my dalmation fry. Several other dalmation mollies and silver mollies have this. The orange is the color orange of my platys.

Tank details...50 gallon. One Emperor 280 and One Penguin 125 biowheel filters. 3 18" airstones that run off and on throughout the day for a total of about 16 hours. Fake Gravel, fake plants, real fish. It's full of Mollies (assorted colors), platys (assorted) and guppies. Water parameters...almost perfect. Ammonia, nitrates, nitrites are all zero. My pH is slightly alkaline. I have an appropriate amount of aquarium salt added for the tank. The water is crystal clear. I do 25%ish water changes every two to four weeks or as soon as I detect an increase in nitrAtes. I only vacuum about 2/3s of the gravel with each water change.

The other fish deaths were mollies and the last one was a black molly that had LARGE white spots on her. The two largest were right behind her dorsal fin and on the dorsal fin. It looked a bit like a fuzzy depression. She lived for about 3 days looking really bad like that. While continuing to treat the 50 gallon, I moved her to the 3 gal infirmary. Since she had gotten the full dose of Maracyn, I decided to try Melafix on her. It didn't work.

As of right now, the silver and dalmation mollies still have the orange spots. Not growing. Not going away. They all seem healthy and eat well. I have completed my 10 day treatment of Maracyn-two. I haven't lost any fish since that last black molly. I have a picture of the first fish that died on me at:
http://www.billandheather.net/fish1.jpg
http://www.billandheather.net/fish2.jpg

I have looked through my fish books and can't find anything about the orange spots, so I was starting to think like you that perhaps it was the medication staining the fish, but it's really staining in an odd pattern of only a scale or two here and there.

[bettacove]

Are they really tiny? Maybe its velvet.... Velvet is coppery coloured

ashley

[wabyrd]

I wouldn't say that the spots are really tiny. They're about the size of a scale on the fish.

[wabyrd]

Orange spots don't seem to be affecting anything, but they still aren't fading. I did lose one fish this morning. I knew last night that he'd be dead by morning. He was just hanging out at the bottom and would occasionally lean to one side. I don't know what did it though. My water parameters are all great for the tank. No levels of bad stuff...

[bettacove]

Wierd, I've never herd of something like that before. Maybe you have find some info here http://www.exitfive.com/fishdoctor/skinbody.html

ashley

[wabyrd]

Well, it's been about 3 weeks since I first noticed the orange spotting and the orange racing stripe on my sailfin mollies. The spots don't seem to be growing or increasing in number, so I'm just going to keep my eye on them and assume everything is OK.

Thanks,
Bill

[wabyrd]

It's now been 2 months since the orange spots appeared. I guess that they are just some sort of natural color change. In fact, the one affected female has been giving me more fry than I know what to do with. Unfortunately, my LFS won't take them back unless they're over 1 inch long. I'm not even protecting the fry. I guess they are just natural survivors. I was hoping that the larger fish would eat them as a form of population control. Anyhow, my point is that the fish are healthy and the orange spots apparently mean nothing.

Thanks

[ghettorigged]

Hmm, odd because I also have had a 'breakout' of orange spots.
Glad your fish are still healthy. That makes me feel a bit better about my own. Please PM me if you learn what caused it. Thanks!

[Nancella]

Two of my adult Dalmatian Mollies have some kind of orange discoloration. Is that what you are referring to? I'm worried about them. One of them is acting eratic and they both spend a lot of time at the bottom of the tank.