Black Mollies with fungus

[HavenReece]

We have had our 3 adult black mollies and babies for 2 weeks almost, I noticed last night the adults are developing a white fungus around their mouth and eyes. We have bought treatment and started today. What causes this?? We change our the tank every 4 days at 25% each time and use well water and not city water.


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[Andy Sager]

I have found that adding aquarium salt at a rate of 1/2 to 1 teaspoon per gallon helps keep mollies from coming down with fungal type diseases. Obviously, you need to make sure your other fish or plants in the tank can handle this amount. Mouth fungus seems to be a common disease for mollies.
As for doing so many water changes, WHY? I do a once weekly water change schedule and a small amount ( 10%-15%) at that. If your water parameters are okay, the need to change so much water isn't there. If your water parameters go bad in that short of a time, you are probably not set up correctly with your filter or have too many fish in the tank. (That's from "old school" fish keeping.)
In some cases, well water needs to be aerated and adjusted before being okay to use. You may want to set out some water in a container with an airstone to let it "breathe" before using it for your water changes. This may be part of the reason your fish are having this issue. It's hard to say from what you wrote.

Hope this helps

 

[Mebbid]

Could you post a picture? If you are indeed seeing multiple fish being infected by fungus in the same spot it's likely that it's not fungus at all. It honestly sounds more like columnaris to me.

 

[Andy Sager]

Could you post a picture? If you are indeed seeing multiple fish being infected by fungus in the same spot it's likely that it's not fungus at all. It honestly sounds more like columnaris to me.

+1 and if this is the case, your meds need to treat gram - bacteria specifically. Most meds treat gram+ bacteria only so make sure of what you are using. When in doubt, Nitrofurazone will treat both gram - & gram+ diseases. This is best used in a hospital tank environment.

Hope this helps

 

[HavenReece]

Unfortunately all 3 black mollies passed away by the time I woke up this morning and only one baby is still alive i am going to research the things you all have posted and see if I can tell what it was and how to not allow it to happen again. I only just noticed the white spots on their eyes and bodies not even 48 hours ago and they didn't make it long


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[Mebbid]

If they died that fast then it absolutely sounds like columnaris.

 

[BBradbury]

Your Mollies

We have had our 3 adult black mollies and babies for 2 weeks almost, I noticed last night the adults are developing a white fungus around their mouth and eyes. We have bought treatment and started today. What causes this?? We change our the tank every 4 days at 25% each time and use well water and not city water.


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

Hello Hav...

Water changes are best done in large amounts of at least 50 percent and less often, at once per week for tanks up to 30 gallons and every two weeks for the larger ones. The reason is: Small water changes leave the bulk of the dissolved wastes in tank to build up to near toxic levels. By removing and replacing much larger volumes of water, you remove most of the dissolved waste. What remains is taken in by your plants and the rest is diluted to a safe level in all the new water. Mollies are the most sensitive of the livebearers to changes in their water chemistry. So, large, frequent water changes are a must.

Well water is fine for tanks as long as it is treated with a product like "Seachem's "Safe". Mollies have been raised as brackish water fish since forever. If you're not using a bit of standard aquarium salt or a similar product like Kosher or Canning salt, you should consider it. I keep large tanks of livebearing fish and use roughly a couple of teaspoons in every 5 gallons of replacement water.

Another thing, these fish are most comfortable in larger tanks with a lot of surface plants. I'd recommend Hornwort or Anacharis. These are available at most chain pet stores. Just drop individual stems into the tank.

B

 

[Mebbid]

Hello Hav...

Water changes are best done in large amounts of at least 50 percent and less often, at once per week for tanks up to 30 gallons and every two weeks for the larger ones. The reason is: Small water changes leave the bulk of the dissolved wastes in tank to build up to near toxic levels. By removing and replacing much larger volumes of water, you remove most of the dissolved waste. What remains is taken in by your plants and the rest is diluted to a safe level in all the new water. Mollies are the most sensitive of the livebearers to changes in their water chemistry. So, large, frequent water changes are a must.

Well water is fine for tanks as long as it is treated with a product like "Seachem's "Safe". Mollies have been raised as brackish water fish since forever. If you're not using a bit of standard aquarium salt or a similar product like Kosher or Canning salt, you should consider it. I keep large tanks of livebearing fish and use roughly a couple of teaspoons in every 5 gallons of replacement water.

Another thing, these fish are most comfortable in larger tanks with a lot of surface plants. I'd recommend Hornwort or Anacharis. These are available at most chain pet stores. Just drop individual stems into the tank.

B

You do realize that she's doing just about 50% a week right? If mollies are the most sensitive live bearers to changes in their water chemistry then that would mean multiple smaller water changes would be best to minimize the fluctuations in the chemistry.

 

[Andy Sager]

Hello Hav...

Water changes are best done in large amounts of at least 50 percent and less often, at once per week for tanks up to 30 gallons and every two weeks for the larger ones. The reason is: Small water changes leave the bulk of the dissolved wastes in tank to build up to near toxic levels. By removing and replacing much larger volumes of water, you remove most of the dissolved waste. What remains is taken in by your plants and the rest is diluted to a safe level in all the new water. Mollies are the most sensitive of the livebearers to changes in their water chemistry. So, large, frequent water changes are a must.

Well water is fine for tanks as long as it is treated with a product like "Seachem's "Safe". Mollies have been raised as brackish water fish since forever. If you're not using a bit of standard aquarium salt or a similar product like Kosher or Canning salt, you should consider it. I keep large tanks of livebearing fish and use roughly a couple of teaspoons in every 5 gallons of replacement water.

Another thing, these fish are most comfortable in larger tanks with a lot of surface plants. I'd recommend Hornwort or Anacharis. These are available at most chain pet stores. Just drop individual stems into the tank.

B

You do realize that she's doing just about 50% a week right? If mollies are the most sensitive live bearers to changes in their water chemistry then that would mean multiple smaller water changes would be best to minimize the fluctuations in the chemistry.

Sorry B, have to agree with mebbid on this one. Sensitive fish will not usually like larger water changes but will handle multiple smaller ones better. And your point of smaller changes leaving "the bulk of the dissolved wastes in tank to build up to near toxic levels" really goes to an inadequate filtering set up. Properly filtered tanks don;t have a tremendous amount of dissolved waste as the carbon or other filtering materials available will absorb and remove these from the system. Improper turnover rates will leave excess amounts in the water.
As a fish keeper for 50 years this year, I have never done a 50% water change on any home tank I have had. I also have not had a nitrate problem because I don't purposely overload my tanks. I have also successfully bred many varieties of fish with not doing more than a 10%-15% water change weekly. That means that water conditions have been successfully met to accommodate the different fish's requirements for breeding while only doing this small amount of water change. If the high nitrates and dissolved organics were an issue, the fish wouldn't have bred. This is basic fish husbandry. Proper water conditions must be met in order for fish to successfully breed.

But getting back to the OP's situation, unfortunately, the timing does sound more like Columnaris. It would do her good to read up on the causes of this disease. The following article is a bit technical but full of helpful information. Fish Columnaris | Fungus & Saprolegnia | Treatment & Prevention

Hope this helps

 

[BBradbury]

Water Changes

Hello All...

The poster is welcomed to approach the water keeping duties however they feel is best. But as I said earlier, multiple small water changes still leave the bulk of the dissolved fish wastes in the tank. If I remove and replace much larger amounts of tank water, 50 to 60 percent, I remove more than half the dissolved waste and the rest is used by plants and is diluted in all the new water.

Getting out the gear for a small water change multiple times a week is such a waste of effort. It seems more efficient to get out the gear once and change a lot of water. The fish are going to appreciate one large, water change per week, then a series of smaller ones. Less work, more benefits.

Just a thought. This is just what works for me, but I have multiple, large tanks.

B

 

[Mebbid]

Hello All...

The poster is welcomed to approach the water keeping duties however they feel is best. But as I said earlier, multiple small water changes still leave the bulk of the dissolved fish wastes in the tank. If I remove and replace much larger amounts of tank water, 50 to 60 percent, I remove more than half the dissolved waste and the rest is used by plants and is diluted in all the new water.

Getting out the gear for a small water change multiple times a week is such a waste of effort. It seems more efficient to get out the gear once and change a lot of water. The fish are going to appreciate one large, water change per week, then a series of smaller ones. Less work, more benefits.

Just a thought. This is just what works for me, but I have multiple, large tanks.

B

Let's say you're at 20ppm nitrate and producing 10ppm per week which isn't an unreasonable amount and equals to about 1.5ppm per day. At a 25% change every 4 days your nitrate will normalize at about 24ppm. When you do a 50% weekly water change then it's going to stabilize at 20ppm. That's hardly a big enough difference for it to matter. Especially when taking into account your claim that mollies hate large changes in water chemistry which a 50% change is going to cause a fluctuation that's twice as large as a 25% water change.

 

[BBradbury]

Water Changes

Hello Meb...

Don't have a clue about the math end of the water keeping hobby. Just seems more efficient to do a large water change once a week then a lot of little ones every other day is all. I have muliple large tanks and try to work a little smarter instead of a little harder. So, if I have to get out all the gear to change out the tank water, I'm going to make it worth my time and change out a lot. It really doesn't take a whole lot longer. Then, I'm done until the next week or so.

The Mollies are sensitive about their water chemistry. It has to be pure, so large, frequent water changes are the way to go. That way, the chemistry is always safe. By changing a lot of tank water and changing it frequently, pollution just doesn't have time to build up between water changes.

If the poster prefers to get lots of practice hauling out the water change stuff multiple times a week to change out a few gallons of water, then fine. I'd rather get it out once and change out a lot of water. My fish seem to appreciate all the pure water at once.

Good chatting with you.

B