Black Molly Velvet?

[greylady]

Hello, I'll try to keep this short but I know more info is better. See my profile for details on tank. Got a pregnant Marble Molly a while ago (over a year probably), she had >40 fry, re-homed all but 5 female fry (also re-homed the mom). She came to me already pregnant so not sure what male looked like plus she was in tank with Orange male sword tail for a few months (also re-homed). Even though they are all sisters from the same mom, I think there may have been more than one "dad" involved as some of them have Lyre tail and some don't. One is much smaller than the others but is definitely also a female. They started to get "gold" around their gills at a few month old and I wasn't sure if this was the "dad" coming out in them or a disease (ie velvet). The thing is I have researched Velvet for months and when I shine a flashlight on them it definitely looks like velvet, all shiny and gold around thier gills and now has spread down their stomachs. A month ago I turned up the heat to 82 and added salt to the 20g while I waited for my copper safe meds to arrive. I purchased a 10 gallon and put the Mollys in it with the proper dose of Fritz Copper Safe about 3 weeks ago and moved the filter from the 20g to the 10g quarantine tank with the mollies. The thing is these fish have never acted sick at all. They are little pigs with food, no clamped fins, they don't flash or slam themselves into things, I don't think their breathing fast but I don't know what is considered "fast gill movement". They swim all over the tank, chase the shrimp and seem fine. I've tried to research if black mollies can turn gold. I know there are "orange" looking mollies, but this is very shiny and gold. So I think, "definitely velvet disease" but they don't act sick at all and it's been months and so I think "maybe they aren't sick, just changing color?". I'm so confused at this point. I've tried to research how long a fish can live with velvet disease and everything I read makes it sound like once you get this amount of "velvet" that it looks like my fish have, they are pretty much goners...but mine don't act sick at all. The copper safe I have says it treats the tank for one month. My plan was to wait another week (which would be one month since I did the initial dose) do a complete water change and re-dose. The "gold" seems to be spreading, but they don't act sick?? Any ideas? What would you do? Thanks so much! PS: When I set up the 10g quarantine tank I turned off the lights on the 20g, kept the Temp at 82F and covered it with a towel. I turn on the lights every 2-3 days for about 4 hours just to try to keep the plants alive, so far so good. I didn't want to dose the 20g with copper safe due to having Amano shrimp and snails in there. Do you think if this was / is velvet that it is now gone from the 20g? Thank you!

Oh, parameters as of today in 10g quarentine tank: Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 20, ph 7.6, Kh 126ppm, temp 82, no lights.

 

[greylady]

Wow, 37 views and not one reply...

 

[elizae]

Velvet is actually very rare in aquariums. I had black mollies who slowly turned gold and it was not velvet, it was just impure genetics, just as most black moor goldfish do not stay black. Could you please maybe post a picture showing these fish? Are all of these fish being kept in the 10 gallon?

Salt does not do much for mollies, though they are brackish fish and they can tolerate a little of it (though behind bred for so long in pure freshwater I doubt they’re as hardy as wild cousins). I would recommended a water change to remove some salt. I also don’t recommend dosing until you have a definite diagnosis.