# Ich on my balloon molly???



## LasColinasCichlids (Jan 4, 2011)

1. What is the size of your tank? 5 gal

2. What are your water parameters? State the brand of test kit used. pH is 7.0 ammonia is 0. (auto alert tags) 

3. Is your aquarium set up freshwater or brackish water? Freshwater

4. How long the aquarium has been set up? One month (still cycling)

5. What fish do you have? How many are in your tank? How big are they? How long have you had them? Total of 6 fish. #1-Female African Dwarf Frog, 1 inch, had for about a year now. #2- Male Fancy Guppy, 1/2 inch, had about a month. #3- *Male Dalmation Balloon Molly*, 3/4 inch, had about a month. #4,5, & 6- total of 3 male sunrise tequila delta guppies, almost 1 inch each, had about a month. 

6. Were the fish placed under quarantine period (minus the first batch from the point wherein the tank is ready to accommodate the inhabitants)? Frog was alone in seperate cycled 1 gal for a year. Set up the 5 gal added frog. Added the guppies and molly about a month ago with no quarantine period.

7. What temperature is the tank water currently? 76.5 F

8. Are there live plants in the aquarium? No, just 1 small and 1 x-small artificial plants

9. What filter are you using? State brand, maintenance routine and power capacity. Tetra Whisper 10i

10. Any other equipment used (aside from heater and filter which are two very important components of the tank)? no

11. Does your aquarium receive natural sunlight at any given part of the day? What is your lighting schedule (assuming you do not rely on sunlight for our viewing pleasure)? No natural light at any part of day, no drafts either. Lighting schedule is about 8 hours a day, sometimes less, sometimes more, depends on my schedule. Forgot the last 2 nights though and the light has been on continuously. Its a 2watt flouresant bulb.

12. When did you perform your last water change and how much water was changed? How often do you change your water? Do you vacuum the substrate? Last water change was about 45 mins ago, one before that was about 5-7 days ago. I do a water change about every week. When doing water changes I do about 15-20% (just below or at one gallon). Plan on vacuuming the substrate, but have not yet since tank has only been up for one month.

13. What foods do you provide your fish? What is the feeding schedule? This tank eats Tetra Tropical Flakes for Clear water as well as Repto-Min for my frog's food. They generally eat once in the evening time. And on a rare ocassion, maybe once every week or two, I will drop in a couple of pre-soaked freeze-dried bloodworms...mostly for the frog, but the molly seems to enjoy them.

14. What unusual signs have you observed in your fish? My male dalmation balloon molly named Spot has been hiding under the decoration bridge for the last few hours, I chalked that up to the thought that I have had the light on for 2 days (I know, bad me for that anyways). As I was doing the water change on the tank this evening I was checking the fish out as I always do to make sure everyone is okay, especially my molly because in about 5 days I had plans to move him to my 29 gallon when I re-stock it since he will be too large for a 5 gallon full grown. Well, my sweet little Spot has some white looking thin stuff on his fins, mostly his tail. At first glance it looked as though his tail was frayed, which made me look closer thinking that maybe the guppies had started nipping at him. As I looked closer I noticed that was not the issue, that it was as if he had an extra thin slime coat on him in places. And then I watched him go to the top of the bridge and itch his side on the rail of it, but he only did it one time. My first thought was Ich. 

15. Have you treated your fish ahead of diagnosis? If so, what treatments did you use? State your reasons for planning ahead of proper diagnosis. No treatment yet, just noticed it. 


My questions:
1- Is it Ich? Or could it be just extra slime from the light being on too long?

2- I dont have another tank. Can I treat the entire tank since the chances of my frog and guppies getting it are high?

3- Is regular Ich treatment safe for my frog?

4- Would it be wiser to put the molly in the 29 gal tank on Saturday when I remove the last remaining cichlid and treat it in that tank before adding any other fish to it a week later?

I am adding a picture, but my camera sucks. It is just a basic Polaroid Digital Point & Shoot and has no settings to change to help. I took the pics w/o flash bc with it it washed the molly out since he is primarily white/silver.


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## haautos (Feb 3, 2011)

My questions:
1- Is it Ich? Or could it be just extra slime from the light being on too long? if you think its the light which it may be leave the light off for a day or so then check the molly 

2- I dont have another tank. Can I treat the entire tank since the chances of my frog and guppies getting it are high? the guppies shouldnt be affected but the frog might be they absorb alot through their skin which means they would get a lot of the medication..i dont know if they can get ich even but if possible id remove the frog 

3- Is regular Ich treatment safe for my frog? if you cant remove the frog try half doses to see how the frog does..half dose may even work for the fish if it is ich..cant tell with your picture ich is usually white dots 

4- Would it be wiser to put the molly in the 29 gal tank on Saturday when I remove the last remaining cichlid and treat it in that tank before adding any other fish to it a week later?
it may be but the ich will still be in this tank so it should really be treated possibly take the frog out and put it in the 29 till after the treatment in the tank with the molly in it now..if it is ich ich lives in the water and can be on your fake plants and the other decor after an ich treatment everything needs to be fully clean to remove any of the ich thats left

good luck!


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## LasColinasCichlids (Jan 4, 2011)

haautos said:


> My questions:
> 1- Is it Ich? Or could it be just extra slime from the light being on too long? if you think its the light which it may be leave the light off for a day or so then check the molly
> 
> 2- I dont have another tank. Can I treat the entire tank since the chances of my frog and guppies getting it are high? the guppies shouldnt be affected but the frog might be they absorb alot through their skin which means they would get a lot of the medication..i dont know if they can get ich even but if possible id remove the frog
> ...


Thanks!! I have yet to start treatment as if it were ich. Instead I raised the tank temp a little bit and added some fw aquarium salt after researching that balloon mollies are general brackish and like salt. Also made sure it was safe for my guppies & frog to add salt. Anyways...after adding 1/2 teaspoon of the salt and raising the temp the molly perked up and a lot of the extra slimecoat went away. He still has some white blotches that look to be discoloration in his swimming fins (not good with fish anatomy), but they dont seem to be on his body as much as with his body, if that makes sence. I am going to watch him for the next couple of days, and if I can confirm through research and observation what, if anything, is wrong with my molly I will treat the tank, and will definately do it before removing the molly to the larger tank. 
Thanks for the info on ich, as it has been YEARS since having to deal with ich and dont remember much except that its white bumps and that it can be treated. 
As far as treatment with the frog, I read up and what you said seems to be right on the money, a half dose. 
Thanks again!!! :-D


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## LasColinasCichlids (Jan 4, 2011)

*Ich it was...*

Yesterday saw that the 3 sunrise tequila guppies had a couple of small white dots on them, which were obviously ich, and that the molly's white things looked more like ich. So off to the store to get ich meds I went. 

Since I have the ADF in the tank I wanted to avoid malachite green (or however you spell it) if I could. Found Jungle Tank Buddies dissolving tablets for Ich which use Victoria Green to treat ich and does it in one treatment within 24 hours. So I removed the carbon from my filter and put in half a tablet (recommended dose for a 5 gal) and raised the temp up 2 degrees. About 5 hours later, I saw a 50% improvement in all the fish, and the frog was fine. So late tomorrow night, assuming the ich is completely gone, I will do a partial water change, add the carbon back to the filter, and remove all decor to clean and take the gravel vac to the the tank. 

If it isnt completely cleared, I will re-treat accordingly. But I wanted to give an update.

Thanks for the help.


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

Stick to sodium chloride please! Meds are a last resort. Separate the frog. A rubbermaid tub will do the job for it until ich treatment is over. Keep the frog tank fishless. This will starve the ich as it cannot survive without fish as hosts.

In the meantime, add a teaspoon per gallon of sodium chloride, then add second set in the next 12 hours and the third set in the next 24 hours. This will total 3 teaspoons per gallon. Both guppies and mollies will be fine in FW (hard alkaline conditions) to SW so salting them is not an issue.

You need to do daily water changes combined with thorough vacuuming to remove the cysts out of the tank. Make sure you sterilize your equipments after use. And be sure you redose the salt per the water volume changed. If you already reached 3 teaspoons per gallon dose and have to replace for example at least 10g of water, then dose back 30 teaspoons of sodium chloride to replenish the salt.

Continue 10 days of treatment after ich disappears to ensure the parasites are completely destroyed. Keep temperature consistently at 84 degrees Fahrenheit and keep water well aerated. Since ich attacks the gill tissues as well, you need to ensure your fish are able to breathe properly.

Forget the advice by Jungle to do treatment in one day. You cannot eliminate ich in one day only. It will take 2-3 weeks to eliminate the parasites altogether depending on the temperature. Victoria green, by the way, is still malachite green. I still do not advise you to proceed to that med. Stick to salt. It will be sufficient enough to destroy ich if you are consistent with your treatment.

By the way, for your salt reference, pickling salt, rock salt or aquarium salt is absolutely fine. Make sure it does NOT contain yellow prussiate of soda, the only additive to watch out for. Iodine and calcium silicate are not an issue despite beliefs by some that they are.

Lastly, dissolve the salt properly before you add. Even in salt water setups, salt should be dissolved to minimize injuries caused by the burning salt grains especially if you have grazers and bottom dwellers involved.


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