emergency quarantine ?

[magnosis]

Hello all

One of my black mollies isn't doing well lately.  Yesterday I noticed some white spots at the base of its gills, it was behaving a bit calm compared to usual but was still moving around and eating well.

I did my usual bi-weekly 50% water change, but this time added a bit more salt (went from 1tsp/5g to 2tsp/5g).

Today the fish is in bad shape, the entire bottom of its head and gills is covered white, and the fish is lying at the bottom of the tank, not moving.


I have an extra 10g tank that was once a QT but it hasn't seen a water change in a few months now.  The water is still clear, there's a nerite snail in there with a bunch of pond snails, and a fair amount of hair algae starting to suffocate the few java ferns and hemathius micrantemoides in there.

[edit] I can't tell the difference between bacteria and fungus in this case, but it's attacking the gills pretty badly

So, what is your advise ?
- add melafix ? pimafix ? (both are week-long treatments, won't help much today, might cause additional stress ?)
- add salt ?
- move to the [defunct] QT (different water params, but no other fish)
- empty the [defunct] QT bare-bottom, desinfect, fill with water from the fish' current tank ?
- euthanasia ?

I'm not suuuuuper attached to the fish, euthanasia is an option, but if there's something I can do in the short term to help I'd rather try that first.

Thanks for your help.

[magnosis]

The fish has moved to the other side of the tank, where I was able to take a shot of its belly :

(and when taking the shot I noticed is bottom fin is affected pretty badly, too)

[HappyGuppy]

If it is a bacterial infection this *might* work for you.  I have had numerous success with this myself, both on myself (& family) and on fish.

Take a clove of garlic.  Press it through a garlic presser into a bowl or cup.  Leave it there for 30 to 45 minutes - this allows the enzymes to do their chemical reactions to make allicin, which is the antibiotic.  Pour in some dechlorinated water into the bowl *after* it sat in the air for the 30-45 mins and mix it up good.  Either let the water infuse, mixing periodically for a few hours then strain out the garlic, or better yet dump it all into your QT tank with the bits of garlic.  Your tank will have a destinct garlic breath odor.

If the infection is bacterial then you should see improvement soon.  Remember, this won't hurt, but it can seriously help with a lot of bacterial infections.

Good luck

[HappyGuppy]

I am curious about the status of your fish.  Please let us know what you did, when, and what your results are.  Hope he recovers for you.

[magnosis]

The fish is gone.

I am a lot better at saving plants than saving fish so far ...