New Mollies

I agree on getting nitrates down.

Whitespot aka ich looks as though the fish has been sprinkled with salt. And if one fish has got it the chances are the other fish will have it soon. But whitespot does not look like streaks in the fins.
I have never heard of 'molly spot'. I know that mollies can get something called the shimmies if they are kept in water that is too soft, but that is a swimming problem not a spotty problem. So I have just googled molly spot and the only site that came up shows a pic of what looks like ich though the site says it is not a disease but a symptom of water quality - possibly the high nitrates. The site also says that mollies are brackish fish - wrong - and they need salt in their water - also wrong. Mollies are hard water fish, they must have hard water to thrive. they can also survive in brackish to full sea water but they do not need it. The 'hardness' minerals are much more important.


Melafix is an antiseptic rather than a cure. It's akin to us putting dettol on a cut to stop it getting infected, but if it does get infected dettol is no use.

Protozin is an anti ich medication. Most ich meds say to increase the temperature as this speeds up the parasite's lifecycle so if the bottle of Protozin says to increase temp, ignore the shop and turn the heater up.
Ich does not cause death unless the fish's gills get infected, or there is something else wrong with the fish and whitespot pushes it over the edge as it were. I am currently battling ich yet again and none of my fish have died.

Your pH difference - what is the pH of tap water that has been allowed to stand for 24 hours? As you have hard water the mains pipes are at risk of limescale build up so the water company may pump carbon dioxide into the mains water to lower the pH to reduce the risk of limescale. In this scenario, tap water pH will increase on standing as the carbon dioxide gasses out.
Is there anything in the tank that could increase the pH such as limestone rocks or gravel?

You can look up your water company on the site I gave in this thread. Once you locate your water region's report, scroll down till you find the section on nitrite. That is where they give a list of places where chloramine is used. If your water source is not mentioned, they use chlorine.

If the fish is losing some of his fin, that is finrot not ich.


So we have:

• Hard water - good for mollies
• Tank pH higher than tap - need to find out why as the sudden change may be causing the behaviour you notice after a water change. If it does turn out that the pH is higher in water that has stood for 24 hours, the remedy is to allow a bucket(s) of water to stand overnight before doing a water change.
• Nitrates too high - could be affecting the mollies so nitrate needs to come down.
• Do the fish have ich or fin rot or something else. The best general purpose medication is eSHa 2000. That treats fin rot and ich according to their website

If we can find out why the mollies react badly to water changes, more and bigger changes will get the nitrate level down. Testing the pH of a glass of water that has stood overnight is the first thing to try.


And as Fiona asked - do you vacuum the gravel when you do a water change?

Hi guys, I Hoover the substrate. Yesterday morning, he really did look like he had been sprinkled with salt over his body and I got a good picture which shows this. Today he looks a lot better in himself and the 'salty' look has been replaced with a creamy looking raised areas on his body - I can't get a good picture but I do have a video. Can anyone give me their email address so I can send them please? I've raised the temperature to 86f and increased the salt to 0.2% - I'm not going to raise the temperature anymore. An article online said to raise the temp between 84-86%. The fish seem happier in themselves at the moment.
I will allow some tap water to stand for 24hours and then test the Ph tomorrow evening. I have no limestone rocks, just sand, drift wood and real plants. I can't find any reference to Chloramine in the link you sent me for my area (London/south east) so must be Chloramine free? My fish has definately lost a chunk out of his tail fin. I will order the esha 2000 too. I I've been doing daily 20litre water changes and my nitrates are down to 20ppm The fish seem happier with the water changes too.

Pic of LT's molly. Hopefully this can help with a diagnosis:

Thanks sue, I've ordered some of that medication online but he seems so much better and the fin is even healing up already! Btw the PH of the tap water left overnight is 8.2 - same as the tank but quite a bit higher than when it's straight from the tap. Should I just leave a bucket of water overnight for the water changes? And not treat it at all? I don't have a spare heater so how would I heat the new water before putting it in the tank?

Just boil some of the water you've had standing and add it back to the bucket until you get the temperature you need.

I'm hoping not to take this off topic here, but this raises an interesting question for me... is there a need for any kind of 'additives' to water for aquarium water changes if water is left overnight?

The esha 2000 arrived today and since putting 30drops in my 120litre tank the fish look really unhappy, lethargic, hanging around at the surface and this morning they were active and happy? Is it the esha? Or a coincidence - their behaviour changed an hour or two after putting the treatment in. What should I do?

I've woken up this morning and the fish are back to their old selfs. I'm supposed to give them a half dose of the medication today and tomorrow but I won't do that now. I'll do my normal water change this morning and test the water. Why would the fish react like this? Is it because of the temperature and the salt? Was all of it combined all a bit much? I'm running two air stones in the tank plus the filter is set to aerate. So I don't think it's an oxygen problem.

When you do a water change during treatment, you need to replace what you've taken out in the change. I'd also suggest half doses over several days until the full dose has been added to the tank.

I'm beginning to think you might have been unlucky enough to buy 2 very weak mollies.