# Sick Mollies



## dancexonxwater (Aug 23, 2009)

Ugh... So today I just realized that I have had Mollies for past six months and not platies... The fish store told me they were platies when i bought them...

So perhaps i can finally diagnose my fish and help them get better... 

They are black mollies (salifin i think?) and it started with the male having raised scales on the back half of his body only. No bloating. Then the female got the raised scales as well, only all over. She hasa humped back now and slightly ratty tail. I thought that it may be an internal parasite, so I treated the tank with prazipro about three days ago with..slight improvement, but still raised scales. They had a fry back in september that is healhy & fine. 

If this is not an internal parasite, perhaps I'm oing something wrong for them thinking htey were platies. My pH is regular fairly basic long island tap water. I keep the temperature at 78 F. Ammonia, nitrates, nitrates are 0. Three fake plants, gravel, two places to hide..a rock.. It's a 10 gallon tank. I use aquarium salt and keep it at two table spoons full. They are fed TetraMin Tropical flakes. I read online that they need algae as well? or something spirulina based? Are tetramin tropical flakes included in that? They do sort of peck at the tground a lot? 

Any help would be great, thanks in advance! Ugh, I can't believe I thought they were platys all this time!!


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## Dando (Apr 13, 2010)

***

Mollie's are actually a brackish fish and need hard water with alot of acidity. Most people don't know that your water may be on the alkaline side. Try adding some salt to see if it make any difference?

Goodluck


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## hXcChic22 (Dec 26, 2009)

Mollies are usually bred in freshwater, and have been for many generations, so they're technically freshwater fish now. They can adjust to brackish and full marine water, but keeping them in freshwater doesn't make them unhealthy.


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## PaulLamb (Nov 15, 2009)

hXcChic22 said:


> They can adjust to brackish and full marine water, but keeping them in freshwater doesn't make them unhealthy.


HXc.., you are right to a certain extent - freshwater does not make mollies unhealthy in and of itself. However in my experience mollies are more susceptible in freshwater (man has fast-tracked there adaptation to freshwater, but evolution has not allowed them to develop effective resistance to freshwater-specific diseases and parasites). They will always do better in water that contains some salt. Dance.., adding some salt probably won't cure whatever your mollies are currently afflicted with, but it will help prevent future afflictions.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

I have to agree with Paul. My mollies did great in my "liquid rock" Illinois water, But I can't keep them alive in soft-water. If you have no other fish, going brackish with a little sea salt would be great, but even just hardening the water with baking soda can help. They look really bad. Could it be "velvet"? like columnaris, mollies are supposed to be prone to it.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Is the stomach really as sunken as it looks in this picture? If so, then you've got bigger problems than salt, although i see you already have some salt.

mollies need veggie food. Spirulina and veggie flakes work fine, and they like a bit of boiled spinach on occasion. A lack of this needed nutrition can certainly cause these problems over time.
To tell the truth, if the fish really is as bad off as it looks in the picture, then it's too late. Mollies are extremely difficult to nurse back to health once they get too sick.


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## Guest (Apr 16, 2010)

i dont agree with tori on this one. am sorry. i dont think linebreeding them in freshwater makes them a freshwater fish. all the molly breeders breed them in brackish water and then sell them to LFS where they are sold as freshwater fish. 

as yet, evolution hasnt had enough time to let them develop or adapt fully to freshwater. these fish are very sensitive to ich, humpback and velvet in fresh water however, they seem to thrive in brackish to the point that breeders cant keep up with the birthrate and have had to expand to multiple growout tanks. i have seen some baloon molly that seem to do well in outdoor ponds with lottsa drift wood and sunlight but regular molly cant seem to survive.


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