Black Molly (saltwater) Has Spot After 2nd Fallow

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We just completed our second 30 day fallow for what we believed to be a ick or velvet outbreak. The first fallow was determined to be failure when we noticed small white dots on both our yellow tang and flasher wrasse. All fish were removed and treated with copper for 14 days and then transferred to a clean tank and appeared healthy with no further indications of illness. During the fallow we increased the water temperature, did multiple water changes and deep cleaned the sand bed, installed UV, and deep cleaned our sump. Once the tank completed the 30 day fallow we acclimatized two freshwater molly's to saltwater and introduced one into the display tank (the other was put in with the qt to ensure no illness remained). The molly was in the display tank for 5 days with no signs of illness so we decided to add back the yellow tang, flasher wrasse, salon wrasse, watchman goby, and mandarin goby. Today, day 6, one small dot has appeared above the molly's eye. The molly seems otherwise healthy with no flashing or unusual breathing.

So what do we do now? Is there anyway this is something more benign like a coral sting? The other molly in the qt is healthy with no dots, so we were considering moving it to the display tank as a confirmation test. The idea of a third fallow is overwhelming and we are not sure what we could have possibly done wrong (except maybe waiting longer after the mollies were introduced).

Molly 1.jpeg Molly 2.jpeg
 

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We just completed our second 30 day fallow for what we believed to be a ick or velvet outbreak. The first fallow was determined to be failure when we noticed small white dots on both our yellow tang and flasher wrasse. All fish were removed and treated with copper for 14 days and then transferred to a clean tank and appeared healthy with no further indications of illness. During the fallow we increased the water temperature, did multiple water changes and deep cleaned the sand bed, installed UV, and deep cleaned our sump. Once the tank completed the 30 day fallow we acclimatized two freshwater molly's to saltwater and introduced one into the display tank (the other was put in with the qt to ensure no illness remained). The molly was in the display tank for 5 days with no signs of illness so we decided to add back the yellow tang, flasher wrasse, salon wrasse, watchman goby, and mandarin goby. Today, day 6, one small dot has appeared above the molly's eye. The molly seems otherwise healthy with no flashing or unusual breathing.

So what do we do now? Is there anyway this is something more benign like a coral sting? The other molly in the qt is healthy with no dots, so we were considering moving it to the display tank as a confirmation test. The idea of a third fallow is overwhelming and we are not sure what we could have possibly done wrong (except maybe waiting longer after the mollies were introduced).

Molly 1.jpeg Molly 2.jpeg
fallow is 45-60 days to allow the parasite to complete its life cycle and die off without a host. 30 days was not enough. You will want to start fallow period over again.
30 days pertains to coppersafe treatment and other copper treatments for ich
 

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fallow is 45-60 days to allow the parasite to complete its life cycle and die off without a host. 30 days was not enough. You will want to start fallow period over again.
30 days pertains to coppersafe treatment and other copper treatments for ich
This. Go to Humble.fish and read around there. Yes .fish is an actual extension. You will find everything you need to do correctly. At vette said, you need to start from scratch and follow verbatim. As much as you want to have fish in your tank nothing comes quickly in a reef tank except for bad things.
 

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We just completed our second 30 day fallow for what we believed to be a ick or velvet outbreak. The first fallow was determined to be failure when we noticed small white dots on both our yellow tang and flasher wrasse. All fish were removed and treated with copper for 14 days and then transferred to a clean tank and appeared healthy with no further indications of illness. During the fallow we increased the water temperature, did multiple water changes and deep cleaned the sand bed, installed UV, and deep cleaned our sump. Once the tank completed the 30 day fallow we acclimatized two freshwater molly's to saltwater and introduced one into the display tank (the other was put in with the qt to ensure no illness remained). The molly was in the display tank for 5 days with no signs of illness so we decided to add back the yellow tang, flasher wrasse, salon wrasse, watchman goby, and mandarin goby. Today, day 6, one small dot has appeared above the molly's eye. The molly seems otherwise healthy with no flashing or unusual breathing.

So what do we do now? Is there anyway this is something more benign like a coral sting? The other molly in the qt is healthy with no dots, so we were considering moving it to the display tank as a confirmation test. The idea of a third fallow is overwhelming and we are not sure what we could have possibly done wrong (except maybe waiting longer after the mollies were introduced).

Molly 1.jpeg Molly 2.jpeg


It could be just a benign spot, or it could be ich starting up again. The way you tell is to watch the spot(s). If they stay in the same location longer than 72 hours, it isn't likely to be ich. If the spots come and go and change location every few days, then it is more likely ich.

As mentioned, 30 days just isn't long enough of a fallow period, even at warmer temperatures. You said you suspected it was either ich or velvet? Velvet has a different fallow period - 6 weeks minimum, independent of temperature. The minimum fallow period for ich is 45 days at 81 F. I don't like to go any shorter than that, but years ago, I would clear empty tanks of ich by running the tank at 87 F. for 40 days or so.

Jay
 
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Thanks for the info. The 2nd fallow was actually a little over 5 weeks and maintained over 80 degrees. (This still isnt long enough but I think it's a relevant detail, and might help my odds here a little bit that it is not ich/velvet).

Here's the update of what has happened over the last week:
July 19th: One spot appeared on the molly (the one in the original post). The spot was gone after around 12 hours.
July 20th: No spots on the molly. The other fish appear clean and healthy as well. At this point with the advice of this post and humblefish we are monitoring closely but not doing anything else yet. (Also we are ready to extract fish if a parasite/disease is identified or likely)
July 21st: One tiny dot appeared on the molly again. It disappeared in under 12 hours (all other fish are clean)
July 22nd: One tiny dot appeared on the molly again and was gone in 6 hours (all other fish are clean)
July 23rd: Not spots on the molly or any fish
July 24th: One tiny dot appeared on the molly again midday and was gone in under 6 hours (all other fish are clean)
July 25th: No spots on the molly or any fish
July 26th (today as of posting this): No spots on the molly or any fish

So the molly has been in the tank over 2 weeks now total. It has had only one spot at a time on multiple days, which has always cleared up in less than 12hrs (more often even faster). The dots are always tiny and the molly's behavior has been consistently normal. All the other fish are clean and appear healthy with normal normal behavior as well. We also tried a skin scrape and could not identify anything under the microscope(However it was our first time trying this and we are not super confident with our analysis looking under the microscope)

Is it possible these singular tiny dots that go away in under 12 hours are stings, or bites? We have hermit crabs, an emerald crab, cleaner/fire shrimp, a lot of coral, a tuxedo urchin, a rock flower anemone, bristle worms, and spaghetti worms in the tank. Not sure if any of those could be the cause. The molly is very curious as well.
It's still possible it could be ich or velvet, but I think/hope the odds of those are decreasing based on the events/timeline. So we are still just monitoring since we cannot tell what is going on.

Any opinions on whether it could be one of the many stinging/biting creatures I mentioned? Or something else? How likely does velvet or ich seem at this point?

Thanks again!
 

Jay Hemdal

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Thanks for the info. The 2nd fallow was actually a little over 5 weeks and maintained over 80 degrees. (This still isnt long enough but I think it's a relevant detail, and might help my odds here a little bit that it is not ich/velvet).

Here's the update of what has happened over the last week:
July 19th: One spot appeared on the molly (the one in the original post). The spot was gone after around 12 hours.
July 20th: No spots on the molly. The other fish appear clean and healthy as well. At this point with the advice of this post and humblefish we are monitoring closely but not doing anything else yet. (Also we are ready to extract fish if a parasite/disease is identified or likely)
July 21st: One tiny dot appeared on the molly again. It disappeared in under 12 hours (all other fish are clean)
July 22nd: One tiny dot appeared on the molly again and was gone in 6 hours (all other fish are clean)
July 23rd: Not spots on the molly or any fish
July 24th: One tiny dot appeared on the molly again midday and was gone in under 6 hours (all other fish are clean)
July 25th: No spots on the molly or any fish
July 26th (today as of posting this): No spots on the molly or any fish

So the molly has been in the tank over 2 weeks now total. It has had only one spot at a time on multiple days, which has always cleared up in less than 12hrs (more often even faster). The dots are always tiny and the molly's behavior has been consistently normal. All the other fish are clean and appear healthy with normal normal behavior as well. We also tried a skin scrape and could not identify anything under the microscope(However it was our first time trying this and we are not super confident with our analysis looking under the microscope)

Is it possible these singular tiny dots that go away in under 12 hours are stings, or bites? We have hermit crabs, an emerald crab, cleaner/fire shrimp, a lot of coral, a tuxedo urchin, a rock flower anemone, bristle worms, and spaghetti worms in the tank. Not sure if any of those could be the cause. The molly is very curious as well.
It's still possible it could be ich or velvet, but I think/hope the odds of those are decreasing based on the events/timeline. So we are still just monitoring since we cannot tell what is going on.

Any opinions on whether it could be one of the many stinging/biting creatures I mentioned? Or something else? How likely does velvet or ich seem at this point?

Thanks again!

Not all white spots are ich, but all ich shows as white spots (grin). Using mollies to screen for ich is a cool idea, but has major issues. Here is some text that I wrote on that topic:

Using black mollies to screen an aquarium for Cryptocaryon

In recent years, a procedure has been promoted that uses marine-adapted freshwater mollies to screen for active Cryptocaryon infections in marine aquariums. The thought is that freshwater black mollies that are naïve to marine ectoparasites, will soon develop infections if that disease is present in a marine aquarium.

With mollies being stark black, white parasites will show up in sharp contrast, making their identification much easier. Mollies have also been suggested to be housed alongside sensitive fish (that cannot be easily medicated) to serve as a “canary in the coal mine” for active disease.

The basic process is to acquire a small group of freshwater black mollies and gradually acclimate them to seawater over a period of 5 to 7 days. They then are added to the previously fallow aquarium, or added to the quarantine tank, and then observed for at least two weeks to see if they develop ectoparasites. If they do, then a treatment needs to be instituted, or the fallow period extended.

As with many aquarium ideas, over-extrapolation can reduce the effectiveness of the original idea. The process is really only suited to screen for Cryptocaryon. Brooklynella may not even infect mollies. Uronema and Amyloodinium can survive salinities as low as 3 ppt so may already be present in “freshwater” mollies that have been raised in brackish fish ponds. Marine and freshwater fish have basically the same internal salinity. Therefore, untreatable internal diseases, such as viruses and Myxozoans could possibly be brought into an aquarium with the mollies.

There is a risk for introducing euryhaline trematodes into an aquarium along with black mollies. Fish farmers, wholesalers and retail dealers all understand that mollies benefit from being housed in brackish water, and so they usually add salt to systems housing mollies in order to reduce mortality under crowded conditions. Euryhaline trematodes take advantage of this, the trouble is that some of these can survive marine conditions and then hyposalinity is ineffective as a treatment for them.

Finally, here have been no scientific evidence that indicate this method is actually effective, it is based on a theory, but needs to be better tested. This process does seem to have limited benefit in screening for Cryptocaryon, but falls short for other diseases.


Jay
 

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Thanks for the info. The 2nd fallow was actually a little over 5 weeks and maintained over 80 degrees. (This still isnt long enough but I think it's a relevant detail, and might help my odds here a little bit that it is not ich/velvet).

Here's the update of what has happened over the last week:
July 19th: One spot appeared on the molly (the one in the original post). The spot was gone after around 12 hours.
July 20th: No spots on the molly. The other fish appear clean and healthy as well. At this point with the advice of this post and humblefish we are monitoring closely but not doing anything else yet. (Also we are ready to extract fish if a parasite/disease is identified or likely)
July 21st: One tiny dot appeared on the molly again. It disappeared in under 12 hours (all other fish are clean)
July 22nd: One tiny dot appeared on the molly again and was gone in 6 hours (all other fish are clean)
July 23rd: Not spots on the molly or any fish
July 24th: One tiny dot appeared on the molly again midday and was gone in under 6 hours (all other fish are clean)
July 25th: No spots on the molly or any fish
July 26th (today as of posting this): No spots on the molly or any fish

So the molly has been in the tank over 2 weeks now total. It has had only one spot at a time on multiple days, which has always cleared up in less than 12hrs (more often even faster). The dots are always tiny and the molly's behavior has been consistently normal. All the other fish are clean and appear healthy with normal normal behavior as well. We also tried a skin scrape and could not identify anything under the microscope(However it was our first time trying this and we are not super confident with our analysis looking under the microscope)

Is it possible these singular tiny dots that go away in under 12 hours are stings, or bites? We have hermit crabs, an emerald crab, cleaner/fire shrimp, a lot of coral, a tuxedo urchin, a rock flower anemone, bristle worms, and spaghetti worms in the tank. Not sure if any of those could be the cause. The molly is very curious as well.
It's still possible it could be ich or velvet, but I think/hope the odds of those are decreasing based on the events/timeline. So we are still just monitoring since we cannot tell what is going on.

Any opinions on whether it could be one of the many stinging/biting creatures I mentioned? Or something else? How likely does velvet or ich seem at this point?

Thanks again!
Is the spot always in the same place? Also, we’re these saltwater bread and raised or fresh that were acclimated to salt?
 
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The spot has not been in the same place. It has been around the head usually, but on the tail once, and on the mid body once. On a side note, the molly also had a minor injury to its mouth after a few days in the tank, and it is very curious and ravenous. So that is why I was hoping the spots were possibly due to stings, bites, or pokes.

It is a freshwater molly that we acclimated to salt.
 
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