Black molly questions

indeco · Jul 11, 2019

I'm planning to get the black molly to check on my DT as i suspected some parasites or bacteria issue but I have a few doubts to clear before moving forwards

1) If black molly contacted ich/fluke after putting into my DT, can I acclimate him back to freshwater to kill those parasites?

2) If black molly contacted ich/fluke in the DT, will it cause a big out break and crush my tank? I saw a youtube video of a reefer sharing that after introducing a black molly into the DT and velvet break out and crushed his tank.

3) After treated the ich/fluke in my DT, can I put the recovered black molly back to DT again to check? Will the black molly build up some resistant on the parasites?

Ultimately I don't wish to hurt or kill the black molly during this testing process.

joe0813 · Jul 11, 2019

ive always wondered if you bought a Molly that was strictly in freshwater, do you still need to QT since it 100% doesn't have saltwater ich or other parasites

indeco · Jul 11, 2019

joe0813 said:
ive always wondered if you bought a Molly that was strictly in freshwater, do you still need to QT since it 100% doesn't have saltwater ich or other parasites

I don't think you need to QT the molly as all freshwater parasites will be killed once it acclimated into saltwater.

Huff747 · Jul 12, 2019

indeco said:
I'm planning to get the black molly to check on my DT as i suspected some parasites or bacteria issue but I have a few doubts to clear before moving forwards

1) If black molly contacted ich/fluke after putting into my DT, can I acclimate him back to freshwater to kill those parasites?

2) If black molly contacted ich/fluke in the DT, will it cause a big out break and crush my tank? I saw a youtube video of a reefer sharing that after introducing a black molly into the DT and velvet break out and crushed his tank.

3) After treated the ich/fluke in my DT, can I put the recovered black molly back to DT again to check? Will the black molly build up some resistant on the parasites?

Ultimately I don't wish to hurt or kill the black molly during this testing process.

Here's a thread that may answer some of your questions: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/f...-vs-marine-fish-diseases.312166/#post-3843490

For 1 - I honestly don't know.

For 2 - If you convert a freshwater mollie in it's own clean tank there should be no chance it could bring in a marine disease that could cause an outbreak like that. Likely the velvet was already there and it's coincidence or something else introduced the disease.

For 3 - Once the mollie has been exposed it could build up resistance and you couldn't use the same mollie again to test. You'd have to convert a new freshwater mollie that had never been exposed.

FWIW I converted mollies twice. The first time was a failure despite me trying it over many hours. The second time I set up a small freshwater tank and got the mollies in there. Then I replaced evaporated water with new saltwater and kept doing that until I got my salinity up. Took longer but all 3 mollies survived and thrived for many months (all 3 were apparently pregnant females when I got them and all 3 had babies that I had to give away). I still have one of the mollies in a saltwater tank. One disappeared (I suspect my tusk) and another died when we had a dog/tank sitter (I suspect she forgot about that tank as it's a smaller tank in my daughter's room). But the third is still going strong.

indeco · Jul 12, 2019

Huff747 said:
Here's a thread that may answer some of your questions: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/f...-vs-marine-fish-diseases.312166/#post-3843490

For 1 - I honestly don't know.

For 2 - If you convert a freshwater mollie in it's own clean tank there should be no chance it could bring in a marine disease that could cause an outbreak like that. Likely the velvet was already there and it's coincidence or something else introduced the disease.

For 3 - Once the mollie has been exposed it could build up resistance and you couldn't use the same mollie again to test. You'd have to convert a new freshwater mollie that had never been exposed.

FWIW I converted mollies twice. The first time was a failure despite me trying it over many hours. The second time I set up a small freshwater tank and got the mollies in there. Then I replaced evaporated water with new saltwater and kept doing that until I got my salinity up. Took longer but all 3 mollies survived and thrived for many months (all 3 were apparently pregnant females when I got them and all 3 had babies that I had to give away). I still have one of the mollies in a saltwater tank. One disappeared (I suspect my tusk) and another died when we had a dog/tank sitter (I suspect she forgot about that tank as it's a smaller tank in my daughter's room). But the third is still going strong.