Black Molly test

[dede]

Anyone using black mollies to test new fish for disease? What has been your success rate and failure rate with mollies in determining if a new fish has ich or velvet. I guess what I am wondering is if I can avoid treating all new fish with chemicals and only treat when the molly(canary) shows symptoms in a quarantine setup.

 

[Dr. Reef Verified Sponsor]

When I get fish from any source, I place them in qt. Then after few days I treat all fish with prazipro. Wait a week do 25% water change then another round of prazipro. By end if second treatment fish have been in at for little over 2 weeks. Then i observe over another 3 weeks or so.
Within this time if I see any issues I fix it or just let it ride.
If the fish are tangs thrn after 2 rounds of prazipro I always treat them with chloroquine phosphate.
I don't keep a fish to notify me of disease. In fact that is not a guarantee in any ways. Some fish may not show signs of disease while others maybe sick.

 

[HotRocks]

When I get fish from any source, I place them in qt. Then after few days I treat all fish with prazipro. Wait a week do 25% water change then another round of prazipro. By end if second treatment fish have been in at for little over 2 weeks. Then i observe over another 3 weeks or so.
Within this time if I see any issues I fix it or just let it ride.
If the fish are tangs thrn after 2 rounds of prazipro I always treat them with chloroquine phosphate.
I don't keep a fish to notify me of disease. In fact that is not a guarantee in any ways. Some fish may not show signs of disease while others maybe sick.

I see what you are saying. Isn't the point of a molly to alert you of that fish that may seem well but has that hidden parasite, when a fish may not be showing any signs or symptoms? It is kind of like an insurance policy the way I understand it.

 

[PGT253]

I use FW mollies. Every LFS I've been to has ich. I see it and I know it (unless I order fish from LA). So for me, once I buy the fish from LFS, I placed them in QT, let them settle for 3 days then start treatments. Once treatments are done and fish are moved to observational QT, I drop some mollies in and observe.

 

[HotRocks]

I use FW mollies. Every LFS I've been to has ich. I see it and I know it (unless I order fish from LA). So for me, once I buy the fish from LFS, I placed them in QT, let them settle for 3 days then start treatments. Once treatments are done and fish are moved to observational QT, I drop some mollies in and observe.

I agree 100% on treating no matter what, I just have no experience with mollies.

 

[Humblefish]

FWIW; I’ve just encountered black mollies with a “freshwater disease” that survived even after being acclimated into full seawater: Intestinal worms.

I’m not 100% sure if these are transferable to saltwater fish.

 

[HotRocks]

FWIW; I’ve just encountered black mollies with a “freshwater disease” that survived even after being acclimated into full seawater: Intestinal worms.

I’m not 100% sure if these are transferable to saltwater fish.

Can you treat them? Then still use for the purpose of testing "clean" fish?

 

[Humblefish]

Can you treat them? Then still use for the purpose of testing "clean" fish?

Scope ID confirms they are Camallanus Worms. From what I've read levamisole is the treatment of choice, but it's hard to get now. Fenbendazole (which replaced levamisole) and praziquantel are suitable dewormers as well, but so far neither has 100% cleared these worms. :mad: Who knew freshwater worms could be such a PITA?

 

[YumaMan]

Last week I decided to try the "Molly Test" to see if my Flurry Clownfish that I've had for 8 months were sick but asymptomatic. Eventually I want to add some tangs to my DT after I quarantine the tangs, and I wanted to be sure that my DT was safe for these incoming fish. So I bought two gold sailfin mollies at my LFS. The sales person assured me that I could simply plop these two FW mollies into my SW tank without any problem -- he even demonstrated this to me in the store by transferring a Molly from a FW tank to a SW tank. I watched that fish in the LFS for about 15 minutes and concluded that it was fine in SW. I took my two FW mollies home and acclimated them to SW using a slow drip for about an hour just to be cautious. These mollies were fine in the bucket while acclimating. After an hour they looked fine so I placed them in my SW display tank. Right away these mollies looked stressed. They sank to the bottom corner of the tank and appeared to be panicked. After 90 minutes they had developed clamped fins and were gulping air at the surface. After another 6 hours they had developed a whitish slime on their bodies, and one fish had his right pectoral fin locked as if paralyzed. At this point I decided to remove them to a sterile 29 gallon SW tank and treat them with chloroquine phosphate. Within 36 hours they were both on their sides at the bottom of the tank. I decided to end their misery and euthanized them both. So, am I to conclude that my Flurry Clowns are sick but asymptomatic? Should I repeat the experiment to see how another pair of mollies will fair? How can I be sure that the FW mollies that I bought weren't sick but asymptomatic themselves? I don't like this "Molly Test", and evidently neither do the mollies.

 

[HotRocks]

I don't know enough about them to know if it was Brook that took over (which is what it sounds like by your description) or if they were converted too quickly.