black molly spot

Question
I saw your answer to the girl with the gold molly - I just want to be sure my fish is ok.  I have two black molly's that live with a betta in a tank.  Its a new set up and they have been in it for about a week.  All get along fine and all fish are eating fine.  

This morning I saw a white spot on my male molly's head.  Near his eye.  Someone told me that if they get sick they get white on them.  I am concerned...

The other molly - which i think is a female has some silver/white coloring on her belly and both have that on their tail fins.  Her coloring looks normal to me.  Can you help me with the other one?  The spot just showed up overnight.  

Thanks!
Gina

Answer
Dear Gina,
It's very hard to diagnose fish diseases without actually seeing the fish. Therefore it's better for the you, the owner to make a diagnoses since you know your molly best.

But what I think your molly may have is either the beginnings of white-spot parasites (also known as ICK) or the beginning of a fungus infection. Both diseases are relatively easy to treat if you catch it early. But you need to make sure that is what your fish actually has. You can check here at this website to see if this is what your fish has-
     -Fungus infection-
"http://www.fishpalace.org/Disease.html#Bodyfungus"
     -Ich parasites-
"http://www.fishpalace.org/Disease.html#Ich"

If you think your Molly has fungus, immediately do at least a 50% water change and gravel vacuum really well. And make sure the replacement water is equal in temperature to that of your tank and is dechlorinated of course. Remove carbon from your filter. Then start a medication treatment. You can use strong medicines such as Mardel Brand's 'Maroxy' for fish fungus which I've used before with good success. You can also go a different route and use Melafix and Pimafix together, these are all natural medications that can be safely mixed and can provide good results with curing fungal and bacterial infections.
Daily water changes are extremely important in eradicating your fish and aquarium of fungus.

If you think your fish has ICK or white spot parasites. These can appear when a fish is stressed, or there is a temperature flucuation such as a sudden cooling of the aquarium. These parasites attach themselves to the fish and make the fish appear as if he had been sprinkled with salt. Sometimes only one or two ICK appear but sometimes little white spots aren't -always- ICK and may just be an injury site. Oftentimes damaged fish tissue will turn a whitish color but then go away in a few days as the injury heals.

But be very cautious since this could be Ick. Ick commonly shows up on fish you recently brought home from the petstore. It's best to treat the whole aquarium with the Ick medication you can use just about any of the commonly available Ich medicines at your local petstore as most of them are quite effective. Quick-cure is one of the most common medicines. But there is also a very safe Ich medication called "Ich Attack" that is quite gentle on fish and you might want look for that, it also can help prevent secondary infections that often follows an ich infestation and has been known to treat fungus as well. You can read about "Ich attack" here on this link-
"http://www.novalek.com/kordon/ich_attack/index.htm"

Don't forget your water changes too! I cannot stress this enough, especially since this is a newly setup aquarium there are not enough beneficial bacteria established yet and therefore dangerous ammonia and nitrite levels can rise rapidly.

I really hope this helps and best of luck with your mollies!
Karen~