HELP!!!! Body fungus?

deman3

I was just inspecting my fish in tank and noticed the black mollies covered in white spots. I figured ick as I have seen it before. I just pulled all 4 of the black ones out and the only ones that looked sick out of all the fish in my tank. However, after getting them over to the quarantine tank, and of course moving the cory's out of the tank and over, i noticed that one of the mollies has spots that have fuzzies on them. From my past experiences with ick they weren't fuzzy. After reading the profile on body fungus it matches the description. Now how do I get rid of it? I have some Mardel Coppertone for the ick....and it says "other diseases" Will this treat it? I was also told by the aquatic manager at my LFS that ick won't live if the temp is over 81. So I also cranked the heat in the big tank so if any other fish are infected they hopefully won't die. With treatments I was told to turn the filter off because it will filter out the medicine...is this true as well?

Lupin

True fungus is rare. What they have is easily columnaris. Mild cases require only salt. Luckily, mollies are quite tolerant to salt despite prone to columnaris. Start treatment of salt up to three teaspoons per gallon. Dose a teaspoon per gallon every 12 hours until you reach a total of 3 teaspoons per gallon or 0.3.

Do NOT turn off the filter. If you have carbon in it, dispose the carbon as it removes the meds except salt. You're not going to need carbon anyway.

deman3

Filter restarted and the disposable portion has been removed, bio portion still intact. Treated 1tsp/gallon salt will do more when I get up to go to work. Leave it at 3 per gallon? Should I go ahead and treat the 55 gallon as well in case there is any infection left in the tank?

Lupin

Yes, stick to a teaspoon per gallon only for the 55g since your other fish could be intolerant to more salt. The 10g where the mollies are need 0.3% or 3 teaspoons per gallon dose.