# One fish with ick



## fawnika (Feb 21, 2011)

Hello.
I have been reading about Ick affecting an entire tank. 

I have had the same fish for 9 months. They are all fine. About a month ago I bought a new molly to keep my other one company and this morning I noticed that he/she has white spots on her/his back (how do I tell the sex?). None of the other fish are having this issue. Should I isolate this fish? Or should I wait and see what happens? Should I treat the entire tank for ick? 

Thanks as always! You are such a great group.

Dawn Cox MS
Online math instructor
Kaplan University (nationwide)
Cochise College (Arizona)
Wilmington University (Delaware)
Homebase: Newport, Oregon


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## logan84 (Jul 27, 2011)

fawnika said:


> Hello.
> I have been reading about Ick affecting an entire tank.
> 
> I have had the same fish for 9 months. They are all fine. About a month ago I bought a new molly to keep my other one company and this morning I noticed that he/she has white spots on her/his back (how do I tell the sex?). None of the other fish are having this issue. Should I isolate this fish? Or should I wait and see what happens? Should I treat the entire tank for ick?
> ...



If one fish is showing signs of Ich you will want to treat the entire tank. Ich is a protozoan with several life stages in your tank and it is essentially using your one molly as a spring board to make tons of babies and start the cycle again - though this time the babies will target any fish they can find and get a hold of. 

You can buy medication to kill Ich but it can irritate your fish and you will have to remove your active carbon while medicating or the carbon will absorb the meds. The way most people handle Ich is by raising their tank temperature to 86F. This disrupts the Ich's life cycle as it stops their breeding. It will depend on what you feel more comfortable with on how you treat your tank 

And on how to sex a molly - they are livebearers so they are really, really easy to sex! A female molly will have a completely rounded, normal anal fin. A male molly, however, will have a gonopodium anal fin essentially. It will be pointed facing away from the molly. If you have a male and a female you can sometimes (almost always) see the males chasing females and pointing this fin at them trying to get some loving in!

Good luck!


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## fawnika (Feb 21, 2011)

Thank you so much for your help!

I am fairly new to this aquarium thing I really appreciate the help that I get from this group.

It looks like I have two male mollies from your description.


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