Sudden stress/mucus bumps(?) on molly due to rapid temprature drop?

[813aquatics]

Morning nerms!

So this morning I noticed two of my four mollies in my 37g community have what my initial assessment/panic seemed to be some kind of ich or fungal infection that looks like small gray/translucent bumps on the side of body; however they are not small white specks like ich, they are semi-random but looks more like their natural slime coat color, non-uniform in size. No other fish in this tank (barbs, kuhlis, bn pleco, betta) show any similar signs of potential illness/stress at this time. 

I isolated the fish for now in quarantine but then I thought to check temperature. I live in FL and we dropped from 70 to 32 F in 24 hours outside. When I checked my thermometer it just so happens that this tank’s heater somehow was slightly unplugged and therefore tank temperature crashed from 80-81 down to 65 in a span of 10hours while I was at work.

Would a sudden temperature crash potentially cause the mollies to rapidly develop these sortof spots as a response to stress? I am trying to not panic and overtreat a problem/disease that isn’t actually hurting present. The tank is well-seasoned, no new fish in 6 months, no deaths, and no new objects/plants have been introduced in over a month except some catappa leaves a few weeks ago. Parameters reading 0 ammonia / 0 nitrite / 40-60 nitrate. The fish I isolated are not showing any signs of discomfort. I have ich-x and paracleanse on hand but am hesitant to dose. Because the spots are not classic white and the mollies are dalmatian/mutt grey it is hard to get a clear picture.

 

Thanks for any assistance.

[813aquatics]

Here is the best shots I could get. As you can see the spots aren’t visible when you look at her from the side but when viewed head on you can see numerous bumps of varying size all over her. 

[Guppysnail]

I’m not a med person but fish have amazing capabilities at keeping bad stuff at bay as tons of bad stuff naturally lives in our tanks and water in general. The drastic lowering temp quick stresses them. Stress lowers immune system response. Along with they are ecotherms and their metabolism is directly related to the outside temp. This lowers immune system function as well. So it basically opens them to bad stuff when they are not normally cold water fish. It is a catalyst trigger not the root cause. I hope that makes sense and at least explains the why even though I can’t help with the what. 

[H.K.Luterman]

It looks like epistylis to me, which is a bacterial infection. 

https://aquariumscience.org/index.php/10-2-4-epistylis/

 

[813aquatics]

On 1/30/2022 at 9:29 AM, H.K.Luterman said:

It looks like epistylis to me, which is a bacterial infection. 

https://aquariumscience.org/index.php/10-2-4-epistylis/

 

That link is wildly useful, thank you so much. Going to treat with ich-x and pick up some antibiotics to mix in with food. I’m confident I caught this early so fingers crossed.