Dalmation Molly Crisis

[Harmony]

Hello everyone! This is my first post, but unfortunatly its not a good one. I have a female Dalmation Molly who is not able to swim properly. Her back tail ( caudal fin) is not able to move. All she's able to do is swim with her two little fins in the front. All she does is bob around with current, not being able to give herself any real direction. I also noticed that she hasnt had a bowel movement for a couple weeks, other than a clear one the other day. I dont know if maybe thats it or something else. Right now I have her in a seperate baby tank in the aquarium so she can atleast get some food. Since she cant get herself where the food is when I feed them.

Please help me find some kind of cure of some sort of action to help her.

Thank you everyone who took the time to read this.

 

[impur]

try adding a little epsom salt to the little tank its in. Epsom salt acts as a laxative for fish.

What do you feed them? You should try bloodworms occasionally as they also act as a mild laxative.

 

[Harmony]

Hi Impur,

Thank you so much for replying to me. I add 1 tablespoon for every 5 gallons of aquarium salt every time I do a partial water change, the last one was a couple weeks ago.

My fishes diet consists of Aquarian Tropical Flake Fish Food, Bio-Blend Herbivore, Bio-Blend Tropical, Hikari Blood Worms (freeze-dried), and Nutrafin Max Complete Pellet Food. I rotate the food through out the week giving them a variety.

Do you think she's constipated or something with swim bladder? Every book I have says nothing about the back fin not working. I have not a clue what to do.

Let me know if you or anyone else has any ideas.

 

[impur]

Thats what i was thinking, constipation. I may be wrong and hopefully someone else will come by with an idea. If you can, take the mollie out to a quarantine tank. The epsom salt is different than aquarium salt. It won't hurt the fish. But this may not be the case since you are feeding them a good balanced diet. I will do some checking for you and get back asap

 

[impur]

Well from what i have read, you might be looking at Dropsy, or a air bladder problem. For dropsy they suggested the epsom salt or Maracin II. I suggest the epsom salt. You can do this in the main tank if you need to, but its best in a quarantine tank. The air bladder is a bit more difficult. The only real solution i saw was performing a sort of surgery, by sticking the fish with a needle to release the air. I wouldn't try this as i don't know enough about a fishes anatomy. Good luck to you though!!

 

[dolphin]

Hi Harmony

If it is a swimbladder problem. Drop the tank temp by 2C.

 

[Harmony]

Thank you so much both of you for giving me suggestions on my problem!

This is the second day that I've had her in the baby tank and her back tail is starting to move. I looked up swim bladder n disease and it said that if you keep your fish in a shallow tank that it would help. Well it has. She hasn't totally regained full control yet. but hopefully she will.

I also took your advice Imput and looked up dropsy I didn’t notice that she had a swollen body or protruding scales. But I'll keep a look out for it.

Dolphin, thank you so much for your advice. I took the temp. down 2 degrees so hopefully that will help too.

Thank you all again for helping. It’s really meant a lot!!!!!

 

[impur]

NP keep us informed on how shes doin

 

[Harmony]

Well its gone from bad to worse....

Now her stomach is swelling. Her scales arent puffed out so I dont think its dropsy but I could be wrong.

Impur, you mentioned that I should put epsom salt in the tank. Right now I still have her in the baby tank, how much should I put in and l should I put some in there with her or should I put it through out the tank.

I'm extremely worried. Please if anyone has any suggestions please reply.


~Shannon

 

[TomSawyer]

hi Harmony

Sorry to hear the your molly is not moving. well, I had two mollies in the past that were just lying down on the gravel. I thought that it was constipation. So I moved them in a hospital tank with some salt in it. But to my surprise, a week later, they gave birth.

However, i don't think that this solved yur prob. It;s a bid sad tha fish can't speak up like humans

 

[Harmony]

I agree TomSawyer.

Well today she finally died, it was sad. Now the pain she was in is gone.

What was weird though is that her scales were falling off. Is there something wrong in my tank that I need to medicate or is that common for what was wrong with her?

RIP Dotty RIP


Shannon

 

[jpinard]

Harmony, my Mollies are going through the EXACT same thing right now. Our female got it first, and then died, and now our male has it.

Exact same symptoms. Did you try and anti-bacteria treaments? It's definately not a swimbladder problem as some suggested...

Did your tank have any snails in it by any chance?

 

[Lipreader]

Just curious, why did you ask if there was any snail in the tank? Are snail good to have or do they carry some disease?

Sorry about your Molly. I hope someone will come up with a solution so that any future molly can be saved.

 

[AnimalFriend]

I am very sorry to hear of your problems. I just lost my tank of Mollies to dropsy. I tried treating the others after I discovered the cause in the first patient. One by one they all got sick over the following month. I thought they were so pretty in the store. I hope that there is not the same problem in fish as we are seeing with quarterhorses. Too much in breeding leading to genetic problems. While I think water quality plays a large part in disease among fish, can genetics effect thier immune system making it weaker?

 

[juliethegr8t]

While I think water quality plays a large part in disease among fish, can genetics effect thier immune system making it weaker?

I am new to fish too, but in my opinion, it makes sense that genetics can affect them. I mean, I'm a horse person too - and the genetics problem in Quarter Horses is HUGE. And this isn't just in horses either, you can see it happening in breeds of dogs, cats, etc. So why not fish? It seems to me that if companies are breeding their fish for certain marketable qualities, they may not be looking out for the best interest of the fish. Like the fancy goldfish - from what I've read, they've been bred to end up with large bellies because this is what makes them unique and desirable. However, often swim bladder problems arise in these fish, or they're born with a defective one. *sigh* If only people would look out for the actual fish more often.