My Molly Looks Like A Balloon

[cutesmile]

hi,
right i woke up this morning to find 1 of my mollys have ballooned up, if i didnt know what sex HE is i would say his over due thats how big he is.
i have given peas but he dont look interested in them and i have'nt seen him poo as of yet.
all water states r as they should be.
can anyone please help with any other advice.

 

[mommyof2bettas]

Might be early dropsy or constipation. Try feeding him flakes, pellets, whatever, then watch him to see if he poops. If he doesn't for a while, it might be constipation.
Look up on him, do you see any of the scales popping out like a pinecone? Even slightly?

 

[Suicidal_AZN]

if it looks like a porcipine than its dropsy.
had mollys with dropsy before they didnt live that long after they got it

 

[mommyof2bettas]

Do you add salt to the tank?
Unless you keep the water realllly clean with no salt, or clean with salt, mollies can get sick pretty easily.

 

[SnBMeg]

If it is dropsy, it's pretty much guaranteed to be fatal. I have heard a few--very few--cases where the fish was able to recover, but the chances of that are extremely low. (Fyi: the best way to see pinconing is to look at the fish from above.)

Salt (aside from being necessary for day-to-day molly health) can also help to alleviate the symptoms of dropsy a bit. The reason that the scales pinecone out is swelling inside the fish caused by fluid collecting, and salt can reduce this swelling to some extent. But it is not a cure. Once a fish has gotten to the pinconing stage, the disease has advanced enough that it's almost always incurable.

If it does turn out to be dropsy, it might be best to go ahead and euthanize him. However, if it's constipation, chances are good that he can recover. I certainly hope it's the latter.

If you can confirm that it's constipation (the method that mommyof2bettas suggested is good), in addition to the peas, fast him. Don't feed him at all for a few days, and then only feed deshelled peas.

Good luck!

 

[cutesmile]

it just so happened to be dropsy and his no longer with us .
thanx for everyones help tho.

 

[SnBMeg]

I'm very sorry to hear that.

 

[Lynda B]

I'm so sorry for your loss. I lost one of my female bettas to dropsy just last night.