Poorly Molly

[noglet]

One of my mollies (who I think is the mother of seven fry born at the weekend) has been looking sick since she gave birth. She has a black spot (which she has had for a while) but is now swimming sideways a lot and it's getting worse each day.

One of the other females is chasing her a lot so I'm not sure if it's cos she is stressed out that she's ill? Could it be a swim bladder problem or maybe it's related to her recently giving birth?

I was due to do a water change but didn't want to disturb the tank too much because of the new born fry (which are now in a breeding net). I've done a 25% water change tonight though.

Any ideas what I should do next to try and help her?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[R3GG]

Im no expert but im having a similar problem with a black spot on one of my cardinals, i added stress coat and myxazin but there has been no improvement. Check your water parameters, i think stress will have exacerbated the problem, my cardinal was under stress when contracting these symptoms.
Good luck

 

[Magnolia_360]

If it's stressed you might should put it in a quarintine tank for a day or 2. If you think it has swin bladder feed it mushed up peas. I'm not sure what to do about the black spot though.

 

[Magnolia_360]

was reading a post and saw something that might help you with that black spot

Yes freshwater fish can get black spot but it is not usually harmful to the fish. The parasites will die off all by themselves if left alone. However the fish often get itchy and tend to scratch on various surfaces in the tank and get stressed. This is a parasite so use any parasite med if your fish seem stressed by this. Also quite often the carriers are snails, so if you have any it might be a good idea to get rid of them if the black spot comes back. HTH

 

[Jaded_Pulse]

If they've only got one spot I don't think they probably have black spot - from what I've read, black spot is a parasite that causes black spots, but there tend to be a number of them and they are quite small. Try google image searching it & see if what it comes up with looks anything like what your guys have. I really don't know much about breeding or anything but is it possible that could have one of those spot things that some fish get when they're pregnant?? Ahh yup I'm babbling now, I'd better shut up lol....goodluck

 

[noglet]

thanks for all of your responses.

I fed mushed up peas last night and looked at the sick one more closely. It seems like she is see-through on the part of her body where the spot is so whatever this is maybe causing the problem? She's definitely no worse and seems happy enough but is still getting stressed out by the others chasing her. I'd thought about quarantining her but haven't got anywhere to put her and have heard that they don't like being alone? I haven't used any medication either as I thought this might affect the fry?

The fry are doing well. They're on liquifry food at the moment and I'm planning to move them on to crushed flake food when they're 2 weeks old - does this sound like a good plan?