Vertical Mollie

[Bex]

One of my dalmation mollies suddenly stops swimming and hangs vertically, nose up (not at the top) and amost tips backwards. If you look closely, he looks like he is vibrating slightly? Then, he just swims off normally? He's still eating. My nitrites are now 0 and ammonia 0. I was (badly) advised to cycle with fish and the mollies were first in. Everyone else is ok though.

Any ideas?

 

[zelandonia]

My mollies always ended up doing this in my FW tank. They were vertical for a while and then started spinning in vertical circles. Shortly after they died. It was really sad to see 2 or 3 go through this. I finally decided not to get mollies anymore and did some research and found out that mature mollies do better in a brackish tank rather than a FW tank. Since then I've always tried to research my fish before putting them into my tank. Perhaps your mollies are experiencing the same thing. Good luck. It's sounds like you've been doing some reading on cycling and are watching your water quality closely- good work!

z.

 

[Qays]

Could this be a case of swim bladder? Not sure, but one of my fish once had this and they kept swimming it odd angles.

 

[WILDER]

If the fish is headstanding sorry to say she's not going to make it, had it with platys when i once owned them.
It's the last stages of swim bladder, sorry.

Headstanding, laying flat
Water quality problems, drug side effects, swimbladder infection, intestinal obstruction, late stage of infectious diseases

Or it could be due to the fact that the cycle took it toll on the fish, sorry.

 

[Bex]

If the fish is headstanding sorry to say she's not going to make it, had it with platys when i once owned them.
It's the last stages of swim bladder, sorry.

Headstanding, laying flat
Water quality problems, drug side effects, swimbladder infection, intestinal obstruction, late stage of infectious diseases

Or it could be due to the fact that the cycle took it toll on the fish, sorry.

That's what I thought it might be - the cycling. If only 1 is doing this, is it likely to affect the others? Is so, is there anything I can do for the others?

 

[Qays]

I dont think swim bladder is contaminant.

Try feeding it the insides of a boiled pea.

 

[Annastasia]

What other fish do you have? It might be a water related thing, and giving them slightly brackish water could cure it.

I'm not sure if it's swimbladder. It seems weird they could just swim off normally afterwards. When I experienced swimbladder once, my fish could not swim normally at all.

 

[lljdma06]

What other fish do you have? It might be a water related thing, and giving them slightly brackish water could cure it.

I'm not sure if it's swimbladder. It seems weird they could just swim off normally afterwards. When I experienced swimbladder once, my fish could not swim normally at all.

I agree with Annastasia, is the molly shaking in anyway? Like a waddle or a shimmy?

Time for an anecdote (sp). Best mollies I ever saw were in the FL Everglades, which has areas of Mangrove and saw grass, among other things. Incredible environment. The water is rather alkaline and because of it's proximity to the ocean is brackish to varying degrees. In the mangroves, you'd see mollies swimming side by side with juvenal (sp) mangrove snapper. The mangroves have an even higher salt content than the saw grass areas. Seeing mollies in their natural habitat really made me rethink keeping mollies in anything other than a brackish habitat.

Thanks for reading, I hope your molly does better. Oh, and if you do decide to keep your mollies in a brackish environment, I recommend you invest in a specific gravity meter and mix your water with salt mixes used for SW aquariums, rather than just adding aquarium salt, which is not the same.

I'll stop now. Feeling the caffiene which makes me give more advice than I should and then I ramble.

llj

 

[Bex]

He was shaking slightly last night, almost like he was having little fits. But right now he is swimming round the tank picking up bits of food from the gravel! He hasn't done the head standing thing once today?!? Looking at him now you wouldn't think there was anything wrong with him!

He was sitting on the gravel for a while earlier but not motionless. His tail and fins and gills were all moving and I soon as I tried to get a closer look to see if anything wrong with him physically he swam off!

Perhaps he is going to make it after all?