Worms or pregnant?

[gwand]

My sailfin Molly has been swollen for about two months. She birthed about 6 weeks ago. Do you think she is pregnant or has worms. I was expecting fry about two weeks ago.

 

[GaryE]

She looks gravid to me.

I know we've seen photos here recently that look like gutworm infested mollies, but it isn't that common. A few gutworms, yes. Farmed fish have them, and wild caught mollies as well, though wild caughts are hardly ever seen in aquariums.

I got a bag of nematode/Camallanus infested Limia from a breeder once, and they swelled up like recent photos here. That was nasty.

But treatments of non Camallanus infested fish in bare tanks with wilds might leave one or two small expelled worms out, and with farmed half a dozen tiny white worms. That's not enough to make the fish look gravid.

 

[Colin_T]

They always have worms but she could be gravid (pregnant) too.

I deworm all livebearers as soon as I get them so I know they are free of worms.

 

[gwand]

They always have worms but she could be gravid (pregnant) too.

I deworm all livebearers as soon as I get them so I know they are free of worms.

I did deworm the group when I first got them in April.

 

[Colin_T]

If you dewormed them in April and haven't added any new fish, then she's probably gravid

 

[emeraldking]

She just looks pregnant to me...

 

[fishorama]

I'm going to guess, since she doesn't have a dark gravid spot or line at all, that she needs deworming. I haven't kept livebearers for many years, so I could be wrong. No hurry to treat her, I'm not sure any "usual" dewormer treatments won't harm impending fry. But keep a close eye on her.

OK, but females can carry sperm for quite a while so I'm going to ask, do you have a male in with her? There are no virgin births (outside of the bible)...AFAIK...but with livebearers it can seem like it...

 

[gwand]

Yes. She keeps company with a male Molly. I bought them as a pair.

 

[fishorama]

Huh, that's interesting but I'm still missing the "gravid spot" business. Maybe her coloring makes her gravid spot look paler? I don't know, but maybe. Good luck! If she's not gravid now, with a male she will be soon!

 

[gwand]

The Golden sailfin Molly had about 10 golden nugget fry last night. So it was pregnancy after all. And I was just about to prepare my hospital tank to treat her for worms. Not sure why her gravid spot was not more obvious. I fed the fry BBS.

 

[Colin_T]

If one fish has worms, they all have worms. If you treat fish for intestinal worms, you have to treat all the fish tanks at the same time so you don't cross contaminate the tanks. If you just put a fish in a quarantine tank and treat it there, the fish will get reinfected as soon as you put it back in the main display tank.