Extremely Bloated Molly

[alexbryan]

Hi guys,

One of my Mollies is very bloated and I'm trying to figure out what's wrong with her.

At first I thought it was dropsy, but I've had a few Mollies get dropsy in the past and she doesn't have the same symptoms the others had, e.g. she's eating fine, swimming around the tank as usual and doesn't have "pine cone fins". But she is very, very bloated and misshapen.

I'm pretty sure she's not pregnant as I've only got 3 Mollies and they are all female. I read somewhere that she might be very constipated, so I've isolated her in a breading cage and given her some crushed up peas, which I read was a good fish laxative. I did that around around midday yesterday, and she has eaten quite a lot of the pea, but she doesn't appear to be any smaller this morning.

Is there anything else that might be wrong with her or does it just take a while for the laxative to work?

 

[wackystarfish]

Did you boil then shell the peas? Yes, that should help her to flush out her system.

 

[Colin_T]

female livebearers can carry sperm packets for months and use these to fertilise batches of eggs when there isn't a male present. Therefore she could be pregnant. Alternatively she might be full of worms.
Perhaps deworm the tank and see if that helps. If it doesn't then just keep her well fed and calm and see if she gives birth.
As long as she is still feeding then I wouldn't worry too much.

 

[alexbryan]

Hi guys,

She's been eating peas for a couple of days now but the bloat hasn't gone down and she doesn't appear to have pooed at all (none in the breading cage she's in). What are the symptoms of worms apart from bloat and what's the best treatment? I hope it turns out she is just pregnant but I want to make sure there isn't something wrong before I leave her to it...

 

[Colin_T]

worms normally make a fish get skinny over a perid of time. However, when fish are heavily infested with worms they get fat. Some types of worms can be identified by little red hair like things hanging out the fish's bum a couple of mm. But other types of worms can't be identified unless you cut the fish open, and that defeats the purpose of fishkeeping.
Flubenol is a good worming medication.