Problem With Mollie.

[charlie d]

Have just fed my fish and am now going out. My black lyretail mollie has all his scales sticking out , its quite noticeable. I will be in hospital until this evening and wont be able to get any meds required until Sunday.
Apart from the scale problem he seems ok, he was feeding well as I left him. Can anyone help please, Thanks in advance.

 

[wendywc]

Probably is dropsy. I would buy some Maracyn or Tetracycline.

Here's a description from google.

Dropsy (Aeromonas)
Dropsy usually takes one of two forms: body swells due to fluid accumulation, which causes scale protrusion, and also protrusion of the scales without the body swelling up - false dropsy. Dropsy is caused by a bacterial infection of the kidneys and other internal organs, causing fluid accumulation or even renal failure. Treatments are varied, adding salt at a rate of 20 mg/L seems to help. With modern Anti-Biotic this problem can be cured.

 

[blitztidus]

CAN BE CURED, it is like some cancers, if you treat it early, it can be fine, but too late is GOOD-BYE, poor fish, I don't think I would ever like to go through that

 

[ArcticLancer]

It does seem like dropsey, because on very few other occasions does a fish 'pinecone' like this. Time is the big issue with it, as it settles in a fish very quickly, and the time it takes to kill them varies greatly. If you're going to try and save it, you've got to act fast.

I suggest trying with one or more of the previously mentioned medicines, and if you want to look up the material, a salt dip could be beneficial too.

Keep us informed.

 

[james1971]

Oh S**t....

I thought my Silver Molly was pregnant so moved it into the nursery tank in readiness for it to have its babies. Sounds like it may not be pregnant after all but may have dropsy.

It's appearance is similar to the 'pinecone' description.

James1971

 

[blitztidus]

As with almost anything on here, since it is so hard to describe, pictures always help, well, clean and clear pictures anyways. Sorry to hear yours too may have dropsy

 

[charlie d]

Sorry to hear that you may have the same problem james.
Wasn't able to provide pictures blitztidus as I do not have a digital camera and even if I had I wouldn't know how to get the pictures either to the computer or the site.
Anyway thanks for the replies but I am sorry to say that my mollie died today. I had called my son and asked him to call at the fish shop on his way over tomorrow as I am unable to go out myself at the moment. I will however get some medication in just in case it is needed in the future.

 

[james1971]

Bad news people.

I found my molly dead in the hospital tank this morning. Poor fella. Hopefully he did not suffer too much.

My guppy appears to be pregnant, am I able to put her in the same separate tank that the molly was in so she can have her babies safely ? Or do I need to do a total water change ?

Yours glumly

James1971

 

[ArcticLancer]

I'm sorry to hear about that from both of you.
It's not the nicest condition, because it's not actually a disease - so once it's set in, there's really nothing you can do about it.

If it's still relevant though, James, you can indeed switch over the guppy. Dropsey isn't contageous, as it's an individual fish thing, as opposed to a bad water thing. You might still want to do a partial water change, but you don't need to sterelize the tank.

Good luck with the guppy. Remember that there's always more life to replace death.