The Female Molly "reject"

[jmkgreen]

A somewhat sad story I'm afraid. Bought 2x Female Molly from reputable LFS. I did not notice until they were in my tank that one has a arched back.

The male Molly is now constantly mating with the other Molly. Arched back Molly gets "sniffed" occassionally but otherwise left alone. I'm therefore concerned that my other female is receiving too much attention and will be stressed. All fish appear to be otherwise healthy, eating and swimming, etc.

My tank is only 70L and with the Danios and hopefully a couple of catfish shortly, I don't really want to introduce more "healthy" female Mollys to spread attention.

Option 1: Keep status quo and hope for the best
Option 2: Remove arched-back Molly and introduce healthier replacement.

"Removal" could be an interesting one...

Your opinions on what I should do please.

 

[nmonks]

If you don't want the fish because it doesn't look right, can you find it a home someplace else? A single molly will be happy enough in a quiet tank. Some people like mutant/deformed mollies (balloon mollies spring to mind) so just pass it off as the latest thing in designer livebearers...

I bought a few platies a few months ago, and one of them turned out to be deformed. I hadn't noticed when the guy was catching them. No idea how... this thing has an arched back and a twisted head. I suppose there is a lack of quality control when fish are mass produced, so this sort of thing isn't uncommon.

Anyway, if you want to breed the mollies to a decent standard, you may want to replace the substandard female with a healthier one. But if you added a few small but predatory fish, like Asian killies, you could just leave them to clean up all the fry and forget about it.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[tonilee7]

I just replied to a message similar to your own, in the case that you do get a disformed fish, and you are sure there is nothing you can do to reverse it.

Remove it from your tank, especially if you are trying to breed you do not want her to pass what she has on to her fry because it is not pretty and you can nearlly guarantee that if you are not happy with her no one else is gonna want her.

Unless the are a novice and have no idea what they are meant to look like.

In the time that I have been breeding fish, I also have got a few fish that are disformed but luckily I have a very hungry oscar.

If I notice that one of my fish has a contagious disease, I treat my tank and get rid of the fish that have contracted the disease, bacause with all the moneys worth of fish that I have I would rather loose a few fish alot of fish.

They suggestions above are just what I would do, but if you are like what I used to be like you won't have the heart to kill your molly.

Maby you can find someone who does'nt breed fish that will take her!!

Sorry for being so blunt!!

goodluck!!

 

[jmkgreen]

Popped down to LFS today for some Corydoras Aeneus and mentioned the Molly issue, they said to bring her down next weekend and they'll provide a replacement. Seems like the way forward, thanks for the advice.

 

[jmkgreen]

I'll spare you the details, arched back Molly was clearly in trouble this evening and about 10 mins ago was euthanised. Not a pleasant experience but a very necessary one I'm sorry to say.

I will bring in new stock over the weekend.

 

[iron maiden fan]

can you please explain how it was in trouble?

 

[jmkgreen]

She was unable to defend herself against all the other fish in the tank. They turned on her that day and she was clearly going to die.

 

[millym]

hi
sorry to hear about your mollie. we too bought 2 female mollies & one of them had symptoms similar to yours which we didnt notice in the lfs...........the first few weeks we had her swimming motion was a bit odd & we thought she would prob die & didnt know what was wrong, anyway to cut a long story short she recovered form what ever was the problem & the other 'healthy' female mollie was the one that died suddenly with no apparent cause. our deformed mollie has had several baby batches & we have one survivor form her first lot - mini mollie now 10 mths old, shes not deformed but has stayed very small (is only about an inch long & 1/4 the width of a 'normal' mollie. we love her & think shes v cute!!! but the mollie who had the probs when we bought her has never had any more baby batches despite the fact our male mollie is keen!!!!! & we assume she must be sterile now for some reason. our male mollie seems quite interested in the mini mollie but she obviously is not (thank god i dont think shed survive a pregnancy)

 

[dwarfgourami]

An arched back can be a deformity, that is something genetically wrong, but it is often the sign of advanced ill health, or old age. My platy who has been struggling for a month with columnaris and finrot could easily be mistaken for a deformed fish, but I remember her when she was the most beautiful specimen you could hope to see. We've had a couple of posts lately when someone has brought home a livebearer and only "noticed" after a few days that they had a deformed body; I suspect that the deformed body is often a new development.
Other fish will turn on an individual who is perceived to be sick; it's a safety thing, chase her away before she attracts predators; except that in a tank there is nowhere for the invalid to be chased to, so it ends up getting harrassed to death.
If possible it is best to isolate the fish to see if it develops any treatable condition, or has to be euthanised. An lfs taking such a fish back may euthanise it (humanely, one hopes), but if careless may also put it back in a main tank where other fish can get infected. Or it gets sold to some unsuspecting third person.