Silver Molly Problem

[bluepony]

I have a Silver Lyretail female molly. She was pregnant when I got her about a month ago and her fry are currently growing out but after she had them, her health started to decline. The bottom line of her body went completely straight and she got extremely thin even though she ate fine. She had no more fry. Over this past week, she got even thinner and the line along the bottom of her body from nose to end is sort of concave upwards now. She is so thin that her head looks too big for her body. She will die today, I'm pretty sure. She stopped swimming last night and lingers on the bottom of the tank. The water parameters are fine and I have tried her in two different established tanks. I have other livebearers and they all appear heathy. I see no sign of disease or parasites.

The thing is, this EXACT thing happened to the last female lyretail molly I bought. My previous one was smaller and had no fry while I had her but I only had her a month before she shriveled up and died. They are such beautiful mollies. Its just heartbreaking to watch. Does anyone have any clues what might be happening? I really want to keep a couple of these pretty girls. I keep my livebearer tank SLIGHTLY saltly as I have corys in there too. The last tank I moved her too has no salt.

Any feedback would be appreciated. I can't find anything searching online about this.

 

[sillyputty]

Hi Christina,

I too have some silver lyretail mollies. Very pretty in the aquarium. I lost a couple of hifin lyretail swordfish. Mine looked very similiar to what you described. I have been told it was probably fish TB, although I think it could have been an internal parasite or even breeding. Sometimes I think when they breed for finnage it can weaken the fish. However, I was also told that you should assume it was TB because it could have been and there are simple precautions you need take if it was.
Google fish TB.
Good luck!

 

[bluepony]

I was reading about that very thing this morning. I've also been reading about it on this site. I did see something online this morning in reference to a "Wasting Disease". Apparently, this is another name for TB. However, neither of my two fish showed any symptoms other than getting thin and wobbling a little at the end while trying to swim. I'm seeing alot of "bent spine" in the TB discussions as well as other symptoms such as fin problems, etc. I'm hoping it was an internal parasite. I bought my two girls from different pet shops but the same chain so it could be the breeder they purchase from has something in the molly tank.

Inbreeding deformities also occurred to me but I would think the fish would be born deformed. I have fry from the latest molly and they look fine. They're almost a month old and growing like mad.

Other fish included in the community tank with the two silver mollies are two guppies, two platys, two swordtails, 2 sailfin mollies, 1 marble lyretail molly, 1 dalmation lyretail molly, 2 corys. None of these other fish have had any problems; just the two silver molly girls. I did buy another sword but he died within a week after purchase coinciding with a bout of ICH so I assumed he either had problems when I bought him or the ICH did him in. My first silver molly girl died shortly after the ICH treatment and the 2nd girl wasn't exposed to it. Both deteriorated over a couple of weeks. The other 12 fish seem happy and healthy. I can understand fish being TB carriers but ALL TWELVE and different fish?

I intend to purchase another silver molly. The problem is that the only two places that I have found them locally are the two I have already purchased from I will probably end up keeping one of the fry and seeing what happens. Her babies are adorable

Thanks for the post, silly.

 

[sillyputty]

I totally understand what you are saying. I also have 5 mollies, another sword, 4 neons, and 3 lemon tetras. I would have thought more would be affected. I have been stressing what to do. What I finally decided was to buy 3 more lemon tetras and see what happens. The disease can apparently develope slowly though.