armadillo

Hello everyone. I'd posted about this problem as the continuation of a couple of posts, but I'd like to have it on its own. So here comes:

What's wrong:
One of my female mollies has a really swollen eye, with a whilte film on it. Her left side is also very swollen. I thought she was just pregnant, but now it's obvious it's only one side. The rear end of her body (from just above the tail down to the tail) is bent to one side. She is also flashing/scratching. This all happened in 2 days. She seems to be eating normally.

Antecedents:
She's had pop eye before, to the point that her eye was bloodshot, but a broad spectrum medication cured her pretty much instantly.

What I've done so far:
I've put the broad spectrum medication in again yesterday, but it seems to be getting worse.

Tanks:
She's in a 13G planted tank with 4 other mollies. She's been in that tank with the others for about 3 months.
Nitrates are OK (on the high side of 25), and no traces of ammonia/nitrites.

My options:
I have the following tanks:
8G used by 13 fry and 2 oto cats. Dont' want to move the fry and deifnitely not the otos.
10G ordered ages ago, late delivery. Latest ETA next week. Probably will be too late
13G where she is now, with 4 other mollies
20G houses 3 aggressive mollies moved due to overstocking of 13G tank. I guess I could move the 4 mollies in the 13G (currently with her) to this one, but they're about to be moved to the 40G tank. Wouldn't that be also risking to contaminate the 20G tank if one of them already carries the disease (whatever it is)?
40G cycling fishless and in the middle of the ammonia phase. Definitely don't want to start medicating a brand new tank, and I want to avoid bringing a sick fish in there for similar reasons (don't want bring in contaminants). Also, she probably wouldn't survive a cycle.

Don't think I can isolate her in any of these tanks for all the reasons stated above, but let me know if you think otherwise.

At this stage, I am considering euthanazia if things have not improved in a few days. I don't want her to suffer needlessly, and every day she stays in the main tank, she risks contaminating the other fish.

Any suggestions as to what to do, and what that disease could be?

COBettaCouple

are her fins clamped? does she appear to be losing weight?

armadillo

No, and no. (am still on riddle mode, although absolutely no joking matter this one). All fins are nice and souple, away from body and fine swimming motions. She doesn't appear to be loosing any weight. If anything, she's put some on. She's almost square on one side.

COBettaCouple

it's an odd question, but any chance she's pregnant? It's possible that she's got multiple problems.. my guess is external bacteria and fungus.. and possibly infection. I just don't know of any 1 illness to cause all those symptoms.. another possibility is a tumor.. but for some of these i'd be surprised for her to be eating normally and not having clamped fins.

armadillo

I thought she was pregnant at first, but it seems to be only one half of her body that's swollen, and not the other.

Doesnt' look like a tumour but never say never. A tumour would have much more clearly defined edges/shape.

Looked again and she absolutely doesn't have clamped fins, and is eating.

She actually seems better in that her spine is no longer bent. Her eye is still swollen/white film.

Perhaps the broad spectrum medication is working.

COBettaCouple

yea, i'd keep up on that as long as it's possible to do so or until the symptoms disappear.. it may be that she had/has some internal infection that caused the swelling of an organ or something?

armadillo

No idea. Am starting to develop a semblant of a theory. It seems to happen after I've vaccuumed the water when I hadn't done it in a while (a week or so). Any thoughts? The water I put back in after vaccuuming has same pH and temp. I only ever change 20% of the water. Could she get infected whenever I disturb the substrate? Would she be that sensitive?

COBettaCouple

is it possible that she could have an unseen wound/cut that is irritated by gravel dust or could she actually have an allergic reaction to gravel dust - i don't even know if that's possible with fish..

armadillo

That would be great, as at least I'd know what's wrong and I could think of ways to make her better, but I don't dare hope it is allergies. I think indeed more likely that she's got lesions that I can't see, and that she gets infected everytime some waste gets stirred up from the bottom.

COBettaCouple

would you want to change the substrata and see if that's an issue? you could even leave the tank bottom bare perhaps and see if these theories have any real weight.

armadillo

The thing is, they're about to move to a larger tank which is cycling, and am thinking let's see how she likes the new tank (if she survives that long) and its substrate. I really don't want to mess this tank's cycle (won't be very stable if I remove the whole of the substrate) for the sake of one of my theories. Also, there are plants in there, so I couldn't have no substrate at all.

I cannot bring myself to believe that she'd be allergic to the substrate itself. Sounds so unlikely. Perhaps to the waste that gets mixed with the tank water?

Mmmh. For now, I'll hope she gets better, and watch out for substrate disturbance like a hawk.

COBettaCouple

that's possible too.. either way, it seems an unusual case to be sure.

armadillo

I reckon it's more likely she's a weak fish who's very sensitive to water pollution. What makes her weak could very well be a chronic disease. There is a chronic type of TB and i am starting to wonder if that could be it. That TB could cause swelling and eye damage. AND it could come and go like it's been doing. Oh, and did I mention she still has fin damage? It has no white discoloration around the fringes. It's quite a clean shred. She's had this for ages but it got infected last time she was sick. Tissue doesn't seem to be growing back.

I've never witnessed aggression by other fish either.

Small update: she's laying on the gravel, rather inactive, inside their house. She could still be about to give birth which, for a fish in that state, is kind of a one way ticket to heaven.

COBettaCouple

yea. poor little fish.. i wish i had some miracle advice to make her all better but you could have the cause figured out there.