KyWildFish

One of my older silver molly fry is acting very odd. He looks to be swimming in a bit of a circle and leaning to one side. He eats what he can and appears to be active. I looks like a stroke or something? My water parameters are as follows.

ammonia: 0ppm
nitrite: 0ppm
nitrate: 10ppm

Any ideas fishlore?

NUMB3RS

Your nitrates are very high and maybe your fry is suffering from nitrate poisoning. Fry's are very sensitive to water because they are only babies.I would get some live plants to put in your tank because they take in nitrates i would also do a water change and put some prime in your tank. How long has your tank been set up?

KyWildFish

10 PPM is hardly high. I have had the set up for almost 9 months. The threshold for ppm of Nitrates is 20, some local water suppliers even deliver water at that rate. Nitrites is another issue all together.

There are dozens of other fry in the tank at the moment and none of the other fish are showing any signs of stress at all. I stay on top of water quality quite carefully and have lost only two fish at the limits I allow. I believe that something is wrong in the chronic field of fish disease and not the contagious.

KyWildFish

Bump...sorta

Does anyone know if pop-eye causes impaired circular swimming, his eyes look a little bulged.

Note: He is in the nurse tank and I have treated him with Maracyn-Two. He seems to have either dropsy or pop-eye from what I can tell (no one has given me any other suggestions). I will keep this updated and continue to look for answers.

agabr123

he could have swim bladder disorder?

do you have a quarantine tank? if so, then i'd quarantine your molly and add some aquarium salt to the QT, that might help with whatever is wrong

KyWildFish

Just an update. I had moved him to the Nurse tank and have now treated him with Maracyn-two for about 4 days. I also have added a bit more salt than usual and he is looking a little better. He isnt twirling around as bad and has colored up a bit (he was looking pretty grey and not white). I noticed he still has a slightly curved spine and one of his eyes are kind of bulging (why I thought he had pop-eye). He also has some reddish looking color around his head. I have looked a little more and think it might be Whirling Disease but can be for sure.

agabr123

i know that mollies can get a specific disease that is treated very easily by adding salt, it could be the whirling disease that you mentioned, but i really can't remember, i'll look and see if i can find it

KyWildFish

So last night the 4 month old fry took a really bad turn for the worst. I decided to euthanize him last night. He started looking better after I got him into the nurse tank but over the past few days reverted and then got worse. She started swimming in very sporadic and enthusiastic bursts but looked more like a coin flipping through the water than a fish. I saw he was trying to eat but couldn't so I made the decision to end his troubles.
I froze him last night to ensure his fate and looked him over a minute ago. He appears to have some kind of development issues. His back was raised into a hump and his face looked squashed up like a bulldog. When I removed him last night I noticed his head was about twice as wide as the other molly in the tank and he had a rosy coloration between his eyes which is weird for silver mollies. I can only conclude that his issues were not caused by disease but by some genetic abnormality that likely caused some form of retardation. I suppose this happens even to fish. None of my other fish are showing any signs at all of illness and I have several in the tank the same age and some younger.
I am not upset because I feel I did him a service of taking him from this world peacefully as opposed to being harassed to death or starving. This was quite a learning lesson and I will take more time to examine sick looking fish sooner as to avoid this kind of thing in the future.

agabr123

I'm sorry to hear that

i'm glad your other mollies are doing alright though

KyWildFish

Oh they are terrific. I have now raised well over a hundred and rehomed them to happy fish owners here in cincy via craigslist. This has been the only issue I have had to date with health of my fry so I should consider myself to be quite lucky. I dont think I did anything wrong, its just a bad roll of the genes.

agabr123

that's great i wish i still lived in cincinnati, i was born there but haven't been back in 16 years!

KyWildFish

Oh I dont like this city very much. I am afraid I am spoiled coming from a college town. There is a lot to do and lots of culture to drink up. Cincinnati is an industrial town. Most of the people here hardly have a high school education and its obvious in the offerings of the city. I try not to look down on the place as I know our country needs cities like this to manufacture things and produce food and the like, but I miss all my foreign restaurants, cool bookstores, and friends dearly. People dont accept you very readily when you cant say your from a local high school (I cant understand why everyone asks what high school you attended). I have been here a year and still haven't really found my place yet. I believe I am a very friendly person and judge no one, but still haven't made many friends at all. Perhaps all that will change with my new job. If you ever find yourself back here there is a great fish community and lots of cool LFS though, lol.

agabr123

hmm, i'll probably pass then unless i'm just visiting for the fish!!!! not particularly my scene, i'm definitely more like you in that respect