heather84

Please help! I have a dalmatian molly (NOT balloon molly) and recently she/he has swelled up.

I cannot tell if this molly is a male or a female

I also cannot tell if its got dropsy or if its pregnant....I have done a ton of research on dropsy and read that the entire fish bloats up. But my fish is only bloated/swollen up near her abdominal area.

She/He has been swollen/bloated for about 2 days now.....and either sits belly on the rocks or at the top of the tank. He can swim but not like he normally does and he is still eating

These are the best pictures I could get---sorry! Can you tell me if its a male or female and if it looks like its pregnant or has dropsy











The fish sorta swelled up all at once...not sure if thats normal in fish pregnancy. And its been almost 2 days with the swollen belly, if its a she and shes pregnant how long till she drops?!

MaddieLynn

It's a male... not sure about the swelling.

heather84

thanks for confirming its a male........

Iam new to this site and realize I posted this post in the wrong thread can someone move it the disease area for me?

cherrybarbboi

hi heather, Welcome to fishlore! your fish is deffinetly a male. if you want to be able to tell how to tell apart live bearers (mollies, guppys platys exc.) you have to look below there body and if they are a male you will see a pointy underfin called a gonopodium. if your fish is pine coned (that means its scales are sticking out) then it could very well be dropsy. i just had a fish die of either dropsy or a prolapse i was never able to tell which. if your fishes desease is one of them (either dropsy or a prolapse) then the scales will probley stick out. that will be your deciding factor in telling what desease they have. keep a close eye on him and if you see his scales sticking out post a picture and ill give you my best opinion on if it looks like what my fish did.

i hope i helped keep us posted and i hope that your fish will pull through

heather84

The scales are begining to get a pinecone look to them...Im thinking it might be dropsy.....but is it off for all the "bloating" to be up front? i thought in dropsy the entire body bloats up?! I tried to get a picture but you cant really tell the pinecone look. I cant really see it from looking over head. I see it easily under his bloated stomach.

I actually put the fish in a floating breeder, i typcially wouldnt do this with a molly but since i think its dropsy i went ahead. That way he can easily rest on the bottom of it without other fish bothering him, he can get to some food easier and just in case he does pass away the other fish would be able to feast on him.

Im aware there is no cure for dropsy, and at the same time i feel awful about euthanizing him without being 100% whats wrong with him. So im going to hope for the best and let nature take its course. In your experience with dropsy how long should it take him to pass on?

cherrybarbboi

well, it took my fish about 5 days after i noticed but it could be longer because i was on vacation and came back and saw him like this. the best estimate i can give you after the pinecone is about 4 days, thats how long my fish lasted after the pine coning. and also if you have a hospital tank, put him in there because dropsy (though not very contagious) is slightly contagious and you wouldnt want to risk your other fish getting dropsy. i also have a question. how much have you been feeding him and how much has he been eating. if its a prolapse it would probley be of the intestines and he would probley have over eaten.

if you could answer those questions and put your mollie in a hospital it would help the situation greatly.

one thing i read online (and i tried it with my fish to help treat dropsy but it didnt really help though it is probley worth a try) is to put in .25 teaspoons of epsom salt for every gallon of water in your tank

heather84

Sadly I do not have a hospital tank...The only other tank i have is a 2 gallon tank and its full of zebra danio babies.

So dropsy is contagious? Everything I read said that it wasnt and that dropsy is actually a symptom of many things. And that the main root cause might be contagious but only if the fish dies and the others nip at him.

Yesterday he came up to the top to eat like normal. this morning he didnt come up to the top instead he stayed down at the bottom. When I saw he was alone (on the bottom) in the corner i tossed him ONE shrimp pellet he went for it but once it hit the rocks he couldnt get to it, his swollen belly was in the way.

I have fed him once since i placed him in the breeder. About 1 1/2 flakes crushed up. Its still floating on top so i dont think he ate any of it.

I would try the salt route if i had a hospital tank. I cant do it in my regular tank as I already have salt in there (not epsom) for the fish and i dont know if that would be to much. Also not sure how my other fish would handle epsom salt.

Im constantly checking on him. So far he doesnt seem stressed that i put him in the breeder. He actually looks a little more relaxed, i think in the normal tank the other fish were bothering him (not picking on him just kept coming down swimming around him like they were trying to help him up off the rocks)

Can you explain or give me more information on the prolapse thing please? Maybe post the link to the other thread about it?

Also i didnt think about it until now but this fishes name is popeye....Because right after we got him he got popeye. I checked our water it was fine, so i used some meds after the meds were done i did a water change immediatly and added salt as usual. The popeye was about 95% fixed. However his eye never went full back to normal. Im thinking maybe it was bacterial and now has caused this?!

cherrybarbboi

hi again heather, i dont think that it was the popeye. if the prolapse is of the intestines than that would mean that he ate too much food and that that caused a blockage of his intestines.

from what i read dropsy is slightly contagious. i would stick by that because i read it on multiple sites. since you dont have a hospital tank keep him in the breeder and if you see him dead take him out immediatly because a dead fish can cause a spike in ammonia

Gouramiguy17

it might be your molly is constipated, mine get constipated really easy. I feed them peas to help with that.

heather84

Thanks for all the replies....

I never thought of it until just now but in the begining when we got him he would often plump up a little (NEVER like he is now).....and we cut back on how much we fed him and occasionally he would still do it. I forgot all about it until my mother just mentioned it.

Normally him and my other dalmatian mollies act like pigs and would fight over the food....so maybe thats what it is....

what all can i do to try to save him in case its the prolapse Is that the same as being constipated?

Can someone tell me the pea method......but all i have is canned peas--is that ok And im not sure if it will help since he doesnt appear to be eating at all...

Since hes not eating hes basically fasting.....could that benefit him if its constipation or prolapse?


EDIT: I found a site with the pea method.....I actually tried it and immediatly he made it off the bottom and grabbed up the pea! He hasnt been eating but went for the pea :O

I only did the insde of 2 peas to see how it goes....how often should i do this?

Also, in prolapse or constipation would his scales stick out like that? Or is that my sure sign of dropsy?

cherrybarbboi

hi heather, how is popeye? with the pea method (i tried this with my fish) you want to not used canned or fresh peas only frozen because canned has some preservatives (or something like that i forget the word) that arent good for fish and fresh has pesticides on them. you shouldnt feed them the outside "shell" of the pea, only the inside.

with a prolapse his scales would stick out. and i dont thnk that a prolapse in general is the same thing as constipation because a prolapse can happen with a female fishes uterus. though the prolapse of the intestines and constipation are kinda the same. either way you would want to feed him peas (sorry i forgot to tell you that)

to the statement about him plumping up, that sometimes happens (at least in my experience) when a fish may have just eaten (or overeaten) and usually goes away if its not as severe as whats going on now with popeye.

if you feed him the insides of a pea one day and fast for maybe one or two dayd your pretty much doing all you can. keep us updated on popeye and if you have any questions feel free to ask. fishlorians will answer

heather84

Thank you for remembering his name

He seems like hes moving around a little more today, but i still have him in the breeder---doesnt appear to be bothering him.

While he went for the pea and got a little of it i dont think it was enough to do any good. I found my pleco stuck to the breeder getting the pea from the little slots in the side lol......so im really unsure how much popeye managed to get

He doesnt appear to be swelling/bloating up any more, but it hasnt gone down any either

I have noticed the lack of (none at all) feces in the breeder so now im really hoping that its something i can fix

If hes a little more active tomorrow should i try to give him some more pea? And then fast him for 1-2 days.......or just fast him now and hope he got enough pea the first time?


Thank god for the net and sites like this(not to mention people like u all).....was at the pet store (just looking at the fish) asked them about dropsy---they knew nothing about it asked about constipation they said feed him more!!!!! asked about the pea and they looked at me like i was nuts

Will post again tomorrow---maybe manage to get some good pics for reference

heather84

Im just gonna make a new post for todays...instead of editing yesterdays so its a little less confusing....

Im VERY pleased to say that popeyes swelling has gone down quite a bit. Hes still a little swollen but nearly as bad as he was. Hes also a little more active. This morning as soon as I turned the light up he came to the top wanting food. But since hes fasting i couldnt give him any then when his tankmates came up near the breeder popeye got all excited. Im hoping he will be all better within a day or so, but trying not to get my hopes up just in case.

This picture is from yesterday:



And this picture is from today:



its a little hard to see much of a diffrence inless they are side by side and even then its hard.

Lucy

I'm glad his swelling is going down a bit. It's so hard not to feed them even when we know we shouldn't.

If he had a prolapse of the intestines, you'd see part of his insides pushed out where he poos.
Maybe I missed where you said he had that?

You can feed all your fish peas at the same time you give them to Popeye. They'll all benefit from them.
I hope he continues to improve.

heather84

No his insides werent hanging out....thank god....

I dunno what it was, all i know is i was 95% sure it was dropsy, i went ahead and did the pea thinking it couldnt hurt and the next morning he was shrinking! ........

Its 11:30 pm here right now i havent fed him at all and trust me he wants some food! LOL Hes been fairly active today he gets excited when he sees his buddies or us by the tank. But i decided to leave him in the breeder for atleast another day---it doesnt appear to be stressing him out and hopefully its giving him more time to heal and what not.

The swelling/bloating has continued to go down and hes almost back to normal size......i am still however worried about his scales as they are still a little stuck out. I plan to let him back into the tank tomorrow morning at some point but i dont know about the scales and what i should do.

This has been a heck of a learning experience....and i hope that reading this people will now suggest trying the pea method even if u think its dropsy instead of just giving up.......i dunno what the problem was i just know the course of events and the outcome. Im assuming he was constipated or something of that sort.

Lucy

Yay! I'm glad he's almost back to normal. Hopefully, the scales will go back to normal once the swelling is gone.
Have you noticed any waste in the breeder?

heather84

Thats another thing thats concerning me---i have not noticed any....but the breeder has slits in the side and im not sure if there was any if it didnt go out the sides........i know stuff isnt supposed to be able to go out the sides but when we had fry in it they slipped right out

So im not really sure what to do, to feed him tomorrow like normal and see or keep him in the breeder as long as i can or let him out

I dont wanna leave him in there to long and cause him to much stress.....but i dont wanna take him out to soon and him be to weak and get hurt

heather84

This morning popeye looked completly like normal and from overhead none of his scales were sticking up........So i decided to let him go back in the normal tank, first i fed him in the breeder so i could make sure he got some he ate like a pig but i didnt want to give him much.

When i put him in the big tank i was worried at first because his buddy was chasing him around the tank like crazy and they were doing the mating dance--going in circles.....even tho they are BOTH males......(dont judge them LOL)

When he first got into the big tank he was flashing like crazy, and on everything deco, plants etc. but after about 10 minutes he finally stopped. Im not sure if it was because he was getting stressed from being chased or his scales or what

Im gonna keep a good eye on him today and hope all goes well.....Im just worried that the other fish might stress him to much---but i couldnt leave him in the breeder any long otherwise that would stress him.


*Edit: I just checked on him and hes still ocassionally flashing

Lucy

It's really terrific that he's looking so well.
lol, I won't judge your guppies, mine are always rolling and tumbling around the tank.

At this point, keep a good eye on him.

heather84

LOL they are mollies but glad to know they arent the only crazy ones

he still appears to be doing good

Lucy

LOL