skinny silver molly?

Days ago I got a silver molly from Petsmart along with 2 black mollies.
I found the silver molly dosen't even look like what I thought a molly would. His/her tail was fancier, and it was kind of skinny.
I want to know what the gender of the silver molly is. It does not have a round belly, the place where the belly is supposed to be is flat, so it looks like a male. But it also has 2 analfins, which are very long.
Also, is it skinny because It's sick? I looked at google s and all those silver molly fish had some sort of plump belly. It has been eating and exploring the tank. One of its favorite things to do is to put its nose to the glass and "run" up and down. The other black mollies also like to do that.
Occasionally it swims with its tail down and head towards the surface, which is something I'm concerned about. Otherwise, he is doing fine. His fins are flawless. The other fish have not done this

 

Days ago I got a silver molly from Petsmart along with 2 black mollies.
I found the silver molly dosen't even look like what I thought a molly would. His/her tail was fancier, and it was kind of skinny.
I want to know what the gender of the silver molly is. It does not have a round belly, the place where the belly is supposed to be is flat, so it looks like a male. But it also has 2 analfins, which are very long.
Also, is it skinny because It's sick? I looked at google s and all those silver molly fish had some sort of plump belly. It has been eating and exploring the tank. One of its favorite things to do is to put its nose to the glass and "run" up and down. The other black mollies also like to do that.
Occasionally it swims with its tail down and head towards the surface, which is something I'm concerned about. Otherwise, he is doing fine. His fins are flawless. The other fish have not done this

Sounds like a male to me. There's a nice photo on this site that I saw not long ago to help with sexing mollies. But skinny does sound worrisome to me. Gaunt? Chest a little caved in? Keep an eye on him just in case. I got seriously burned some years ago when I got a skinny one that ended up having piscine tuberculosis at a big name store and then columnaris at an established mom and pop store near me. Ugh. They're in quarantine, right? TB can take quite a while to become truly recognizable, but hopefully that's not the problem here.

 

No, it isn't exactly caving in, just plain flat.

 

endlercollector's post is a very good one, it might have PTB or 'wasting disease'. Could also be an internal parasite. I've noticed that with large live bearers, they tend to swim nose-up near the surface when looking for food (which, for me, is pretty much always). Still, keep an eye on him. It might be a good idea to get some Maracyn/Maracyn II if it doesn't seem like he's gaining weight or becomes lethargic.

 

I can't get any medicines. Maybe it is an internal parasite. Is there a natural way to kill off internal parasites?

I heard salt therapy works. If so, how do you do salt therapy with a fish?

 

Salt might help; it's definitely worth a try. You need to have salt without an iodine, so normal table salt isn't a good choice. Lots of chain retailers like WalMart sell Jungle Aquarium Salt, which is what I use. Usually, one teaspoon of salt per gallon of water is enough to treat most ailments, including ich in my case. That raises the SG to about 1.005, which is on the low end of brackish. You need to completely disolve the salt in a bucket first, then add it slowly, a little at a time, over the course of a few hours; my treatments have been over the course of 2 or 3 days.

 

Good morning,

You can also try foods such as the New Life Spectrum (NLS) Thera +A, Small Fish, in the link below:



This food is a non-mediated anti-parasitic food also containing garlic which is beneficial for the fishes immune system.

Best wishes for your fish.

Ken

 

Oh no...
This morning the fishy was starting to get lethargic, preferring lying on the bottom over swimming. I read somewhere improving water quality may help the fish'd immunity system so it can fight it out on its own. So I mixed some water conditioner in a little tap water and poured it in. it helped, just a little.

 

You've been conditioning your water, right? As in, every time you do a water change, you use dechlorinator? Have you been doing your weekly maintenance?

 

I always use dechlorinator when I change water.
I did monthly water changes, changing 1/3 of the water.(Although now that I see the black mollies are big poopers I'll remove debris from the floor more often.) But a google check and your post told me that wasn't enough. So I'll start doing those 1/3 water changes weekly.
I have started salt therapy today. I poured some salt into a plastic bottle(enough to just cover the bottom) and filled it with water, added a tiny bit of water conditioner. Then I shook it and poured a small amount in. I repeated this every 2 hours. There hasn't been that much progress, but this is only Day 1, so I'll see what happens tomorrow.
By the way, do all mollies normally poop a lot. I remember when the black mollies were in the plastic bag on their way to their new home, they pooped 3 strings just on the way. But the silver molly hasn't been pooping.

 

Even with salt therapy, the molly passed away last night. Hope it has a better next life.