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Over the last the two mollies in my community tank have started developing a rather curious disease. Both mollies are male and about 4 months ago one male developed a "blister" on his flank. It looked rather strange, a pinkish transparant bubble, which since then has not disappeared. it has popped once or twice, but generally fills back up again. also the surrounding scales are somewhat pushed outward. Since then he also developed a similar spot on the other side, and also the other molly has gotten the same symptoms. Otherwise they don't seem to mind those blisters very much, they're eating happily and swimming normally, without the "scratching" behaviour you see with white spot disease for example. Also, none of the other fish have these symptoms. Has anyone ever seen anything like this? Could it be cancer? One thing I'm certain off, and that is that it isn't a parasite or dropsy. Below is a photo of what it looks like (they are terribly hard to capture on film! Took me an entire set of batteries to get one reasonably clear shot)

Dr. Bonke attached this image:

I'd be leaning towards something tumourish Bonke.

Something infectious that had ability to cause that type of thing would surely have shown up as something else by now. Plus, i cannot think of an infectious thing that wuold present like that in the first place

If you bought both mollies from the same stock, mabe that is your answer. If both mollies were bought at different times from different stock, we are back at the beginning.

for the mean time, just watch it doesn't get infected.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Hi there Dr.

I don't know if it is relevant, but I found this entry in one of my fish handbooks.

Book: The Aquarium Fish Handbook from Barron's

Entry: Myleus Rubripinnis (aka Redhook, is a Characin)

"Special Care: This fish is sometimes imported with an unidentified disease condition that produces tiny, transparent blisters on the body. The condition apperently does not harm the fish..."

Could it be this?

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Hi Ingo, I guess it is a possibility, but I lean more towards the tumor hypothesis. Mostly because I haven't added any new fish to the aquarium in the last year, nor any new plants for that matter either. Also these blisters aren't exactly tiny, the largest I have seen was about three quarters of a centimeter in diameter (1/3 inch), and protruded about half a centimeter (1/5 inch). The tumor angle seems somehow more likely, and as Callatya asked, they are of the same family, one is the father of the other. In my frytank I still have about 8 youngsters which so far aren't showing anything like this disease, if they start developing it in the next year or so than I probably have a batch of genetic retards

Looks like a fluidised cyst of the sort produced when parasites burrow into skin, or worms migrate towards the surface. The colouration of the blob leads me to believe the fish is fighting infection at the site of the wound rather than cancer, but cancer is a high possibility in this species. Maybe a vet could nip a sample off it for analysis?

It would be worth finding out for sure bearing in mind this fish is from a community tank, and that the long term health of any offspring might be important to you.

Even if it is cancer theres nothing you can do about that anyway, so the only course of action left is to make sure that it isnt an infection or a parasite.

Last edited by longhairedgit at 12-Oct-2005 10:20