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Day before yesterday, I noticed my female dalmation molly seemed to be having trouble keeping her equilibrium. I removed her from the tank and placed her in a bowl with an airstone since the hospital tank is currently being used as a nursery. I used MelaFax, her balance seemed to stabalize, she's eating normally and shows no signs of lethargy. Yesterday morning, I moved her back to the tank and she seemed fine but late last night I noticed she was having trouble again so back to the bowl where, again, she stabalized and is swimming normally.

To answer some questions Cory_Di raised in a previous post on this issue: my perameters are ammonia/nitrite 0, nitrate <20ppm, diet has not changed, she has no bulging. Everyone else in the tank are up to their usual tricks. There is always the possibility she was rammed by another fish but generally everyone leaves her alone. One thing I should mention is that I did find two fry in my tank yesterday. They are dark in colour so I suspect they must be from her rather than my platy but she never showed any signs of being pregnant at all and the fry are a fair size (as big as my one week old platy fry).

Is this swim bladder or do you think her swim bladder was damaged or is this something else ? I just wonder because she swims normally in the bowl (which is at least 1 gal) yet has problems in the tank. What should I being doing for her (I will try the shelled pea and yes I am on my way out now to get another hospital tank) ? If it is a damaged swim bladder issue, will she recover ?

Edited to add: After I posted, I had a thought. This is the same tank I have been having pH issues with (see link). Would pH affect a fish in this way ?

Link: http://www.fishprofiles.com/interactive/forums/thread.asp?id=42913



[span class="edited"][Edited by 2004-07-16 02:53][/span]

So many questions and so little time...

Water volume always affects a fish that's having swim bladder problems.

Outside water pressure is less in a small bowl than in a larger tank and that's enough to relieve symptoms temporarily, but is no cure.

Dosing anything for a true bladder problem is usually useless. Sometimes the condition rectifies itself if it's just a simple gas "valve" that regulates gas-in-gas-out to the bladder.

The old "pea for the fish" trick may be a help for constipation but has no place in the treatment for bladder problems if indeed that is the issue.

--garyroland.



[span class="edited"][Edited by garyroland 2004-07-10 17:00][/span]

so basically what you are saying is there is nothing I can do for her but wait it out and see what happens ?

Balance problems are difficult to diagnose...

More fish have been killed and more water quality destroyed by dosing unneeded meds than doing nothing.

Internal diseases are tough to cure. By the time they're discovered, in many cases, it's already too late to treat.

Leaving the fish in a small container for a week may reduce the outside water pressure on the fish and stop the symptoms completely.

--garyroland.

I set up a hospital tank over the weekend and put her in there. She's "smart" enough that she's figured out how to hover at the top of the water and thereby maintain her balance. I've not put any meds in the water but have gone with the wait-and-see approach with fingers crossed. Any other suggestions ?

[span class="edited"][Edited by 2004-07-12 14:20][/span]

True swim bladder problems will show up as the inability to submerge or the inability to rise to the top.

It's all related to how the gas in the bladder is regulated. Sometimes it's the "regulator", sometimes it's true disease involved within the bladder not alowing the gas to enter or exit.

Believe me, it's not easy to diagnose and next to impossible to cure and I'm only giving you the particulars to add to your knowledge.

--garyroland.

I know, Gary, and I appreciate all the knowledge I can get. You da man

She can submurged herself and does but when submerged, she spends most of the time nose down (course, she uses this to see what she can find at the bottom of the tank while there).

She then knows enough to wiggle herself to what would be a proper swimming position long enough to get to the top where she swims around normally.

She doesn't seem to be suffering at all and in fact eats normally and is more friendly.

Just a quick update.

My molly is swimming perfectly normally now and showing absolutely no signs whatsoever of the problems she was experiencing.

Thanks, Gary, for your advice.

You're very welcome...

I love happy endings.

--garyroland.