Spinning mollie fry

[nonni1957]

I have a batch of about 24 mollie fry. 3 of them are silver or very light colored. One of these light colored ones spins sporadically about every 30 to 45 seconds for about 4 - 10 seconds. During his non-spinning time he eats normally and seems fine. Sometimes he goes upside-down when he's trying to eat. I have the fry in a breeding net inside my 20 gallon tank. The water has tested fine. All the other fry are fine and acting normally.

Is this epilepsy, or what? I mean, sometimes it seems like he's going to die if he doesn't stop, but he always comes out fine and is growing and everything. They are about 5 days old.

Thank you,
April

 

[KGotschall]

Sounds to me like his swim bladder did not form or is not functioning properly. On fish that young it is rarely anything aquired, it is something they are born with.

All you can do is wait and see, I think.

 

[nonni1957]

I guess that's better than epilepsy, I think. Oh well, I'll see if he continues to grow. Maybe he'll just always do that. I hope he's not suffering.

 

[nonni1957]

Spinning Fish - Baby Mollie - YouTube
This is the link to a video of my little spinning mollie fry. Look for him in the upper left corner at the beginning of the video. He is one of 3 silvers. The other 21 are black. He's very easy to spot.

If you've ever seen such a thing, or if you know what's wrong with it I'd sure like to know about it.

Thank you,
April