Balloon Molly shaking

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FishLover1239

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jan 5, 2010
Messages
32
Hi everyone! I think my balloon molly is sick. She is shaking constantly but when she swims, she is fine and when she eats. She also swims to the sides of my aquarium back and forth. She is been doing this for the past couple of days:neutral:. Also she is a female.



Reply soon:grin:
 
Can you answer these questions first please?

1~What type of fish is afflicted? In addition, please describe what is wrong with the fish to the best of your ability (i.e. cotton like growth, bloated, etc.).
2~What are your tank parameters (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, temp, pH)? Please give exact values.
3~ How large is the tank? How long has the tank been set up?
4~What type of filtration are you using? Please give the name and number (i.e. Fluval 304) and amount of gph if known.
5~How many fish are in the tank? What kinds of fish are they and what are their current sizes?
6~When is the last time you did a water change and vacuum the gravel? How often do you do this? How much water do you remove at a time?
7~How long have you had the fish? If the fish is new, how did you acclimate it/them?
8~Have you added anything new to the tank--decor, new dechlorinator, new substrate, etc.?
9~What kind of food have you been feeding your fish, have you changed their diet recently
 
In my experience with Mollies, this "shimmying" as it is called is usually a result of colder water temperatures or something bothering them. Are they also rubbing or scratching on any of the decor in your tank? What temperature is your water?
 
Um I think I have found out what the problem is. When I looked at her in the light I saw scratches at the sides. I think this happened because my swordtail bites her sometimes. How can I help heal this scratches.
 
Um I think I have found out what the problem is. When I looked at her in the light I saw scratches at the sides. I think this happened because my swordtail bites her sometimes. How can I help heal this scratches.

Its pretty unlikely that these scratches are from a swordtail. Their "bite" is not strong enough to really cause that much damage. More likely is that these scratches are from the Molly scratching itself on the decorations in your tank. The reason they do this is because something in the water is bothering them or its possible that already have some sort of disease or infection that is irritating their skin. This scratching that they do is their attempt at getting that irritation off of their body.

Your best bet is to just do more frequent water changes. Mollies are pretty hardy fish and more frequent water changes can work wonders with these guys. Just keep an eye on that one and make sure it doesn't get worse. If you start seeing signs that it is taking a turn for the worse, I would remove it from the tank and put it in a quarantine tank. This way you won't infect any other fish.

My two angelfish constantly go at it and peck at each other and I've never seen a mark on either one of them resulting from this pecking. These are large, fully grown angelfish too.
 
My balloon molly is doing better thanks to more frequent water changes. Thank you very much for all your help:D
 
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