Kae,

I forgot to mention that my Molly is very aggressive especially around feeding time. It seems to chase and poke at the other fish.

Ron

Very little is known about wasting disease, all the different effects it has on the fish and such.
Most of what is known about it in fish keeping is through people who experience it with their own fish.
There are so many different symptoms and not every fish seems to get every symptom of the disease except the spitting of food.
Perhaps the inability to hold down the food is causing hunger aggression.

I've had tiger barbs be nippy and a bit aggressive before, but never a molly.
Mollies are usually very peaceful fish, so this could be an explanation.

Being that the fish has a hunched back and is spitting food, it sounds like it's in the advanced stages of the disease.
It may be to the point where there is little to no food intake at all (everything gets spit out) and hunger is causing the aggression.
Fish can live about 1 - 2 weeks without eating.

If this is the case, then the Molly doesn't understand the cause of the hunger, therefore goes after the other fish. Sort of like chasing away the competition...

It's a possibility...

Kae,

Let me explain this a little more. They spit the food out almost like it was to big of a flake for them. They all rush to get the food down. After they spit it out they go for more and eat it. I don't think this molly is hungry at all. It is very very aggressive when it comes to feeding.

Ron

Also if it's a male molly, he could be checking the other fish out, trying to breed with them.
It kind of resembles chasing and picking... especially when the other fish want nothing to do with it...

Do you know how to tell the difference between male and female?

Ok, I do know what your talking about with the food.

The aggressive one, it's the one with the hunched back?

My molly has the hutch back and it is the most aggressive. It sometime splits food out and then eats it again.

My tiger bard is also aggressive at feeding time and it also spits food out and then eats it also.

My swordfish is really the only one that doesn't spit out it food and isn't aggressive.

Sorry for the confusion.

I thought the spitting thing was because the flakes where too big for them after they got it in their mouths.

Thanks Ron

Quote:

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I thought the spitting thing was because the flakes where too big for them after they got it in their mouths.

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You are right, they do that... and then they eat it again...
That wouldn't be wasting.

The hunched back could be a genetic defect.
They would develop this as they grew to full size.

He may not be sick at all, just deformed.

If it's a male, getting 2 females could possibly calm down his aggression.

Also, if he's got the hunched back as a result of a genetic defect due to inbreeding, it could have something to do with the aggression as well.

Kae,

Thanks for the information. Hopefully my fish is healthy but time will tell. I attached a picture of what my molly looks like. Can you tell if this is a male or female?

Thanks Ron

I can't tell right off the bat because the pic is too small. It looks like a marble female Molly, but I cannot be 100% sure because the part I need to see to determine the sex is just to small in the photograph.
You can tell males from females by looking underneath their bellies:

A female will have a fan shaped anal fin.
Attachment 3411
Attachment 3412




The males have an elongated gonopodium.
Attachment 3413

Kae

Kae,

Thanks. I actually have a female molly...

Ron

Great!

Even though she's deformed (possibly)
It may benefit her to have a male companion.
The best combination, when dealing with any aggressive fish, is to have 2 females and 1 male of the same species (3 females to 1 male is even better).
This way the picking is divided and usually the extra fish cause such a distraction that there is little to no picking.

I have never had a single female molly, but perhaps the aggression could be due to frustration of not having a male companion or companions of her own type.
The ones I have are in a community aquarium with lots of males, females and other fish - they never pick on anybody and are peaceful and pretty occupied with one another.

You can determine the sex of your sword tail fish the same way.
And the males also develop the sword looking tails whereas the females do not.

Keep me posted - I love and enjoy the updates:D

Kae

Kae,

I think my Tiger Barb might be pregnant. I noticed these little clear balls coming out of her. I have noticed that she was big, but I never thought she was pregnant. I understand I should remove the mom after she drops all the eggs. Any suggestions?

Thanks Ron

Do you still have 1 tiger barb?

Tiger barbs are egg scatterers.
The females will develop hundreds of eggs and drop them wherever in the tank.
If you had a pair (male and female), the male would follow behind her fertilizing the eggs.
They eat their eggs fertilized or not, so that's why you've heard that they need to be removed.

Breeders usually add a pair to a tank specifically designated for breeding, after the female releases all the eggs and they are fertilized,
They are both removed and put back into the community aquarium where they live.
And, the eggs are raised in the breeding tank.

In your situation, if you only have the one female, the eggs will go unfertilized and there's no reason to remove the fish. The eggs will either be eaten or cleaned up by the filter.
Sometimes unfertilized eggs that haven't been eaten will grow a fungus on them - no need to worry it won't hurt the fish.
You may want to remove them if this becomes an unsightly problem (seeing lots of fungus growing on lots of eggs)
Because it may set off a beneficial bacterial bloom (cloudy water).


Are you interested in breeding?