Hello! I’ve been searching for what could be causing my Molly’s bloat and it seems like the other pics that look like mine are due to pregnancy… but one’s a male!
I have 8 mollies, 5 are gold dust lyretails that I got in January. 3 of the five got somewhat bloated immediately and have remained bloated. We have angelfish in the tank so I wouldn’t know if there were fry that were getting eaten and I have no experience with fry or pregnancy. I’m pretty certain that one of my bloated guys is male though (and the other 2 are female, one more severely bloated than the other.) I don’t know what to make of this since it’s been so consistent and they aren’t lethargic or clamping. ChatGPT said dose their food with MetroPlex and it seems harmless enough if it is actually not a parasite but what are your thoughts? I should fast the tank more strictly but I feel sorry for my other fish… (I know that’s not a great trait here.) I also have some Siamese algae eaters who get the mollies’ leftovers which as you can imagine doesn’t look like much.
Is this an emergency or an opportunity to correct before they take a downward turn, are they fine just overfed.. help!
It seems to me 2 of the bloatey ones have some paleness to them like they’re almost translucent in places including the distended bellies and also on top of their eye (like where an eyebrow might be) and lips but again I don’t know if it’s a big deal or not.
Thank you for any tips!