# Balloon Molly Rubbing Her Stomach Against The Cave?!?!



## bettaowner101 (Nov 13, 2009)

Hello, I have never seen this behavior in any of my fish and this is the only fish I have ever noticed this in. Tonight was the night I first noticed this. OK, so I have a cave in the tank, it's kinda small and it has a flat top surface. I noticed that my silver female balloon molly goes down on the top and then rubs her stomach across it? What is this indicating? I have 2 Female Balloon mollies, 1 dalmation female molly, and 3 male guppies in a filtered 10 Gallon with a constant tank temp of 78F. I only feed my fish flake food. Other than this strange behavior, she seems perfectly fine. Any ideas?


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

Occasional flicking does happen naturally but frequent flicking is abnormal. It would indicate silt irritation, presence of flukes and other external parasites and other irritants.


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## LasColinasCichlids (Jan 4, 2011)

My male dalmation balloon molly did this just over a month ago...turned out to be ich. In which my guppies got shortly after. I treated the tank and it all cleared up nicely. 

Lupin is right about it all. A little here and there is cool, but if it is more frequent it means something. For mine, it meant ich, but the spots didnt show up until a few days later.


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## LasColinasCichlids (Jan 4, 2011)

@Lupin... I miss your goldfish enabler signature. lol


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## bettaowner101 (Nov 13, 2009)

Lupin said:


> Occasional flicking does happen naturally but frequent flicking is abnormal. It would indicate silt irritation, presence of flukes and other external parasites and other irritants.





LasColinasCichlids said:


> My male dalmation balloon molly did this just over a month ago...turned out to be ich. In which my guppies got shortly after. I treated the tank and it all cleared up nicely.
> 
> Lupin is right about it all. A little here and there is cool, but if it is more frequent it means something. For mine, it meant ich, but the spots didnt show up until a few days later.


Thanks, again, this is the first time I have noticed this. I fed them about 10 minutes ago and watched my fish closely. They all ate fine and Silver Balloon molly is eating normally. Right now, she is swimming around enjoying the tank. Only time will tell what will happen next I guess. She doesn't appear to be having any ich spots either.


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## LasColinasCichlids (Jan 4, 2011)

bettaowner101 said:


> Thanks, again, this is the first time I have noticed this. I fed them about 10 minutes ago and watched my fish closely. They all ate fine and Silver Balloon molly is eating normally. Right now, she is swimming around enjoying the tank. Only time will tell what will happen next I guess. She doesn't appear to be having any ich spots either.


 
Hopefully in the next couple of days it will be clear what the issue is. And then on the bright side, it could be nothing and she just had a random itch!!


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## bettaowner101 (Nov 13, 2009)

LasColinasCichlids said:


> Hopefully in the next couple of days it will be clear what the issue is. And then on the bright side, it could be nothing and she just had a random itch!!


Yeah, hopefully it's nothing. I don't see why it would be ich because doesn't low temps cause ich? My tank stays at a constant temp of 78F. Today, she looks normal, no red streaks, no ich spots. Heh, I just saw her do it against the rocks on the bottom of the tank. Yeah, hopefully I can spot out what it is in the future. I don't see why it would be parasites either because I only feed them fish flake food, no live or free-dried stuff.


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

Stress can cause the ich to pop out as they sense their hosts weakening. They can stay low profile in gill tissues for a long time until the hosts weaken horribly. The only way to completely eliminate them is complete treatment course appropriately and quarantine new fish that are possible carriers for at least four weeks.


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## LasColinasCichlids (Jan 4, 2011)

Exactly what Lupin said. lol.


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## bettaowner101 (Nov 13, 2009)

Lupin said:


> Stress can cause the ich to pop out as they sense their hosts weakening. They can stay low profile in gill tissues for a long time until the hosts weaken horribly. The only way to completely eliminate them is complete treatment course appropriately and quarantine new fish that are possible carriers for at least four weeks.


Well, my fish hasn't scratched herself againsnt anything in about 2 days! I guess she was just itchy? Also, now I notice that when she eats the fish flake food, she spits it out then goes for another one, then does it again. She also sometimes ignores the food. Any ideas now?


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## LasColinasCichlids (Jan 4, 2011)

bettaowner101 said:


> Well, my fish hasn't scratched herself againsnt anything in about 2 days! I guess she was just itchy? Also, now I notice that when she eats the fish flake food, she spits it out then goes for another one, then does it again. She also sometimes ignores the food. Any ideas now?


 
My molly does that too...I am sure there is a scientific reason, something like small throat, picky eaters (all guesses, I dont know actually why). 

But yeah, mine does that too...he will grab a flake, spit it out, grab another. And some days he likes freeze-dried bloodworms, other days he doesnt. I think when they spit out the flake, it might not be the whole flake, I am pretty sure he takes a little bit of it in as when he spits it out it tends to be lots of little pieces of it...and on ocassion I have seen him just spit one out whole as if he couldnt get it in his mouth and gave up. lol

Glad your molly hasnt scratched anymore!


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## bettaowner101 (Nov 13, 2009)

LasColinasCichlids said:


> My molly does that too...I am sure there is a scientific reason, something like small throat, picky eaters (all guesses, I dont know actually why).
> 
> But yeah, mine does that too...he will grab a flake, spit it out, grab another. And some days he likes freeze-dried bloodworms, other days he doesnt. I think when they spit out the flake, it might not be the whole flake, I am pretty sure he takes a little bit of it in as when he spits it out it tends to be lots of little pieces of it...and on ocassion I have seen him just spit one out whole as if he couldnt get it in his mouth and gave up. lol
> 
> Glad your molly hasnt scratched anymore!


w00t! I am glad it's nothing! Thanks for all the help and advice!


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## LasColinasCichlids (Jan 4, 2011)

You're welcome.


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## bettaowner101 (Nov 13, 2009)

Well, I have very terrible news about this poor little fish. Lately I noticed she has been hiding in her cave more often but she still kept on eating and acting perfectly fine! Tonight I came home from dinner and I looked at my tank and the poor thing was dead right next to the cave. She will always be in my memory. Poor thing. :/ I still have no idea what she had!


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## LasColinasCichlids (Jan 4, 2011)

Sorry to hear!!! 

Did you check your water parameters? Could there have been an ammonia spike? Or was she old? 

That sucks!!!


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## mrmujtaba07 (May 11, 2019)

*Freshwater Tropical Balloon mollies Disease*

same like other fishes, these cute balloon mollies also suffer from shock, trauma or other types of diseases, So you may need to check a proper guide that i recently wrote on these small creatures on my private blog what are the diseases they encounter in on MR FISH KEEPER . COM


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