male sailfin with spinal/nervous system issues?

**sp00f** · 10-05-2010, 08:36 PM

the poor guy in question has sadly succumbed to his infirmities, but I wanted to ask if anyone had heard of such a thing before. I had a male sailfin "creamsicle" mollie who seemed fine when I brought him home but was swimming a little funny. I figured it was shimmies, added salt, and cranked the temp a little bit. When I come back he's gotten worse and I realized he can't seem to move his tail or any of the fins along his belly at all. His dorsal and side fins are fine and he's using those to manage, but can't stabilize himself without his belly fins, which he keeps folded up. This causes him to rock side to side constantly with the motion of his side fins (sorry I don't know the technical names of the fins). LFS said he may be super constipated so I switched him to a higher quality spirulina flake, and he began moving his tail a tiny bit but swimming was still very difficult. By feeding him individually and offering better food I kept him alive and perky for about a month before he finally bought it, possibly because of being bullied by my yoyo botia, who feels that no one else is allowed to sit on the bottom of the tank EVER. Does this sound like some kind of paralysis/spinal damage? Anyone else had this kind of issue? I think he did really well considering his condition but I still wonder if there was anything I could've done for him. I didn't want to bring him back to the store, figured they'd just euth him.

**Little Embers** · 10-06-2010, 08:51 AM

It is quite common for Livebearers in particular to have deformities, internal organ damage/problem and possible nerve damage simply due to the way they are born. During the fry’s development (particularly in the later stages) inside the female, many of them get squashed or bent out of shape because she has so many at a time and there isn’t enough room for all of them to grow properly if she has a particularly large number of fry and those fry that do survive this can end up being permanently deformed.

Genetic deformities are also quite common, due to the constant inbreeding/crossbreeding of fish. Nutrition is another factor and malnourishment during the early months can lead to curvature of the spine and other deformities. These conditions can be exacerbated as the fish matures.

**sp00f** · 10-08-2010, 03:31 AM

oof, that sucks. I asked partially because one of my females appears to be pregnant by him and I was wondering whether I ought to plan on destroying the fry to prevent more deformities. Not that I've ever had more than one survive without intervention anyway, and the loach will likely just dig em all out and chow down.

**Little Embers** · 10-08-2010, 11:11 PM

If the deformity is due to genetics, I wouldn't intentionally breed them. As you say, it is just passing on the gene to the next generation/s.

I don't think you need to destroy the fry unless any deformity they might have prevents them from living a relatively normal/full life, which many can do. I would just separate the genders and not have them breed again.