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

bettaowner101

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?

Lupin

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

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.

LasColinasCichlids

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

bettaowner101

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.

LasColinasCichlids

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!! :)

bettaowner101

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.

Lupin

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.

LasColinasCichlids

Exactly what Lupin said. lol.

bettaowner101

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?