Fish bleeding

[dloetzer]

I came home today and one of my mollies is bleeding from the top of its head! do you think there is something wrong with it or did it hurt itself? i quarantined it to be safe and because glass shrimp were attacking it. anything i can do?

 

[MissFishy]

Bleeding from the top of its head? Did it have a cut or scrape? Is there anything sharp in your tank? It should be able to stay away from hungry ghost shrimp unless your tank is too small, how large is your tank?

 

[dloetzer]

it has about a half cm gash. no they were just like riding on its head but it was able to stay away from shrimp, i just removed it so it wouldn't be anymore stressed than it already was. it was in a 10 gallon with 3 mollies, 3 cories and shrimp. my only guess is that the male was chasing it and it scraped the driftwood hard. It seems ok just like woozy looking is the only way i can describe it.

 

[d3sc3n7]

Superglue, a staple gun, and baby asprin...he will be just fine.

 

[MissFishy]

It's actually usually a lot more stressful to remove a fish from a tank than to leave it in. Add some melafix so it won't get infected and hopefully it will heal. Your mollies are likely getting aggressive towards eachother since your tank is too small for 3 of them. They need a much larger tank, mollies can get very large and you are already overstocked.

 

[homebunnyj]

In addition to the tank size issue, you could possibly have a poor gender mix... 4 mollies.... one should be male and three should be female so that the male's 'attentions' are divided enough that the females won't be stressed to the point of illness or death by constantly being pursued.

Pay extra careful attention to your water quality, making sure to keep ammonia and nitrite well below 1.0, and nitrates below 20. Also, make sure there are plenty of hiding places in the tank, adding some more plants (real or fake) if needed. Your injured fish will want to stay in hiding as it heals.