Mickey Mouse Platy crooked back....

Question
I am new to this whole fish keeping thing.  My daughter loves fish and so for Halloween, we got her a 10 gallon tank for her 3 Mickeys and a Cory.  That quickly multiplied.  We now have 2 adults, 8 teens (actually 7 cause I just flushed one), and 5 toddlers with a Cory in the 10 gallon.  2 of the teens were pregnant and the adult.  One of the teens "dropped" last week, but has been acting funny ever since.  Today I found her with white bumps and a crooked spine.  Flushed her.  No signs of the fry.  We vaccuumed the water and did a water change.  At the same time, we noticed that the adult female had dropped and she now has a crooked spine.  What could this be?  Do I need to flush her too?  She is not pale like the other one, but she is acting funny.  Could it be that she just is tired from dropping the fry?  I know that I was tired for days/weeks/months/years after having my daughter.  Any help would be appreciated!  Thank you.

Answer
Kristine,
I do not think it is at all necessary to "flush" a fish every single time you see a problem. Most of the time these things are due to poor water quality, which means there aren't enough water changes being done, or the filtration is too poor, or the tank hasn't had time to cycle yet.
I would recommend doing some research on the Nitrogen Cycle, something every good fish keeper should know.
With so many fish you may want to consider getting a larger tank. Especially if you are not able to do frequent water changes, as will be required in a small tank with a lot of fish.
You can also from now on only buy male platies, so that you won't end up with babies all the time and keep on having to either "flush" your fish or constantly upgrade to larger tanks. For now, you may want to just buy another ten gallon, get it set up and running for a few days, and they separate all the males and females into different tanks. This will also help your water quality stay closer to the ideal readings.
You can tell the difference between a male and female platy by looking at their anal fin (the fin on the very bottom). Males will have long, skinny anal fins, while females will have broad triangular anal fins.
Separating them will save you a lot of trouble in the long run, trust me because they will never stop breeding otherwise.
With more than one fish developing this curved spine I would lean towards disease or a bacterial infection rather than injury. make sure you are doing frequent water changes, cut down on your feeding, possibly add another hang on filter and try to get another tank soon. You should get a test kit from your local pet store to see what your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels are. If your levels are way up there - you will need to start doing more water changes and stop adding fish. Ammonia and nitrites should not go above 0.
Hope this helped, and best of luck.