Sailfin Molly Birth

Question
Hello!

I am having a problem with my sailfin molly female.

She is currently in a fifty five gallon aquarium.  The Ph is a little on the high side at 7.8, and the temperature is at 80.  The nitrite levels are low, but I am not sure what the ammonia levels are.  I have a little over one teaspoon of aquarium salt per gallon.  

I also have one 8-inch plecostamus, one small leopard danio, two male guppies, one female guppy, and one female betta.  

My sailfin molly has given birth twice before.  The first time she only had 5-6 fry (more may have gotten eaten) and none of those survived.  The second time she had forty-fifty fry, all of which survived and are happily growing up in a ten gallon tank.  

I used to have all the fish in a small ten gallon, but the large amount of fry from the last birth caused me to get the bigger tank and to let the babies have the smaller one.  I also had a male sailfin molly.  All the adults got moved (slowly) into the fifty five gallon aquarium.

This was all a few weeks ago.  Typically, of course, my female sailfin gets pregnant again.  This week, I had an upset in my larger tank when I found that two of my fish had gotten dropsy.  I am unsure where they got that.  The two that were affected were my male sailfin molly and my leopard danio.  I went to the pet store and they sold me a rather strong antibiotic.  Though I knew that dropsy was almost always fatal, I was worried about the other fish in my tank.  

The antibiotic is supposed to be used on the first, third, and fifth day.  After the first day, my male sailfin unfortunately died.  My leopard danio appears to be pulling out of it okay but still looks a bit swollen.  This is the fifth day and I came in and realized that both my sailfin female and guppy female were sitting at the bottom.  I placed the guppy in a net breeder (she is also very pregnant) but because the sailfin molly has only been pregnant for a few weeks I thought perhaps she had come down with dropsy or another illness, (it's hard to tell because she's swollen with pregnancy) and I went ahead and added the third dosage of antibiotic.  Tonight I came in and found her in labor.

Now, after all this rambling background, I'm coming to my question.  She is having a very difficult time with this birth.  After a very healthy birth only a few short weeks ago and having the result of numerous gorgeous, healthy fry, now she seems to be miscarrying her current load.  I turned off the lights but I am still worried about her.  Should I add more salt?  Should I change the temperature?  I now realize she doesn't have dropsy, she was just having labor.  The fry that come out are deformed, and almost all are still in eggs.  (my female betta is gladly picking them off and I can't say this is a bad thing)  Right now I am only concerned about the health of my female.  Is there anything I can do to help?  She has red marks over parts of her body...after the demise of a gorgeous black male earlier this week it would be terrible to lose his mate.  

Thank you for any help you can give me!

Susan

Answer
Hi Susan;

Since she has red streaks it would indicate septicemia. It is a blood infection. It makes sense that her babies would be born early or simply died in-utero and are now being expelled. It is also possible the babies died and their decomposition caused the septicemia. However it happened, keep using the antibiotic. If it is "Maracyn 2" it is the best one to use for this.

A water change may be in order as well, but don't add more salt. Mollies really don't need salt and it may be having a negative effect on the rest of the fish. In the past it was thought that mollies require it. What they really require is very clean water. Replace 25% of the water right before the next dose of medication. The medication from the last dose has already decayed by that time so you will not be removing anything useful. Do a 25% water change every week.

Don't worry about the pH. That level is just fine for your fish. Stability of pH is what is really important. Changing it causes extreme stress to the fish. They are accustomed to what they already have and will be fine in it. Even up to 8.5 isn't a problem. Water changes every week will keep it from getting too low as the tank ages. It should never be below 6.0 or your beneficial bacteria colonies begin to die.

The dropsy in the other fish and the infection in the female molly may have been brought on by the tank going through it's initial break-in period. The toxins that build-up during the first 6 to 8 weeks of a new tank can cause the fish to be very prone to disease. Dropsy isn't actually a disease itself, but a symptom of disease. Usually it's kidney failure. Here is a link to more info;

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article24.html

I hope they all do better soon..........

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins