fat belly on black skirt tetra

Question
QUESTION: I have 2 black skirts one alot larger then the other.The large one tonight seems to have a fat belly, and wants to just hang out in back of tank towards the bottom by self.
12 days ago I bought 3 mollies one just died and I was told they need some salt in water and it would not hurt the fish I have. I change at least 25% water weekly but today when I filled it back up I added enough salt for 15 gallons of water and it is a 30 gallon tank I thought I should add it slowly so fish could get used to it. Could the salt be making her sick or bloated? What do you think I should do. Thank you for any help you may have.
Denise

ANSWER: Hi Denise,
I don't think the salt could have caused the fat belly on the black skirt. There are several common causes to a swollen bellies in fish-

*Overeating
*Constipation
*Egg-bound
*Internal bacterial infection
*Tumors

The last three are rather uncommon. The best way to treat the first two are fasting the fish for a day at least and get more fiber in the diet like offering green peas is a great way to help fish with this condition.

Does she still eat? If so, that's a good sign. I would do a few extra water changes just in case. If your tank is still in its "cycling phase" you'll want to be very cautious and do a water change whenever the fish seem stressed.

Mollies do benefit from salt sometimes but I've had them live quite well in freshwater also.

Best of luck and keep an eye on the sickly skirt!
Karen~

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Karen
Just thought I would give you a up date. I did another water change this morning (Thursday. She seems to not be as fat today as she was. And yes she eats just fine, and is swimming around more normal now. My other question is this I read somewhere that the salt would burn tetras because they dont have scales is this true? And if so should I start backing off the salt amount in tank with more water changes since you say the Mollies will be fine without it. There is 17gallons worth of mixture of salt now in a 30 gallon tank. What do you think?
Thank you again
Denise

Answer
Hi Denise,
Good to hear she is doing better!
Salt can sometimes stress tetras in high concentrations. I believe that low concentrations are not harmful though. However, I would just not use salt and focus more on doing frequent large water changes. Mollies can live well without salt in their water but they cannot tolerate poor water quality and they are more sensitive than most other community fish.

I've kept mollies both ways in salted and freshwater and they've done quite well.

Best of luck, you seem to be doing a good job with your fish!
Karen~