molly sickness

Question
I have a 55 gallon tank with Mollies, Varatus, Guppies, Cory Catfish, Golden Algae Eaters, and Betas (in breeder nets). I did have Plecostomous that was sick with ick, but I treated my tank for it and he died. Most of my mollies were babies from my adult mollies. The ammonia is safe, nitrate 40, nitrate 0 and ph is 8.4. I have only one original female left, and she is staying at the bottom, breathing heavy, and it appears her scales are flaring up like a porqupine (my mind is not functioning so spelling is not good, sorry). Also, my females are dying off. the babies I had are now adults, but when I notice that they are sick, I notice scales are missing, and bellies are huge like they are ready to poop any seccond. I do have males and I often see the males attack the females (missing scales) and mate with them non stop,(there are more males now than females now and I don't want to get any more fish till I find out what the problem is) but I have not seen any molly babies yet, and their stomaches have been large for quite some time. do their bloated bellies indicate that they could not give birth? Or is it something else? I took one into petsmart and the associate said that it looked like a parasite to him. what kind of sickness is this? I have lost five mollies in the same manner now and I am desperate. It all started after the pleco and one of my older mollies started swimming in circles, then the bloated bellies and missing scales problem. I don't know what to do and I think I will loose all my mollies.

Answer
You need to check out information on dropsy. Dropsy is what causes your fish to swell up and take on a porcupine appearance, and it is almost always fatal.  The fish showing these signs should be euthanized because they will not recover.

Your PH is somewhat high, but that does not cause the problems. Just be careful and be sure not to add anything for PH to the water.  If you are not cleaning your tank weekly, you need to start.  You don't say HOW many fish you have in your tank, only what type.  Make sure you are not overstocked.  You can also add MARINE salt to your tank, as mollies are actually brackish water fish and could stand some marine salt in your tank.  For information on that, read this article:  http://aquarium-answers.blogspot.com/2007/10/mollies-in-aquariums.html .

I also suggest you join this forum and they will be able to answer all your questions (as I am finished doing this for a while because of personal matters). This is the BEST forum around. Please tell them that Trish (or MrsCrabs) sent you, it is a friend of mine that runs it and he has 30+ yrs. experience.  http://groups.msn.com/EverythingAquatic/


Good luck, and remember, it is SO VERY IMPORTANT to clean your tank weekly!