Gold Molly paralysis

Question
QUESTION: I have a 15 gal. tall, set up for about 4 months, live plants, snails, with 22 fish: 3 guppies, 5 Mollies, 2 swords, 3 head tail light tetras, 1 khuli loach, 2 upside down fish, 4 tiger barbs, and 2 cory cats. I have an undergravel filter and a large outside tank filter, about 3 inches of gravel and I do 1/4 tank water change about once every 7-10 days. I just tested the levels with dropper test kits and the PH is 7.4 (can't seem to get it any better, even with balancers), ammonia is .25 and the nitrite is lightly less than .25. I have a Sunrise Molly (gold) that I noticed yesterday was all blood red in her abdomen and later in the day and still has lost all color in her back half and does not use it. She is still eating and seems fine other than the paralysis and color issue. There is some slight visible blood along her center side line at the tail and some in her abdomen, but not near as much as yesterday. Also, I lost a female guppy yesterday, She had just had babies and kind of "folded in half" and lost the ability to swim straight. I have not had any problems with my fish up until this point, except they really do a number on eating the plants. Thank you for any help you can give.

ANSWER: Hi Patty
Well, your tank is way overstocked.  Your ammonia and nitrite levels should be reading 0 ppm, and nitrates ideally under 20 ppm.  I have a feeling the problem with your molly is ammonia poisoning or an internal bacterial infection called septicemia, or both.  I'd advise doing a large water change, about 50% to help dilute the ammonia and nitrites.  And then continue to do daily water changes until it levels out.

When a tank is overstocked, the beneficial bacteria will never be able to catch up to the bioload being put out by the fish.  So, you end up with chronic ammonia/nitrite problems, which will stress and kill the fish.  

I would suggest either buying another tank-at least a 20-30 gallon and moving some, buying a large tank-like a 55 gallon and moving all those fish into that, or getting rid of a lot of those fish-for example the barbs, a couple of the mollies, the loach, the upside down cats.  

Your ph is fine, as long as it's stable and stays around there, your best bet is to leave it alone.  Those balancer/chemical products don't work unless you get into buffering the water.  To do that, you really need to know what you're doing, and be familiar with water chemistry.  But all those fish you have can handle a ph from 6.0-8.0 just fine, as long as it's stable and not fluctuating.

Hope that helps, and sorry it's probably not what you wanted to hear.  Let me know if you have more questions!

Christy

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QUESTION: Christy, Thanks for your help! I didn't think it had anything to do with the number of fish because I've had aquariums for years and it's never been a problem, but I will get rid of some of them; the ones I'm willing to get rid of are the barbs, tetras and the loach. I really like the rest of them and that will bring the population down to 14. What do you think? I don't have room for a bigger tank. I noticed in a couple of your other posts, that you mentioned feeding baby fish egg yolk. Is that cooked or raw and how do you do it? I have a couple of baby tanks that I use for Mollies and Guppies. My grandsons and I love to watch the life cycle this way. Also, what about salt levels for the Mollies, and how much can the other fish handle? I really appreciate you being willing to share your knowledge.
ANSWER: Hi Patty
You're welcome :)
I think it'll help a lot to get rid of some of those fish.  I just noticed you have snails in there as well.  I wouldn't recommend adding salt with the snails and the catfish.  They're pretty sensitive to it.  I've seen where some say you must have salt in with mollies, and I"ve seen the opposite.  I've personally done it both ways, and they were fine both ways-if that's confusing :)

It is fun watching the fry/babies grow up isn't it :)  For the egg yolks, honestly I don't know...I've never tried it, just something I read quite a few times on forums and such.  If I had to guess, I would say cooked, and then crumble a few small pieces in for them to eat.  If it's raw, it'll be kinda runny, and I'd be worried about bacteria getting into the tank and it clouding up the water.  I would also remove any leftover that isn't eaten after a few minutes, even cooked that could mess up the water quality.  But, again, that's just a guess.  

I currently have some dwarf platy fry, and they were tiny little suckers.  I started out feeding them frozen(and thawed in a bowl of tank water) baby brine shrimp for the first few days, till they started growing a bit.  It was small enough for them to eat.  Then I switched to regular flake food, just put some in your hand and crush it with your fingernail or finger till it's almost a powder.  Mine are doing great, getting ready to move them to other tanks now.  And, years ago when I had molly fry, I used the crushed flakes with good results then.  

Let me know if you have more questions!  

Christy

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QUESTION: What do you think about the Guppy tha folded in half shortly after having babies?

Answer
Honestly on that, I don't know for sure.  I just answered someone a few hours ago about a fish that was becoming curved, here's that link:

http://www.allexperts.com/expertx.cgi

If that doesn't work for some reason, it's titled "bent fish" in the previous answered questions list.  Those are a lot of the possibilities that can cause a fish to curve.  The only thing different with yours, is it happened right after having the fry.  Almost sounds like it was somehow related to that, but what would cause it I can't say.  Maybe the stress of delivering the fry, having too many fry, an injury, lack of vitamins from the delivery....hard to say.  Sorry, can't give you a better answer.