Sick Molly

[pisces22]

I have a gold dust molly who seems to have lost its equillibrium. This has happened to another of my mollies and i eventually had to euthanize it. All the other fish in the tank are fine, and there are no males to harrass them. The fish always stays by the heater, lost a bit of its colour and cant swim/float properly. It either flips over or "hangs" with its nose down. I asked at the (responsible) LFS and they said it might be because the molly dosent have enough vegatation in its diet-i was feedin git tropical flakes and frozen brine shrimp. I bought another type of flake food thats entirely "vegetation". The mollies at the fish store (where i got it) are all healthy and have not had this problem. My water parems are good. Ive been feeding a mix of normal and veggie flakes-the othe rmollies are healthy and active but theres been no improvement in the "sick" one. I was wondering if anyone knows what might be wrong or what i can do to stop/prevent it. I also have 4 little baby mollies (soooooo cute) that i noticed on saturday, and i was worried if the "sickness" is contagious??

sorry for the long post
thanks

[Gettin' Tanked]

It's hard to say for sure, but it sounds like it MAY be a swim bladder disorder. Sometimes fish will eat flake food too quickly and it will expand in their intestines and make it difficult for them to use their swim bladder correctly. It can be avoided by simply holding the flakes in the water for a few seconds before scattering them. Swim bladder disorders can also be caused by bacterial infection, so you may ant to consider feeding antibiotic flakes if your molly is still eating and isn't showing signs of improvement soon. Unless caused by bacterial infection, swim bladder disorders are not contagious to the other fish.