Leech & Scale-Loss

[Riso-chan]

I recently discovered a small inch long grayish-brown leech living in my gravel(just caught and killed it), and also the loss of scales on one of my swords who sleeps close to the bottom. She has a few scales lost on two spots near her head and on her back. When I caught her to take a closer look at her, some scales came off. Maybe I was a bit rough on accident. Can leeches cause this? or is it something else?
The other thing I'm noticing too, with all my female swords is that it seems now that they become swollen with babies every week. I'm aware they can have several batches from one mating, but is that what this is?
I'm also not quite sure how many more fish my system could handle, hence my being confused over whether to save any fry or not. Please reply, Thanx in advance.

 

[OrionGirl]

Not all leeches go after fish, and those that do are unlikely to be lethal, or cause serious damage (effective parasites don't harm their host). The leech would have to be repeatedly feeding on the same fish for months--unlikely. In fact, I'd suspect the worm wasn't a leech--they aren't very common in our tanks.


How many batches of fry have you had? I'm confused--a normal pregnancy lasts longer than one week.

 

[Riso-chan]

Maybe two batches so far. Have any idea about the scale loss? I've heard it can occur from fighting and I do have a dominant female.

 

[OrionGirl]

So, 2 batches of fish, but they look pregnant each week? I guess it still doesn't make sense to me. The normal course is for the fish to get progressively larger each week until she gives birth. Some will wait a few weeks before fertilizing more eggs, others won't--but there should still be a visible progression of the tummy size.

For the injuries--could be aggression between them or from one of the other fish in the tank, could be the injured fish got trapped in an ornament--lots of possibilities.