Requesting Help: Black Molly With Swollen Red Anal Area

[rachelamanda]

Hello. Thanks in advance for any advice you may have.
 
I have a black molly who has been in my tank for nearly a year now.  She's been quite healthy up until today.  This morning, I noticed that she has a red bulge at her anus.  It looks like it is filled with fluid (like a blister).  It developed 2 white little spots on the bulge.
 
Other than this bulge, she seems to be doing OK.  Swimming normally, eating, etc.

Tank size: 10 gallons
pH/ammonia/nitrite/nitrate/kH/gH Unknown.
tank temp: 76 F

Volume and Frequency of water changes:  I do a weekly water change of 40-50%.  At that time, I add water conditioner and 1 tablespoon of aquarium salt.  4-6 hours later I add 5 mL of a product called Nutrafin Cycle: biological aquarium supplement.  Most recent water change was on Monday, which included scrubbing the plants, that had a bit of buildup of some kind of algea that the pleco wasn't interested in.  I changed the filter medium on the water filter with last weekend's water change (last Sunday).

Tank inhabitants & Recent Additions: 2 fancy tailed guppies (1 male/1 female), 1 female black molly, and a pleco have been living happily in the tank for quite a while now.  Yesterday we added 2 black skirt tetras.

Exposure to chemicals: None, except what is listed above in water changes.

Digital photo: I'm including a photo of the molly.  It's a little out of focus - the best I could do without a flash and a moving object ;-).  I hope it's helpful.
 
Does anyone know what this might be or how to treat it?  Thank you!

 

[bluesword23516]

I had a female guppy with this. She ended up dying, I'm not sure how to help, sorry

 

[attibones]

When you change your filter media, do you just rinse in treated water or are you throwing away media?

A plec has no business in a ten gallon aquarium. All varieties of this species need much larger tanks (some are suitable for ~25, most prefer ~75 gallons). Your molly should be in a twenty gallon. Your tetras need to be in a school or six r more and thus need a larger tank.

It sounds like you are not cycled. Have a look in the beginner's section on this forum, begin doing daily 100% water changes and invest in a liquid test kit such as the API freshwater master test kit. Stop throwing out your media. Every time this happens, you lose all your ammonia fighting bacteria.

If you can, return the tetras and rehome the plec. This will help with keep the water pristine to promote healing.

 

[bluesword23516]

Something I just thought that could be the problem is a prolapsed uterus, I have seen on angelfish so it could happen to mollies and other fish.

 

[rachelamanda]

Well, whatever it was yesterday was gone as of this morning.  The molly seems to be doing well now. Thanks for your help.