Hello, i am new to this forum, and new to live bearers, but NOT new to fish keeping, I have specialized in cichlids for about 15 years, specifically african mbunas, and South American cichlids, all with out EVER loosing a fish, with the exception to old age (Discus kept for 14 years, just past away) any ways i just wanted posters to know I am very seasoned with fish, fully understanding cycling, and water quality / and chemistry. HOWEVER i decided to keep a tank of balloon mollies recently in a cycled tank (ammonia 0 nitrites 0 nitrates 5) temp was 80 i set it up so (hopefully) the mollies could breed freely with out having to seperate fish (breeding mat, massive amounts of small, medium and large caves using small clay pots and rock bought from a lfs and a quarter of the tank very thickly planted (with fake plants) I was told mollies like lots of salt and set up the water accordingly with API aquarium salt (much like my mbuna) i have one spotted cory cat, a whole bunch of small snails you know the kind that most find a nuiscance and over run LFS (mostly, Helisoma nigricans some Menaloides tuberculata) these i want in there purposley. I had one beautiful black male, and for females i had 2 white, a grey/silver, a orange with black spots, and a white with orange stripes. they were all very nice, my ratio was 1 male to 5 females. they seemed very happy and healthy at first, and never got into any fights, they were very peaceful to one another, always swimming around out in the open. then i noticed the silver female who looked like she was about to pop any day swimming funny, slowly and some what side ways, i though maybe this was a sign she was about to drop, instead she died the next day, same happed to one of the very large bellied white ones. i was stumped, water was fine, i did a water change and then a few days later all i had was the 2 orange females, and the one looked heathy but had NO bouyoncy (tried swimming but couldnt, was was DEFINATLY not prego) i had put her in my net she would try and swimm as had as she could but always sank to the bottom of the net, same with the other one, who had a clamped tail fin.... the cory cat is fine, and so are the snails. what did i do wrong with these mollies, or did i get a bad bunch possibly sick from the lfs with something internal? i have no clue as i say i dont know much about live bearers. please help, they are all gone. 
also please suggest the EASIEST live bears to keep, and i would like to keep to smaller fish aswell, also some hints and tips to breeding them easily, but mostly keeping them alive!
thanks for all your help.
also please suggest the EASIEST live bears to keep, and i would like to keep to smaller fish aswell, also some hints and tips to breeding them easily, but mostly keeping them alive!
thanks for all your help.
sweet fishies
