| RIP Chiang Kai-Shek
I was browsing last night through the fish stuff at Petsmart (looking for foam to build my own sponge filter, actually), and this really cute platy caught my eye - he was silvery-bluish, with purple undertones. I'd never seen a platy with those colors, and he was the only one of his type there, and I needed a third platy to keep my two ladies company, and they were on sale for $.99. I could not resist buying him.
I put him in the tank, and he seemed to be doing pretty good. He loved playing in the bubbles from the airstone, and was hanging out with my other two platys.
But this morning, I could not find him. After a frantic search (hoping he may still be alive) I found Chiang underneath my desk, all shriveled up and pretty dead. I had forgotten to put the cover on the tank! I'd never had a problem with my two girls jumping out, but I hadn't considered that Chiang, being new to the tank, might be stressed and try to pull a runner.
I feel really bad about this - I mean, I'm a rookie, but that was a rookie mistake.
Poor Chiang. I was hoping to see what a cross between his silver-blue colors and my ladies' sunburst coloration would produce.
RIP little dude. | 
we're sorry that you lost the little guy. we love platys and have some ourselves. he sounds like he was a beauty, we have 2 of that coloring, with the mickey mouse tail fin pattern.
Poor little guy, it was just a mistake though, don't beat yourself up over it. When I was in high school, I had a newt named Gus. I was running late one morning, and I forgot to shut the lid after I'd fed him. Gus was a pro at making himself stick to the glass, and he had managed to climb out. I found him dried out on my floor that night. I still feel bad about it, but it was a mistake. At least it taught me to be a lot more careful. Hard lesson to learn though. 