MrsM3197

and lost....
Earlier in the evening I noticed one of the little platys kinda "charging", for lack of a better word, at my angelfish William, but I didn't notice any fin nipping...platy would just swim rapidly at him, almost bump him and swim away. William is growing into a big beautiful angelfish, and I know angels are considered semi-aggressive, but when I just checked my tanks before going to bed for the night he was swimming with a platy portion in his mouth! I can't find all of the platy, maybe the corys cleaned up the rest? I've never noticed William aggressive at all, if anything he's shy. Perhaps he just got fed up with being picked on and defended himself? Why would a dwarf platy pick on an almost full grown angelfish? I should have got that platy and put him in Q/T for a time out. He had a classic case of letting his alligator mouth overload his tadpole hiney. What about all the other fish in with William now? Suppose he'll turn into a fishy murderer now that he's got a taste of live prey?
Since I can't find any of the platy left, should I still go ahead and do a water change anyway?

TFA101

Well, you should try to find the platy, and notice if the ammonia goes up, then you know it's still there. But you say your platy was a dwarf variation, and angels will not hesitate to ambush small prey (when you're not looking). As a general rule, put only fish that grow up to 2"+ with angels (any species that does not nip, like most tetras). Dwarf platys get to about 1.5", so he was a gonner to start with. But your angel should still ahve his normal shy personality. Maybe you should QT him for a while (rehab-session), introduce some standard sized platies instead, and then re-introduce William. Should anyone object to this information, you're best off listening to them, my suggestion is just my own 2 cents

MrsM3197

Thanks TFA. Here's what I did...I was worried the other night when I couldn't find the platy remains, so at 1:30 in the morning I got my buckets together, went through all the plants and shook them real good, lifted the cave, stirred up the gravel real good, shut the filter off, pulled the media out and found the remainder in the bottom of the filter box. Yuck. Did a partial water change and rinsed the filter box out, put everything back together and moved the other 2 platys to another tank. Yesturday evening, I needed to go to the store anyway for things for my furry babies and got 3 pretty long-finned black skirted tetras which was what I was wanting anyway before I got the platys. They are in the Q/T for the time being and doing well. William the Angelfish is doing very well, and still not showing any signs of aggression toward anyone else living in the tank with him. He was being sweet and kissy faced when I went to feed this morning and took a thawed bloodworm from my fingers...the things we do for our fish!!!