Aggressive Molly.... and a dead platy?

Well our kids are devastated. When we set up our aquarium in December we bought a Mickey Mouse platy, a sweet little thing, that reminded them of our family trip to Disney World. He's survived all the changes with the ammonia etc... Just last night he was swimming around happy as could be. We woke up this morning to a half eaten Mickey Mouse!!! He was directly next to/almost under our Apple (?) snail. Is it possible that the snail ate him?

The only other thing I can think of is we have a Dalmation Molly (female) that has been getting a bit aggressive lately, especially during feeding, she's chasing all the other fish away etc... Which is odd, since she's normally been fine. I *think* she might be pregnant again. But, would she have killed Mickey Mouse??? Even the last time she was pregnant she didn't act that way.

And if it was the Dalmation Molly, and she's getting aggressive... what do we do about it?

 

I have a few dalamtion mollies that are fairly aggressive, especially during feeding or introducing new tank mates. Any fish they are bigger than they try to bully during feeding. Not sure that they would kill a fish though, its usually just chasing in my case, fin nipping on new tank mates. I would say the snail certainly did not kill anything, although it might munch an already dead fish.

 

What on earth would have killed it or made it die? I checked all our water this morning and all the levels are perfect. No major changes in water temperature, no new fish mates, no major changes in anything

 

What size tank and what does your stocking consist of? What are your exact parameter readings?

 

What was the gender of your platy, also what size tank? Sorry for your loss S.I.P

 

HI there,
If your Platy was male, and your Molly female and pregnant, they will not likely get along together. And most Molly fish are already pregnant when purchased, and female Molly fish can have several batches of fry from a single fertilization. My guess is that your Platy was male and was nipping at your female Molly, perhaps right at her belly, and that triggered her to chase him, and it could be just stress that resulted in his death. After that the snail likely had a snack.

Very sorry for your loss but you might want to start reading about taking care of Molly fry. The Molly does better in a brackish water environment, with a complete marine salt like Instant Ocean. I keep my brackish water around 1.004 to 1.006 on the brackish hydrometer using about a teaspoon of marine salt per gallon of water replaced.

Personally I would not combine fish that are tagged as semi-aggressive with more peaceful fish, so be careful about your combinations and the sex of fish you chose.

Good luck, sending positive thoughts your way.

 

If you cycled your tank with the platy, it could have been on the way out from that. IME they don't live as long when they're used for cycling.
Sorry