Mollies dead?

[sardesign]

This is very strange (to me at least)

I had four mollies, 3 female and 1 male. One died about three days ago. There were huge chunks of the body missing and the entire face was mangled. It was a female. I thought that it could have been sick and then the other fish just pecked on it after it was dead... however, I had another one turn up dead twenty minutes ago. This death comes about 3 days after the first one. The rest of my fish are doing fine and I have already done a 50% water change. This dead molly has the same injuries. HUGE pieces missing from her and an eye is missing. This looks very much like an attack. I know for a fact my balas are too shy to mess with it, my tetras are pretty mean but they don't seem to bother the mollies at all ever, and I can't believe that the botia (loaches) that I have would even bother the mollies at all. Does anyone have any ideas what could have caused this? Do I have a variety of fish that I should not be keeping with one another? The list of fish is in my signature. Thanks for the help in advance.

 

[Blueiz]

Dont let the sharks fool you. I always thought my black fin shark was a very peaceful fish, he never messed with none of my other fish (while I was watching anyways), that is until I got up one mornig and he had a neon hanging halfway out of his mouth. It is most likely the shark that is dong the damage.

 

[sardesign]

Black sharks, red-tail sharks, and rainbow sharks are very different than bala sharks. Bala sharks have a completely different personality, they are schooling fish and are actually generally submissive to my other fish (friends have balas and agrees with me). The other types are more or less, loners, and get very aggressive with other fish (especially ones of similar family or appearance). I think the attacks may be the tetras (they are devious little bastages) or the loaches. However, everything I've read (and seen in my tank to date) says they are peaceful with other species. Not sure what happened... maybe another molly attacked it!!! Anyone else with ideas?

 

[Hrafnkel]

Are you absolutely positive those algae eaters are siamese?

 

[sardesign]

ABSOLUTELY sure!!! I've checked every verified reference book and website. They are SAE's and not anything else. Besides, they stick to themselves 24/7. They do not bother anyone and I watch them ALOT.

 

[Doitsu]

if i had to guess id pick the serpaes

 

[Ghost_knife]

when fish start to die or loose fitness other fish will go after them, my Pleco wouldnt leave one alone untill I put it in a breeding box, eaven then the pleco tried getting to it, It's fine now and is back in the tank but somehow the other fish know when the others are going to pass and will go after it, I guess it's how nature works...

 

[sardesign]

Northstar,

That makes sense since it works just that way with dogs. I find it hard to believe that two of the four got sick though. My water parameters are right on the money and I do weekly 30-50% water changes (for the plants mostly). My other fish are doing fine (as far as I can tell). They are growing (quickly) and seem to be acting the way they should. I guess I just got a bad batch of mollies They do such a good job eating the scum off my surface too. I may just have to go to Petsmart

 

[Holly9937]

If I had to guess, I would say the serpaes too. If the mollys were a bad batch, they certainly would have taken advantage of that. I have 8 serpaes in my tank, and go they go after any fish showing weakness. Just keep an eye on things, hopefully you'll be fine.

Did you QT the mollys? Maybe you could try that, or keep them in QT longer next time if you did?

 

[Ghost_knife]

It's possible to have a bad batch of mollies but I have had them for about 12 years and I have seen it happen, It's also possible that your mollies were from diffrent tanks at the LFS. Anything is possible, it's also plauseable that since millies have diffrent personalities that a few of the fish diddnt quite fit into the group and the others tried to oust it from the tank, which I think happend to one of them that I had to put into a breeder box like I said above, if you do get more mollies I would suggest QT your new mollies in a breeder box in your tank and let them aclimate to your tank and let the other fish aclimate to them, I do that and I havent lost a mollie in awhile