S.O.S! Who killed my molly & platy!

**thewhityfang** · 30th Mar 2008, 16:28

2 days ago my fat molly was dead, and now i find my platy dead in my ponds.

1st molly is dead with no scracth (strange)
2nd molly lose the eyes and back fin
3rd platy dead losing the head & back fin

i have this kind of species in my ponds

1. a mess of red platy bellow 100
2. about 10 kind of gold fish 3 of them is bigger
3. 1 small black ghost 4 cm @ the cave
4. an a little ghost shrimps maybe 50
5. 3 fish... kinds of Clown Loaches
6. 8 Neon tetra
7. 1 small Freshwater Lobster about 3 cm live in the cave
8. 2 Singapore Guppy
9. 6 small guppy
10. 1 small Brazilian Turtle have 3cm diameters
11. 1 fish have a black and silver skin, is look alike a shark but not. (the seller say this fish is really friendly) maybe 10cm

the picture will added soon

pls help me
i have to remove the killer from my ponds

**Ah_ZhaN** · 30th Mar 2008, 17:17

Originally Posted by thewhityfang

2 days ago my fat molly was dead, and now i find my platy dead in my ponds.

1st molly is dead with no scracth (strange)
2nd molly lose the eyes and back fin
3rd platy dead losing the head & back fin

They seemed to be attacked or stressed to death.

Originally Posted by thewhityfang

i have this kind of species in my ponds

3. 1 small black ghost 4 cm @ the cave

7. 1 small Freshwater Lobster about 3 cm live in the cave

10. 1 small Brazilian Turtle have 3cm diameters

The above 3 mentioned are highly potential tankmate killers. Turtles and lobsters are well-known to be opportunists, so there is always a risk to comm them with other species.

Black ghost knife(Apteronotus albifrons) is a very capable & nocturnal hunter for small feeders. They will grow fast and large. I would definitely removed this if I want my small fish to be safe from vicious assaults.

Regards,
ZhaN

**vinz** · 30th Mar 2008, 17:21

Quite a few of your pond inhabitants are scavengers and could have eaten parts of the fish AFTER the fish died... so missing parts does not mean they were attacked while alive.

Could have been disease.

Of your the inhabitants, the following could possibly attack other fish for food:
- Lobster
- Turtle

Believe it or not, I've seen goldfish chase down and gulp down neon tetras.

**thewhityfang** · 30th Mar 2008, 21:45

thanks2 for the reply

i will remove them from the ponds
and give to my neighbour

regards
whity

**Reginald Ho** · 30th Mar 2008, 22:01

I think if it's the turtles or goldfish, you wouldn't even be able to see the dead bodies because most likely, they would be swallowed whole. My guess is the lobster. Clown loaches do eat dead fish too.

I used to have 5 goldfish in my freshwater planted tank (which I know it's stupid of me to do that but there was a space constraint on how many tanks i can place at home). 100 neon tetras soon became 20+ only. I realised they were attacked by the goldfish after lights off and are asleep..

**Quixotic** · 31st Mar 2008, 00:21

Originally Posted by vinz

Believe it or not, I've seen goldfish chase down and gulp down neon tetras.

And goldfish are coldwater fish, while the rest of them are tropical fish. So technically, their requirements are different, it isn't advisable to mix them.

**torque6** · 31st Mar 2008, 23:11

usually i will go for cycling tanks, but ponds i have no experience..

**thewhityfang** · 7th Apr 2008, 08:48

i found the real killer

that was a goldfish the big one...
they hunt a small fish even the same race

i will eat them

**cairocks** · 7th Apr 2008, 15:28

You mentioned that the fishes are in a pond, so is there a chance that some dragonfly had laid eggs in the pond and the dragonfly larvae being the culprit?