Half a' Molly

[e048]

I woke up Wednesday of this week to find one of my smaller molly fry cut in half but still alive, his whole tail is gone and he seems to only be swimming facedown, I put him in a hospital tank and he eats and swims etc, he is just missing his tail and he is the only molly in my brackish set up like this, I do have puffers in there but all the other mollies (3 adults, 9 fry) are fine no missing parts except this one, whats going on, how do I treat it, and will his tail grow back?

[snyderguy]

Mollies with puffers? Sounds like the puffers got hungry to me.

[Platysaurus]

I agree with snyderguy. You can't ever trust puffers with other fish, unless they're a passive breed, even if they're alright at first.
My guess is that one of your gsp's got ticked off or hungry.

[AvocadoPuffDude]

ABSOLUTELY it was the puffer! It's doubtful the tail will grow back unless you keep the fish separate. If you don't see signs of improvement quickly, within a week or two at most, after they're separated, the molly probably will only linger and die. Mollies are especially sensitive to their water and surroundings as well, so nursing them back to health is not always easy, although I suspect in a brackish water environment it might help with secondary infections like fungus.
Puffer fish have a "beak" for eating snails and other hard foods, and are notoriously nippy, for example, I cannot keep a male betta in my tank with an avocado puffer without the betta getting ripped to shreds. Slow moving fish with long flowing fins don't mix with puffers, (although I realize mollies are not slow moving nor especially long finned.)

[e048]

ive had my 3 puffers and one large molly (5in) for 3 years now, the other mollies I introduced about 3months ago, and they never have problems, quite the opposite the males try and make a move on my puffers, and if it was my puffer shouldn't all my molly fry be this way by now? (chopped in half)

[emc7]

past performance is no guarantee of future ...

Fish change. Just because they have 'always been fine' doesn't mean it always will. Some fish get meaner as they get older and bigger. Others are a bit slow and it takes them a couple years to figure out other fish are edible.

Isolate the molly, keep the super water clean and if the fleshy part of the tank is undamaged, it can grow back.

[e048]

I dont know how far the wound is, he still has his pooper and mouth and he isn't bleeding just his tail is gone and he seems to only swim straight up or face down, he eats and swims around and I isolated him when I found him that way, also nobody has answered my question, if my puffers did this then shouldn't all my mollies be dead or missing parts by now?

[funlad3]

That one insulted the puffers sister.

No, sometimes fish will single out another to attack. That was the first. Now that it's out of there, the puffs will find another fish to go after. Mark my words. I promise. Fish are evil that way.

[e048]

Well alright, its not like I mind, my mollies breed out of control, also how big do GSPs get? Ive heard 6in and 4in mine are barely 2in and ive had them for 3years