Molly Growth Spurt?

[ekfishlover2011]

So i had my two female molly/platy fry in their 2.5 gal tank to grow out safely until they were big enough to not get eaten by my large fish (aka 9.5 inch Petri). It takes a while in such a small tank, and they were about 1/2inch maybe last week after almost a month and a half of slow growth. I did a lot of different things, and i dont know what affected what, so ill say everything i did for you and maybe you can help me determine how to do it again.

December 30th i added two adult females to the tank for a week for initial quarantine and on the last two days i had temporarily placed my male molly from my crab tank in there as well to get used to freshwater from safety of predator-free tank. Then on top of that my 6 nerite snails came in from ebay and needed a place to recuperate for a day after their cross country trip in box. It was kind of cramped for that week, especially those last two days.

Sunday the 6th i removed everything except babies and 3 of the snails and bought a new clown pleco and added him and a piece of wood to tank with them. Friday the 11th the last snails were removed. Now suddenly they are growing at super fast pace!!! They are nearing an inch and probably ready to move this friday already. Which im not gonna complain, its about time they move, but...

Im wondering if anything in there was the cause for the growth spurt? Was it the increase in water changes due to the added bioload? Was it the possible pregnancy from the male? Was it the companionship of the other fish? Was it some chemical released by driftwood? Or was it just a random growth spurt?

I want to know if any of this triggered the growth for next time i get babies that i or my mother want i can repeat whatever i did and then i wont have to wait so long to get them moved out. Anybody have experience in this?

Edited for wrong timings.