Sasukii

Two months ago we bought a 10 gallon fish tank kit for my daughter. It has a back filter, and two bulbs in the top for lighting. We bought 4 fish to start with, one was a black molly, the other three -- I'm not sure of their specific types. One is orange with a black tail, one was yellow with black spots, one was a grey blue with three black spots by tail. After almost a month of letting the tank cycle, knowing we would probably lose these fish (Pet store owner said it was likely, but if they survive a month we'd probably be in the clear). After a month, we were told the tank should be cycled, but by then it was so cloudy you could not see my daughter standing on the other side. We had accidentally left the light on a few nights for many MANY hours straight, and figured it was an algae bloom. So we bought a pleco, and began to let the tank stay dark. This helped a lot, and the pet store owner said that my water was normal and should clear up as the test he did said all my levels were normal. I myself did not buy the test as he said I could have them test it free ANYTIME. The only problem is that the other day my healthy looking black molly was floating at the top of the tank. The water still looks dirty, but is greenish so thought it was almost clear of the algae bloom. I also bought a gravel vac, and was planning on cleaning the tank tomorrow to help with a partial water change. The other fish seemed fine, but all of a sudden tonight as my boyfriend, my daughter and myself watched the yellow and black peppered fish darted crazily around the tank, only to stop mid swim and start drifting... and he died. We then noticed the other fish were gasping at the top of the tank like crazy (they hadn't been before, at least not noticibly...) then my pleco started darting from the bottom of the tank to the top then straight back down again. In attempt to save the last three fish, we prepared 1/2 tank water 1/2 treated tap water bucket and have them waiting while we try to figure out what is going on... It all seemed so sudden. By inspection of the dead fish, we do not see anything abnormal.

Any suggestions as to what we can do tonight The pet store does not open until 10 a.m. tomorrow, over 12 hours from now and my daughter is freaking out. Please help!

Lucy

Hi Sasukii welcome to Fish Lore

I'm really sorry to hear about your fish. Give your daughter a big hug from us.

When ever something goes wrong, the first thing to check is the water parameters.
Without knowing your exact readings for ammonia nitrite and nitrates it's hard say what's going on.

I would guess guess that you're ammonia is high and your fish are feeling the effects of a cycling tank.
It would be a good idea to do a 50% water change now.
Continue that daily until your readings are 0 for ammonia and nitrites with some nitrates showing.

Tomorrow, get yourself your own test kit. The API master kit is very accurate and more reliable than the strips.
Test your water before every water change and keep a log of it.

Pick up some Prime, it's a water conditioner that'll detoxify the ammonia for 24 hrs between water changes.

If you don't already have one, a gravel vacuum will be helpful not only to do water changes but to get the waste and left over food from the gravel which can create ammonia.

What kind of pleco do you have? If it's a common pleco, they get huge and are big waste producers. A 55g is recommended for them. I know they're so cute but you should think about returning him to the store.

I'm sorry things aren't going well, but hopefully the members here can help you get things turned around.

Good luck.

sirdarksol

Welcome to Fishlore!

That's quite a problem, but it might be relatively easy short-term fix. Your fish are likely suffering from ammonia, nitrite, and/or nitrate poisoning (the latter is most likely this late in the game)
Start out by doing a 50% water change (don't forget to use dechlorinator).
Do another one tomorrow morning.
These will help clear some of the waste products out of the tank.

Now for the tough part: Your pet store has given you a lot of mixed information. Some of it has been okay (though misguided), and some has been either lacking or bad.
The cloudy water at the end of the month was actually entirely normal. It's a bacterial bloom when the nitrifying bacteria reach the point where they've grown further and faster than necessary, and begin dying off (or something to that extent). They balance their own numbers, and the cloudiness goes away in a few days to a week.

Plecos don't do well in 10g tanks. They produce far too much waste. The pleco is probably the biggest reason the fish are having problems. I'd take it back to the store and ask for a refund.

A few livebearers will probably do okay in a 10g tank, so they should be fine.

Personally, I'd invest in the testing kit. I have very little trust for pet stores, especially when they use the word "normal" when giving the results of a test.

You were given minimal information on the cycle, which is entirely not your fault. After we get you through this, if you're interested, ask about the cycle in the general forum and you'll get a more in-depth description of it and how we use and manipulate it in our aquaria.

Hope everything goes well.

Shawnie

welcome to fishlore!!!

Im sorry about the fish and your daughter seeing this ...but the petstore has you cycleing with fish and the ammonia is probably killing them.....tomorrow I would pick up an api liquid master test kit that way you can test all the water yourself..and some prime water conditioner to help with the ammonia being neutralized for 24 hours and do daily 50% water changes with it until the tank is fully cycled.....he says your water parimeters are fine but dieing fish, and cycleing with fish as his recommendation, its making him totally untrustworthy....tonight if you have some water conditioner, id do an immediate water change...depending on what type of plec you have, he may have to be returned if he is a common as 10 gals isnt enough for he is a big poo'r...goodluck!

Shawnie

hahaha gotta love togetherness!!!

Lucy

Wow, gotcha sds. You usually ninja me.

Shawnie

sirdarksol

There is quite a bit of similarity between our responses, isn't there?

Eh. I can let you have one now and then.

Shawnie

very much so
great cop out

Sasukii

Yes! Thank you! Can't wait until the shop opens, I'll be busting in their door for sure!

Lucy

Keep us posted.
Good luck with everything.

aecw

sorry for your tank troubles! Kids especially don't understand how delicate a fishy life is so it can be quite overwhelming when their pet dies. My boys (age 16 and 9 still get freaked out when one of our fish dies)
My advice is if you get an API test kit whether it's the big master kit or the individual ones just check the expiration - the last four numbers are the month and year it expires...or should be sold by- there are alot of expired test kits out there that the store people don't even realize (FYI thanx to shawnie she gave me the expire info in a previous thread)

Sasukii

Well, fortunately when the first one died she did not notice he was gone... (blackey)... Then the second one that died right in front of ALL of our eyes... we simply said he was tired and needed to sleep... She keeps asking to see pepper, and asks why he's sleeping in a bag... But I didn't have the heart to flush him while she was watching quite yet. It's bad enough I transferred them from the tank to a cut off gallon water jug for the time being (only container that I was allowed to use, lol... gotta love it.) in which she wanted to check on every five minutes, making bed time impossible. Hopefully tomorrow will go smoother. I will most definitely update.