uboofer

I am new to fish and for my daughters 6th birthday we bought her a 5 gal fish tank. I setup the tank and let it run per the manuals that came with the tank. I waited for 24 hours before taking my daughter to the LPS to pick a fish. She decided to pick a orange and white molly. After getting it home I placed the bag that it was in into the fish tank for a while and then netted it up and placed it in. Everything seemed fin except for the fact that it really did not do anything in the tank except sit in the top or the bottom. I suspected it was stressed and yesterday I went back to the LPS and explained what was going on. The gal that I talked to said it was stressed and that mollies are schooling fish and that being alone could kill it. She suggested getting 2 more. I was hesitant but followed her instruction and allowed my daughter to pick 2 more, a black one and a dalmatian.

When I got them I repeated the same thing that I did with the other one by placing the bag in the tank, letting them adjust to the water and then netted each of them out. the 2 new mollies swam like a bunch of mad men but the orange one did not really do anything new. I figured that it I would give it 24 hours to get to know each other and to my surprise all 3 are getting along great and playing together. The problem is now I am having a problem getting the ammonia levels to a safe level. The first time I tested the tank today the test strip was maxed out. I changed about 15% of the water and added new water, added ammonia reducer and the test strips are better but I am still about .5. I added a little more ammonia reducer and am going to let it sit for a while. Can anyone help me with getting this more manageable? I dont want the little guys to die and am willing to try anything. I know that the tank was not properly cycled and should not have been suckered into buying more fish until it was ready but in my ignorance followed the LPS instructions. Can anyone help?

capekate

Hello and welcome to fishlore...
Im sure your daughter must be very excited at having fish and its a great hobby to start young. May I suggest that you do at least a 50% water change at this point to get the ammonia levels down. Since you didnt cyle the tank before introducing fish, the only thing you can do now is manage the water perimeters with fish. The safe way now is to maintain water changes and continual water testing to see what the readings are. Be sure to get the water temperature as close as possible to the temperature of your tank when adding new water. Im assuming that you have a heater in the tank? Im sure that others here can give you additional advice, and good luck with your fish tank! ~ kate

uboofer

Yes I do have a heater. I will try your suggestion of changing more water and I appreciate your help. By the way, I forgot to mention that I picked up some liquid called cycle to help. Is this worthwhile or not?

capekate

I have heard that the Cycle can actually cause mini cycles in your tank. I personally use a product called Prime and it seems to work well for me and others here.

susitna-flower

Hi, and welcome to fishlore, I really admire you for getting into fish with your daughter. The first thing to remember here are that keeping fish can only be fun for both of you if you have success, and we will try to help see that is the case. A 5 gal tank is really small to keep the water stable. The lady at the LFS is right your mollies are happier if there are several, but the problem is the rule of thumb for stocking fish is 1" of adult fish per gallon. Since mollies get 2-3" each, three would be 6-9" of fish which means for just 3 you should have a minimum of a 10 gallon tank.

This is the reason it is wise to research the fish you want to keep, before making the choice of tanks and supplies. However, with lots of water changes, you should be able to keep these fish healthy. The water changes are a must until the tank is fully cycled. 50% per day is what I suggest. To really know what the levels are you need to invest in an API Master test kit for freshwater. You will find the tests are much more accurate than the test strips. You will have to keep this up till the ammonia and nitrite go down to 0 and the nitrate is around 5, then you have to do water changes again to keep the nitrates between 5 & 10. If they get up as high as 20 your fish will start to be stressed, and get sick.

From now on when you bring fish home as you are floating the bag in the tank, the most important of getting the fish used to the new tank is to add a cup at a time of tank water to the bag. Take at least an hour at this adding water every 10 minutes. With some fish like neons you have to do it even longer - 2 hours, this will even the ph of the water out so your fish aren't shocked by putting them in the new tank water. DO NOT feed them the first day at all, then just a small feeding the next day.

All these and many more tips are included in the articles in the link at the bottom of this page, Fish Tank Beginners Guide. Best of luck this is a great age for kids to learn about fish.

Fish in the Frozen North