Newbie making all the newbie mistakes seeking some advice.

Background
I have posted before, so to keep a long story short my adventure into fish keeping was well intentioned but clearly ignorant to the rigors of properly establishing a tank. I bought my son a betta as a gift for potty training a while back and put that poor fish in a .5 gallon tank. He seemed to be doing fine, but then I heard how its not a proper size for him and that I needed to get bigger. We went bigger, and he died in the new tank after a week or so. My son then talked my dad into picking out some more fish for the new tank which some how led us to having a pleco, two tiger barbs and two mollies in a 10 gallon tank that was never cycled (Yes, I am aware how bad this situation is and not proud of it). I started to notice one of the mollies get sick and learned all about cycling and appropriate stocking of a fish tank. In the past 4 days, I have lost a molly and the two tiger barbs.

Current Mess and Call for Advice
I have a 10 gallon tank with a lonely mamma molly and a pleco. My tank is starting to cycle as the ammonia levels are rising. Nitrites and nitrates are still at zero however. I am doing daily 15% water changes and using prime and stability to try and keep the water parameters in check. But with all this fish loss (described above) and having a single molly without a proper school and pleco in too small of a tank I am wondering if the best thing to do is to just give them away. If so, do I just take them back to the petsmart or is there a better way to handle it? To make things even more complicated, I think my molly is pregnant and had previously given birth to some fry. I didnt notice until too late and now have a single molly fry that's about 2 weeks old in a 3.5 gallon tank. Mess aside, I still very much want to set up a tank. Unfortunately for the fish, I learned the hard way how serious and deliberate one needs to be to be in this hobby. I am going to use whatever advice I can get from this great community to figure out my current situation and then I will hammering you all again with questions related to my new build.

 

My own personal opinion would be to give away the fish you have, cycle with bottled ammonia, and then get something small. A betta with driftwood and plants, (real or fake, though fake should be silk) will look pretty amazing in a 10 gal.

I don't have any advice on how to give them away though, sorry.

 

Hi, welcome to Fishlore! I'm glad you've come here, we can definitely help!

I would take back your current fish. Like you said, they are too big for your tank. If it was just the molly, I'd suggest upgrading instead. But with the pleco, if it's a common pleco, then as you've learned they need a massive aquarium.

Then, look up fishless cycling. People use bottled ammonia, but you can also use fish food, though it's a bit more difficult.

While it's cycling, you can decide what you'd like to have in there. There are many schooling fish that can go in a 10 Gallon aquarium. Head to Google and look up "Fish for 10 gallon aquarium" and you'll find plenty of ideas. Or you could get a Betta, a 10 Gallon would be a fantastic size for one!

You can also consider live plants, but that's a whole other can of worms in itself.

Please let us know if you have more questions!

 

I can add anything (that hasn't been said) but : welcome to Fishlore

You can also consider live plants, but that's a whole other can of worms in itself.

Not completely. Some plants do fine without ferts and high light.

 

I will say, the best thing to do, (once there are no fish in the tank) is research, research, research! Fishkeeping has a bit of a knowledge hump to get over, but once you reach the other side you'll feel much less overwhelmed.

And there is little more amazing that building your own micro-ecosystem in your own house!

 

Welcome to Fishlore, you have come to the right place. Please don't beat yourself up over this. Most of us started out in this hobby making mistakes. When I got into it many years ago I had a little leaflet giving me the basics. The one thing it stressed above all else was the importance of water changes to keep the ammonia levels down. It didn't say anything about nitrites or nitrates but if the ammonia is kept down with water changes both of the others will be too.

You already know that neither the molly nor the pleco will be able to live out their life in this tank but you have time to figure out what you are going to do with them. They will work for getting this tank cycled though. They will provide the necessary ammonia. Unlike some I am not adverse to doing fish in cycling. Water changes and lots of them will need to be done though.

If you don't already have it I will suggest you get an API Master freshwater test kit. With it you will know exactly what is going on in this tank. You want to keep the ammonia down as low as possible with water changes.

I will also suggest you get a bottle of Seachem Prime. It is a water conditioner but goes one step farther and detoxes low levels of ammonia. With both the test kit, prime and the willingness to do water changes as often as necessary you can get this tank cycled.

 

Thanks everyone for the kind advice. Since the tank is too small for the current fish, I do think its best to find a safe home for our current fish. . Which is really hard, bc I am quite fond of the molly and really want to upgrade to 30 gallon so I can get a proper school of them. Now to call petsmart to see if they will take them back. Also what about the molly fry? Is anyone going to take that?

 

Thanks everyone for the kind advice. Since the tank is too small for the current fish, I do think its best to find a safe home for our current fish. . Which is really hard, bc I am quite fond of the molly and really want to upgrade to 30 gallon so I can get a proper school of them. Now to call petsmart to see if they will take them back. Also what about the molly fry? Is anyone going to take that?

They might take the fry, not sure. You could always get a larger tank for the Mollies, there are quite a few sales on tanks going on right now. The problem is that by getting a second tank, you are leaving yourself very vulnerable to a condition that is rampant among aquarium hobbyists, called Multi-Tank Syndrome, or MTS for short. It's a condition primarily characterized by the overwhelming desire to get more fish tanks.