Hi all,

When I was a kid I had an aquarium and I remember how fun it was.

I recently purchased a Marineland 10 gallon aquarium which came with a cool Bio-Wheel filter which is cool, much quieter than my childhood aquarium.

I put gravel in the bottom, and 3 real water plants from the pet store, 1 of each kind. Not sure what kind they are, I asked the employee to pick plants that would work in a 10 gallon aquarium, he said these 3 would be good, so I got 1 of each.

I filled the tank with tap water and put a teaspoon of the water conditioner that comes with the tank in there to condition the water. In retrospect I don't know if this stuff removes chlorine, I think it doesn't. So I probably put chlorine water in there. Oops!

Anyway I got it full, with plants and gravel and a nice rock, and I put 2 small Black Mollies in there. They seemed happy and made themselves at home. They eat like they are starving but I only give them a tiny bit of food.

So now I had 2 fish


After a couple days everything seemed good and the Mollies seemed really active and good, so I went and bought some more fish. I bought 2 orange Mollies and 2 "dalmation" colored Mollies. About the same size as the first 2 fish.

Now I had 6 fish that all were acting hungry and lots of fun to watch!


The next morning after the 4 new fish were added, 1 of them was dead. Later that night, another was floating upside down but still alive, then died later that night. The next day the other 2 were dead. All 4 of the newer fish died within 2 days of buying them!

The original 2 black mollies however seem fine. It has been 3 days since the 4 fish all died. Back to only 2 fish!


Do you think I got a bad batch of fish? Every fish I bought that day died! But the 2 first black mollies didn't die, they are good.

Should I go back and complain? Or did I maybe do something wrong? If the other fish died why didn't the first 2 die as well?

It has been 3 days since then, should I get some more fish and try again?

Help!

P.S. - I just remembered I had another question. I noticed that when I added the 4 fish that died, the 2 black mollies seemed to avoid them, and would just find a little "hole" or depression in the gravel, and just sit there on the bottom of the tank, like they were sleeping! They did this all the time. After all the other fish died and went to fish heaven, now the black mollies are spending less time sleeping on the bottom of the gravel. Why do they do this?

Its a common misconception that you can just buy a fish tank and toss fish in it. Im sure there are a number of things that you have done wrong starting with not Cycling the tank. Right now if i was you I would change 30-50% of the water and use some stress coat.

That's weird, I was just following the instruction booklet that came with the aquarium kit. It said to add water and add the water conditioner gel, set up the filter and heater, add gravel, then add fish! Didn't say anything about "cycling" whatever that is...

I'm guessing the conditioner you added sufficed in removing the chlorine in the water.

Hard to say what happened. Fish that die within a day or two of the fish store I don't account it as something wrong with anything of mine. Fish go through a lot to get to the stores and then some tanks they go to aren't the best.

One thing you should do is get some testing supplies. Your tank hasn't cycled and the only way to tell where it is at in that cycle is by testing the water. The plants will help as long as none of them are dying and creating ammonia in your tank. How much you feed can also create issues. Try getting an API mater test kit. A little on the expensive side but well worth it. Test your ammonia and nitrite levels and post back here your results.

Another thing is the fish you are picking. I love Mollies also, but unless you are getting just male fish, you run the chance of the reproducing and creating an overstocking issue. Mollies can have a lot of babies.

Search this site or the internet about the nitrogen cycle.

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Oh wow! what are good fish for a small 10 gallon aquarium like this? I want somethign colorful and fun to look at!

I'll get that kit and post my numbers!

P.S. - not only the instructions booklet but also the employees at the pet store said I could add fish immediately !

Also, the guy above said to change 30% of the water out, does that mean I just dump out 30% of the water and fill it back up to the top with regular tap water? Or should I be using something else?

It's good to let things run for about 24hrs at least before adding fish. Cycling is a natural process that starts once an ammonia source (fish or other) is added.

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How many fish can I safely fit in a 10 gallon aquarium? My gf saw that someone said mollies will have babies and she says she wants 20 mollies!

Get a 5 gallon bucket and a hose. Try not to be too rough when u do water changes. Siphon some out, then pour some conditioned water back in.

Update:

I went and bought the API Master Test Kit!

But when I got home, another Molly was dead, one of the original 2 :(

Now I'm down to 1 fish alive!

The original 2 mollies came from a different pet store so I don't think this is a problem the fish had originally, it seems like my tank is killing them! Unless the new group gave the original 2 a disease that killed one of them within a couple days.

So, I followed all the instructions and tested the water. Here are the results:

pH Over 7.6
High range pH 8.2
Ammonia 0.05ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate 0 ppm


Ok so... I don't understand! Aren't all of those numbers fine? What is killing my fish???

By the way, water temperature is 85 degrees Fahrenheit

I'm surprised ammonia is not higher, is that because of the real plants, the bio wheel, both, neither?

Another update -

You know how I started with 3 water plants? Well 2 of them sort of have a "bulb" or root mass, but the 3rd one does not.

It was called "frill" in Petsmart. I don't know the real name. I googled around and it looks like other people say it's a type of Myriophyllum.

Anyway this plant has 5 or 6 stems, with frilly leaves, and no roots that I can see. I didn't notice this at first, but the plant came with about a 6 inch long, 1/4 inch wide strip of lead wrapped around the stems, holding them together and keeping it on the bottom.

Is it possible that having this lead in the water could poison and kill the fish? Or is lead OK in the fish tank?

The lead looked pretty oxidized and covered with black junk. All in all, the water plants at Petsmart don't seem in very good condition or healthy.

I spoke with an employee there, who seemed really knowledgeable (cute too!). She said the reason their plants are in poor shape is because they don't have any fish to supply their nutrient needs

Anyway... Just to be safe, and following some advice I read online about this plant, I removed the lead strip and separated the strands, and planted each one separately around the tank, instead of all in a bunch. I read somewhere that the plant would thrive better this way than in a bunch.

I'd appreciate any advice! The aquarium looks nice plant-wise but I don't want to keep having fish die :( I'm down to 1 fish!

So since the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels are all low, should I put in more fish now?

I don't understand how ammonia can be 0 ppm when there were 6 fish in there a few days ago.

Same goes for the nitrate and nitrite levels. What the heck could be going on?

your pH is (was?) much too high, and the water temp is too high, too. Those have to be adjusted before you put in more fish, especially if you are going to get more Mollies. Incidentally, Mollies also like a little aquarium salt in their water.
Google fish tank cycling, or find the article in this forum, it's there, and explains everything.
There are also products on the market that will chemically cycle your tank, ask the cute employee about them. As far as the plants, there are fertilizer and nutrient tabs you can get for their health, too. Keeping a tank, especially a small tank, isn't really as simple as what people expect, sometimes. You may need to be patient for awhile longer before you add more fish, so that when you do add them, they will survive...

when eventually you do put more fish in your tank you might consider zebra danios. They are very hardy and are quite active and fun to watch. They get lonely if you only put one in though so 2 or 3 would be best. I would still wait a while (couple weeks at least) if I were you so your tank has some time to establish itself and go through the cycle.

What temperature do Mollies need?

I wonder, is it possible too hot temperatures might have killed my fish?

I am wondering if I screwed up... Let me explain...

Where I live, it is often 115 degrees Fahrenheit outside. When I go to work, I usually turn the air conditioning up to 85 degrees to save power.

So, I am sure that the temperature stays about 85 degrees inside during the day. I usually have the aquarium light on during the day too. If the ambient temperature in the room is 85 degrees, which you say is already too hot, then isn't it quite possible that the water gets even hotter than that? I mean, with the light on, that produces some heat right?

I have no idea what the water temperature is during the day because I don't get home from work until well after dark, when things have cooled off. I wonder if during the day, the water is getting higher than 85 degreees, and I didn't even realize it. How hot would the water have to get to start killing off the fish?

Sounds like you got a "bunch" plants and it seems to be doing fine. Your high pH is because the plants are consumeing carbon dioxide which raises pH. Ditto for the bio wheel also.

I use 6 anacharis, 6 vals, 4 small potted plants, and a single amazon sword for my 10g planted. With a sand substrate but also recommend peat moss in the substrate.

what I do is setup the tank with plants and let the tank set a week. then add a single platy or guppy or neon. then not add food for a week. then add 2 female platys or gupies or 4 neons. The start feeding a single flake per day.

What I thin you did was to not have enough plants (put you did have some which is good), plus you added the fish to soon. Also I have found the mollys do much better with some salt in the tank and in fact I use mollys to establish my saltwater tanks. But in pure FW and especially with no plants I have problems with a cottony fungus. but the loss of so many mollys so soon indicate to me the tank was just not ready to support that fish.

So give it a littly while, add more plants, add fish slowly, feed lighter and you should be off and running.


my .02

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

Thanks for the advice.

So I should probably get some more plants? Any ideas where I can look for good plants?

The plants at the local pet stores I have seen have looked pretty terrible. Lots of brown, and black spots, look half dead, etc. Even the employee I talked to said their plants were in bad shape always.

you can check your tank water temperature with a thermometer, to check your water temp during the day. 64-82 degrees is what they like/tolerate. I keep my freshwater tank somewhere around 76 degrees. I am not sure how hot your water would get, or would need to be before they killed the fish. I actually think they might have died more related to the youth of the tank. However, it could have been a combination of heat/no cycling that did them in. Is your tank near a window?
Planted tanks are really nice, the plants will also decrease any algae growth in your tank. You can actually order some online, or try some other pet shops near you for more stock. Besides that, fish love the plants!
Have you considered putting a betta, and an oto in your tank? Betta's are beautiful, and would absolutely THRIVE in a planted 10 gallon tank. Their colors get nice and bright when they are in a roomy, happy tank. And the Oto will be the cleanup crew
Just something else to consider...

Ok, you know how I tested the water, and ammonia was almost 0 ppm? (between 0 and 0.05) And there was only 1 Molly left?

Well, I did that test the day after the other fish died.

I figured, the water seems fine, so I bought 3 tiny guppies and added them to the tank, and I tested the water today again.

Now I think I know why the other fish died! Testing the water today, after the new guppies being there for 1 day, now the ammonia level has risen to 0.5 ppm - that's 10 times higher than before adding the 3 guppies, and they are much smaller fish and less number than what I had in there before!

Based on this new data, and how quickly the ammonia level shot up, I think it's very possible that high ammonia levels killed the other fish. Then once they died and weren't producing ammonia, the levels dropped down really quickly (maybe because of the plants?) and that's why the level was so low when I measured it.

Does this sound likely? This makes sense to me, it just means I need to let my tank finish its cycle... And do some water changes meanwhile so the 3 guppies don't die! Right?

Just keep track of ammonia and do partial water changes to keep it under control. I tried to keep mine at 1 or below when I used fish to cycle a tank, but mine soared to 4ppm. Check for nitrites also. Nitrates should show after a couple of weeks, but possibly sooner.

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Very likely that is exactly what happened before, sounds like you are starting to get the idea though. Keep a close eye on the ammonia levels and do water changes every other day or anytime there is a dangerous spike in ammonia or if you get a spike in nitrites (good sign though as this means you're cycling).