Dead Fish

I got a 10 gallon tank and now my fish are dying. First one of my mollys died and then a guppy and now another guppy died the other day and my algae eater. Im not really sure whats goin on. One of my black mollys have some white spots. My fish move around so fast its hard to really see them close. He doesnt have many and I can only see them from a side angle. I dont know whats going on. It might be my water ?? I am getting a test kit tomorrow to see.

I think I saw my algae eater die. I just started looking at the tank and my algae eater just started shaking and shaking and then he died. I didnt see the other fish die though. All I noticed was that they didnt move much and stayed at the bottom on the tank.

Also, I have a feeder ghost shrimp in there. I dont think thats the problem but I am just saying.,

Sorry for your losses

Ok, lets start at the begining.
Gonna need some questions answered;

how many and what species of fish do you have in there?
are any still alive?
how long have you had them?
what are your water readings (ammonia, nitrite etc)

Plus any other info you can give on your set up, maintainance regieme and the like will help people answer.

ncjharris said:

Sorry for your losses

Ok, lets start at the begining.
Gonna need some questions answered;

how many and what species of fish do you have in there?
are any still alive?
how long have you had them?
what are your water readings (ammonia, nitrite etc)

Plus any other info you can give on your set up, maintainance regieme and the like will help people answer.

Click to expand...

also how long has the tank been setup and running?? if you fish have white sopts on them it could be ick...... what exactly do they look like??

how many and what species of fish do you have in there? okay..right now I have 2 guppys and a baby guppy and two mollies and a little ghost shrimp
are any still alive? those are the ones i have in there right now
how long have you had them? 3 of them are new b/c of the other two that died. the place that i went to will give you free fish the 1st time one of them die. the black molly that has the white spots is new and one guppy is new and the baby guppy is new....the original one molly and one guppy have been in there for about 2 1/2 weeks. the new ones have been in there for 5 days.
what are your water readings (ammonia, nitrite etc) i dont have that info right now. i am going up tomorrow to get a test kit for it.

okay i just got back from work and i looked at the black molly..it has a bunch of white spots now. just like little specks. they are on his body and tail. i tried to look as closely as i could at the other fish. i thought i saw one of my guppies with a white spot and my yellow molly had some white spots on its tail. I think I got a bad fish and its spreading Ich! I am going to the pet store tomorrow so should I get a treatment for ich? Maybe I should get both the test kit and ich medication, b/c if its the water then i can always take the medicine back. the pet store is 30 mins away so i dont want to take two trips.

I havent really noticed any weird behavior though, just the white specks.

EDIT: i also notice heavy breathing

How long has the tank been running, and what do you have for filtration? It sounds to me like a tank that hasn't cycled, water tests will show if this is the problem. I would get a med for white spot, poor water quality won't cause ick, but poor water will will stress the fish, making them more likely to come down with ick.

When you go to the petstore tomorrow take some of your water with you to the store to see if they will test if for you and have them write down your readings from your tank, if they will do that.

Also do you have any areation in the tank? That would help your fish out, to have some areation in there if you don't already.

Do you have a heater in your tank? What is your temperature at in your tank?

Also if you would like it may be safe to pick up Coppersafe by Mardel. It is a great ich treatment in case your tank does have ich already. It treats for one month, be sure to read all the directions in it.
*however I think you may need to remove the ghost shrimp as i don't think he should be treated with the coppersafe, but read the directions*
Good Luck!!

it sounds like ick to me. definetly get the water tested just incase there is something going on with your water. do the white spots look anything like this??

or like this


if they do its ick, and you should get them some treatment for it.
i hope it helps.

thanks everyone for your help!

the temp is at 78 degrees F, im not sure what kind of filter i have b/c it came with the tank. i also bought one to go under the gravel but i havent hooked it up yet. and yes the spots look like that pic. its really bad on the black molly and i noticed a lil bit on the tail of some of the other.

doesnt it just make you soooo mad when your fish die?! they only replace fish one time so i took two in since they died on the same day. the only reason i went to this place b/c someone gave me a gift card for it. most of the people there dont seem to know much about fish haha. their poor bettas are kept in really small containters..i wouldnt even call it a container!

but anyways... i am going to check my water stuff tomorrow and get some stuff for that ick..ich..whatever it is

I know its hard to see in these pics..but my fish wont stop moving!! you can see on the tail he has white spots. he has some of those on his body also.


EDIT: found another fish dead. it was a molly, not the black one...it was the yellow one

The one thing you should do whenever you lose fish is to find out why first, not buy more to replace the dead ones; whatever it is that killed your first fish is likely to do the same to the replacements. Needs patience I know, but never replace lost fish straight away. Hope you get your prob sorted out.

the only reason i replaced the 2 first ones were b/c the store has a policy that you can get a free fish when one dies within 30 days and when i took the fish to the store the guy looked at them and gave me some weird excuse why the fish died. my sisters friend has a lot of fish and later when i told her what the guy said she just laughed and said it was stupid and he just said it to cover the stores ass. he said theres nothing i could do about it and it was a natural thing.. that somehow the fish were being pushed to the bottom of the tank and then they died...he said the only thing i could do abotu it was put my tank in the basement..had something to do with the level of the tank or something. i dont know it was weird. later i got to thinking... well then how do the stores fish stay alive if they arent in the basement? haha. well anyway... i went back yesterday and i looked at the fish...i looked in the tank i got the guppies in and they were dead..i dont think i will get fish there anymore

Bear in mind that it's getting difficult to find strong, hardy Guppies. Your best bet if you really want to keep them is to try and find someone who breeds them locally. That usually produces a stronger, better quality fish than one that's available in the shops.

Kat03 said:

the only reason i replaced the 2 first ones were b/c the store has a policy that you can get a free fish when one dies within 30 days and when i took the fish to the store the guy looked at them and gave me some weird excuse why the fish died. my sisters friend has a lot of fish and later when i told her what the guy said she just laughed and said it was stupid and he just said it to cover the stores ass. he said theres nothing i could do about it and it was a natural thing.. that somehow the fish were being pushed to the bottom of the tank and then they died...he said the only thing i could do abotu it was put my tank in the basement..had something to do with the level of the tank or something. i dont know it was weird. later i got to thinking... well then how do the stores fish stay alive if they arent in the basement? haha. well anyway... i went back yesterday and i looked at the fish...i looked in the tank i got the guppies in and they were dead..i dont think i will get fish there anymore

Click to expand...

what? put the tank in the basement???

i'm sorry but that's quite clearly a load of nonsense.

the tank's not cycled yet which has lead to poor water quality which in turn has lead to stress and ich

have a read of this topic which should help you understand it a bit better

Put the tank in the basement, eh?. Next to the salesman's IQ, I presume.

thanks everyone for replying. yes that guy at Earl May was well...stupid..haha. i only got the fish there b/c my boyfriends mom got me a $50 gift card there for my bday. my boyfriends brother breeds fish like guppies and what not so I think I will ask him if I could have some of his. I just bought the API Fresh Water Master Test Kit yesterday and I will be checking out everything with the water tonight.

also... i was looking at one of my clear guppies and I noticed that it looked like a chunk of him was takin out. on his back it looks like a lil chunk is out or something. i wonder if the ghost fish is taking a lil snack off of my fish. or its another fish.