Did everything wrong

[Lori]

I am a real newbie and have done eveything wrong in setting up my tank. I have a 10 gallon tank and started after only 2 days of filling with 2 mollies, 2 platys, 2 tetras, 1 sucker fish, and 3 albino catfish. I did condition the tap water, but that's about the only thing I did right. I lost 1 tetra the second day, lost 1 platy the third day and lost 1 tetra after 9 days. I bought test kit and ammonia level was sky high so I took advice of Pet Shop and used their product to lock away ammonia. I have made 6 partial water changes in the past 9 days and also installed zeolite clay which Pet Shop also recommended. To make matters worse my female molly had 6 babies 2 days ago. The babies are still living, but my older mollies and my platys seem very distressed and keep swimming in the bubbles from my airstone so I know they are having trouble breathing. The catfish and the sucker fish seem okay.
As I am disabled I thought this would be so much fun for me, but it has turned into a nightmare since I hate the thought of hurting anything. Please give me advice as to what I can possibly do to help these poor babies.

 

[Angel Lady]

Fish keeping is a very fun hobbie but they are a lot of work involved with it to until you get your tank cycled. This is the reason why people should do a fishless cycle. The first thing you do is do a water change around 20 percent today with conditioned water and then after that make sure you do a 15 percent water change daily this will keep your fish alive during the cycle. It takes six weeks to cycle a tank the fish way I think some one please correct me if I'm wrong on this. And the second thing that is to many fish for a ten gallon tank the rule of thumb is a inch of fish per gallon of water. Please go to the newbie section and read up on cycling your tank. And try not to get to upset we all make mistakes we just learn by them.

 

[tstenback]

Yes you made some mistakes but we all have thats why we can help and pass along our experience to others. You obviously care about your fish and how to make things better for them and that is the main thing.
Along with the ammonia kit you are going to need kits for nitrITE and nitrATE as a minimum. Your tank is currently in the ammonia spike phase of the cycle. Next the nitrITEs will start to rise and then spike as well. As this happens you will also be able to see the rise of nitrATEs. Keep up the water changes until the ammonia AND nitrITE readings are both zero and the nitrATE reading is positive. Only then will your tank be cycled. Both ammonia nad nitrite are quite toxic to your fish and that is why the water changes are required until they are both at zero. Nitrate is also toxic but only in large quantities and they will also be looked after by your water changes. Good Luck and do read up on cycling as you will be faced with this condition many times in this hobby. Good Luck and keep caring.

 

[Tempestuousfury]

to the forum.

I suggest that you return everything and start from scratch. if they don't take the fish back, threaten to call the Better Business Bureau because they sold you fish without giving you advice.

Make sure you keep the fry, though (if any survive, you'll have mollies later on ).

After that, research cycling and the like. We can give you tons of advice, but it'd only be useful if you could act on the advice.