New To Fish Keeping, Bought 3 Mollys And 1 Died

[NerdfaceKillah]

We received three gold fish as party favors. We had them in a small bowl and soon realized there was no filtration and no way to keep the food from clogging up the water and causing all types of problems. Eventually one died so we got a 10 gallon tank with a filter from Walmart and some gravel. We put the water in and setup the tank and put the remaining two goldfish into the tank. They seemed happy to be in their new home. I immediately noticed that one fish seemed a little slow to get to the food while the other one seemed to zoom up to the top of the floating food and eat like no tomorrow. As time went on I noticed one fish was a lot bigger than the other. Last week Friday one of the goldfish died. The one who died was the slower one, the smaller one out of the two. We opted to go and get 3 new molly fish. Unfortunately I couldn't tell you the exact kind, all it said was molly fish. We got 3 of them and they too also appear slow to eat the flakes we were feeding to our goldfish.
 
Also we finally got the fish a treasure chest type of not sure what to call it other than decoration for them to swim in. The mollys appear to not like the fluroscent light at the top of the tank and like to stay under the treasure chest which is a lot darker than being in the tank. Sorry for all this writing but to get to the point, one of our mollys died today. I wanted to know how can I figure out what's killing the fishes? I reside in Hawaii so our water isn't treated with chlorine and isn't too hard.
 
Can anyone give some advice to a newbie fish keeper?

 

[fluttermoth]

What's probably going on is that your tank isn't what we call 'cycled'.
 
A 'cycled' tank has a colony of good bacteria living in the filter that eat the fish's wastes. Without those bacteria, the fish's wastes build up in the water, and make the water toxic. It takes a few weeks for the bacteria to establish themselves (and they can be killed by over cleaning of the filter).
 
First of all, you should do a very large water change to reduce the levels of those toxins. Longer term, you really need to get yourself some test kits (ammonia and nitrite are the important ones right now), so you can monitor the water properly.
 
I would also suggest you have a look in our 'Cycle Your Tank' sub-forum. There are very many good threads in there that will help you understand the cycling process

 

[Byron]

I agree.  
 
I would also add, for the future, to research any fish before you acquire them.  Some fish have very specific needs when it comes to water hardness, and mollies are one of those that must have moderately hard water.  Another issue, is that mollies are going to outgrow a 10g tank very fast (as indeed will goldfish).  
 
We can discuss all this later, finding out your water parameters, and suitable fish for those and the tank.
 
Byron.

 

[NickAu]

 
We received three gold fish as party favors.

How irresponsible of the host to give animals regardless of the type as " Party Favours". The fish you got are lucky even thou 1 has died ( not your fault ) that you are trying to look after them. Others might have just flushed them down the toilet.

 

[nic1]

I was going to say that.... I wouldnt dream of giving away fish as party favours, I cant even write what I really want to say or I would be banned from the forum!
good on you for trying to do the right thing though.

 

[jag51186]

I got my very first goldfish from my cousin's wedding...they put them in the centerpieces at the reception and we took four of them home. Lost two shortly after, and put the other two outside in our horses water tank (100 gallons with frequent water changes due to horses drinking it down), they actually lived for quite some time.

 

[NerdfaceKillah]

Just an update, all my fish have now died.  I am now working on doing a proper cycle of my fish tank or cycles.  The first day I tested my tank for ammonia it was over 8, the test was dark green.  I then did a partial water change and I treated the water prior to adding it to the tank.  After two days of not doing anything I tested it for ammonia and nitrites.  The picture here is what I have, it looks like there's very little of both.  Should I add ammonia to the tank?