fresh water fish dying

Question
Hi,
I am new to having fish, other than the gold fish in the bowl.  We recently bought my son a 10 gallon fresh water fish tank for his birthday.  I have followed all the directions I have been given as to how to set up the tank, treat the tap water, feed the fish, etc, etc.  We have only had the tank for 5 weeks and have already had 8 fish die.  The place we purchased everything says it's normal to loose a lot of fish during the first 3 months.  Is this true?  I hate to see my son getting upset about the deaths of all of these fish.  Please let me know if there is something I should be doing differently.  Thank you,
Jayne

Answer
HiYa!

In a really simple answer NO it is definitely NOT normal to lose alot of fish during the first 3 months.

By the sounds of it your fish have been dying because you didn't cycle your tank correctly. When you first purchase and set up a new fish tank it has to establish itself, which means it needs time to allow beneficial bacteria to grow in the filters and substrate which keeps your water and fish on the straight and narrow.

When your purchased your tank you should have set it up and added 2 -3 fish AT THE MOST. Once these fish are added, you feed them, they then produce ammonia (through their waste) which then turns into nitrites and then nitrates, this is called cycling your tank and this can take anywhere from 4 - 6 weeks. Once this has taken place, you usually then take your water to get tested to make sure it is all within the right parameters (eg KH, PH, Nitrites, Nitrates and Ammonia) and once these check out, THEN you add more fish.

If you only have a few fish, say 2 -3, left in your tank, then I would recommend doing a 50% water change next time and keep an eye on them for the next few weeks, get your water parameters checked and if things seem to be going ok after a few weeks, then contemplate adding more fish.

I'm sorry you had such a bad advice provided to you from the shop you purchased everything from, you would think if they sold fish, that they would know how to help their customers care for them.

Hope this helps!

Cheers! Rach