The whole fish thing

Question
Hi there,

wow you make me sound like a fish killer, i am sorry i flush them but i didn't know how to kill them, thank you for the advice though, regarding your questions, that "shy" fish is one that my step dad bought and i went to that shop where he got them and it terrible, i would have never bought a fish from there, but i think thats where all the problems started cause all those fish have already died! i do still currently have fish there are about 13 left (4 x Guppies (2 males & 2 Females) 2 x Algie eaters, 3 x Neons (the thin ones) 1 x see through one with a black spot, and one really small orange one (almost like a gold fish) and the the partner of the orange one (female)... my tank is about 60cm long about 35cm high and about 25-30cm wide ( i will get accurate measurements tonight, my heater is about 20cm long (its round) mmm the filter i dont know off hand but can find out all i know is that it looks like a butterfly if that might help... i will deff update you first thing 2moro, thank you so much for your help it means allot to me,
-------------------------

Followup To

Question -
hi there,

lets start by telling you why i got these fresh water tropical fish, my small step sister had a tank and was never feeding the fish so i decided i would take the tank and start a new one, i went out to my local fish store, bought gravvel, bought a heater, bought a thermomitor, and fake plants... i installed everything and left it to run for a week, during that week i also bought the chemicals that reduce chlorine and stuff that put "good Bacteria" in the water, anyways one week later my step dad byes me fish, a few of them die the first night and the rest live, since the i noticed that some of them had white spots so i threw them down the drain! i have bought more fish but most of them land up dying why is this? does there shit kill them cause i was told to only clean it once a month and to be honest i've lost about 20fish in about 3 weeks, i had one orange fish who looked sick but had no real symtems but i noticed him always in one corner, once i turned the light off he trued to swimm to anouther place but as soon as i put the light back on the fish chased him back to the coner, i studied him closely and saw that he had one white-grey spot half way through his body, so i decided it was his time to go, and i tok him to the drain! i have already spent well over R1000 (south-african) on this tank and the fish i am not about to give up on the idea please i need as much advice as i can get what am i doing wrong? is it possible that my water pump is to strong? please i need help well actualy the fish i keep bying need help

Answer -
First throwing them down a drain is quite cruel to the fish. If you must kill them a humane way to do this is to freeze them or remove the head so they die right away rather than throwing them down a drain. Some of the fish you have described had curable illnesses. The fish with the white dots on them had ich, the fish with the whity grey spot had a fungus which is also curable. These illnesses going untreated are still in your tank and new fish can aquire the diseases. The shy fish you told me about may have had some internal issues and if he was acting that way at the pet store should not have been purchased. All that said we need to get you on the right track so you have better luck with this tank of yours. Do you have any fish currently? It's ok if you do, you will want to get broad spectrum medication that can treat the fungal problems fish can get along with ich. Follow the directions on the medication for medicating your tank if you have fish. If you do not have fish please let me know as we can take care of your problem a bit more aggressively. What size tank do you have? As far as if they can die from their own feces in the tank, only if it goes uncleaned for such an amount of time that your water chemistry becomes toxic to them, if you keep up your cleaning on the tank you will be fine and so will the fish. Also, do not add any more fish at this time as we have some work to do before we can do that. What size heater do you have? What type of filter do you have? How many fish are in the tank, if any? Please get back to me with the answers to my questions through out this message so I can better assist you with your tank.

Answer
I apologize for making you sound like a fish killer, many people are not aware of the best way to kill aquarium fish humanely. If this shop is as bad as it sounds then yes that is most likely where the problem started but is completely fixable. Being you still have fish when you get the broad spectrum medication make sure you follow the directions as to not over medicate your fish as that cause problems. Make sure when you medicate you have a lot of air going into the tank as medication lessens the amount of oxygen in the water and cause the fish to become stressed which can result in death too. For the size tank you sound to have about a 20 gallon tank, which is a good size.
So this bring us to your first step in correcting your problems, you will need to get a broad spectrum medication to correct the fungal issue and ich. Stay away from Jungle products as they are not very effective. Follow the instuctions on the medication and make sure you keep air going in the tank.
Keep me posted so we can take the next step once this is completed.... until we talk again...best of luck, anything comes up you know where to find me :)