Have had nothing but problems.

[Ringoffire]

My aquarium adventure started on a whim as a surprise for my young daughter. If I knew now all the trouble I would have I would have thought twice. But I got all my equipment and fish in one day with no idea what I was doing. Got home set it all up thought it would be fine, not so much. The only previous fish experience is with several Bettas over span of a few years. Needless to say the petsmart employee was happy to sell me lots of stuff with no recommendation on cycling the tank, letting good bacteria establish and so on. All of which I have now learned of from all my mistakes. Tank started with 2 fancy male guppies, 2 neon tetra, 2 green Cory catfish, 1 algae eater and 3 black Molly fry. 1leafy live plant (can't remember the name) and 1 dwarf hairgrass. Needless to say this is much too overstocked for my size tank. First lost 2 of the fry, few days later both neon tetras after a random 2 hour power outage, and today both guppies to white fungus. Tried treating it with fungus clear but suppose it was to late. After they died I put the carbon filter back in and did a partial water change. After that I came to suspect the fungus possibly came from the hairgrass that had the same substance on it. I removed the hair grass. My question now is since I didn't complete the fungus treatment and removed the grass after the water change am I still at risk of the remaining fish being infected? Any advice is greatly appreciated as I have put forth a lot of effort and really want to succeed.

[Ringoffire]

By the way it is a 3 gallon tank with tetra whisper carbon filter(small). With sand substrate. Don't worry I know it's too small for my fish but will have to do for a bit longer till I can afford to get a larger one.

[venymae]

Hello and Welcome to AA! I think a lot of us here all started out uninformed or bamboozeled by clueless petstore employees!
Yes, you probably are still at risk fo fungus, but I would not recommend meds again. Just keep up with the regular water changes, ESPECIALLY since you are doing a fish-in cycle right now. The best way to keep disease at bay is healthy water.

Just as an added tip, when you upgrade to a bigger tank, keep in mind that both the neon tetras and the cory catsfish are schooling fish and need to be kept in groups of 6 or more to feel safe. (I think maybe only 4 would work for the cory's but I am unsure.)

If you have not yet done so these would be a good read for you:
I just learned about cycling but I already have fish. What now?! - Aquarium Advice
Stocking Guidelines for Newbies - Aquarium Advice

Again welcome, and I hope you learn to love keeping aquariums. It's a great thing to teach you kiddos too

[Autumnsky]

There is much to know about keeping fish. The great thing is you don't have to know everything to do it and can learn. Oh, and even when you know a lot you can learn more, and also still make mistakes.

Yes we have all made mistakes, been uninformed, misinformed, under the wrong understanding and so on, lol. But you now have a great army of resource here at AA. And things should get better.

Once you have a good healthy amount of BB built up, never replace your filter pad until it is falling apart. Clean it regularly, gently only with treated water to keep the bb safe, and QT new fish, even if you have to use a Plastic tub or 5G bucket as a tank.

Once I stopped changing my filter pad and rinsing with tap water, most of my problems went away!!!

Regular pwc each week, too. Don't over feed. Don't overstock, keep compatible fish with the same tank requirements together. And use a high quality food. (I like Hikari as a basic food, doesn't cloud the water) You will have eliminated a large amount of your troubles. Hope I didn't leave any out, but I am tired. Oh, and get a API Master test kit, online they are reasonable (if you don't already have one)

Happy fish keeping and