Looking for advice please! :)

no, no, even better. .. tell her that when you went to get the molly back, the other mollies really missed her, and so you decided to let them all stay together and be friends.

kids buy stuff like that, right?
 
I am going through the same thing with my 10 gal for my children. We had a major ick issue (ammonia spiked - everything went bad). Well we lost all fish. The children were too excited to feed them several times a day (I could not monitor) and my wife jumped in too quickly with a bunch of fish (and I blame myself for not watching the tank as I should have). We had to tell our oldest (4 yrs) that we took the fish back to the store because the water was too yucky! I since have everything under control but I am doing daily 25 - 50% water changes. We have two tetras right now and they are doing great. I take my oldest to the pet store to show him “our fish” waiting for use to take them home when the water is better.

Make sure you have the time to swap out the water every day for about a week or two and I would advise getting a test kit as everyone else suggested. This way you know, no guessing involved, and it is easy. It beats explaining why the fish are all gone and when the 4 - 6 weeks are done you will have a relatively maintenance free tanks with wonderful fish that your child and you will love!

Now if I could only by that 300 gal tank...
 
Wow!

Wow! Thanks everyone!!! I was hoping that at least 1 person would answer me and here you all are!I really appreciate the advice and I am thinking seriously about all of the suggestions.One thing that stood out in my mind in particular was Freddy's posts....I though that I had to abide by the 1 inch per gallon rule..thus having a max of 10 inches of fish in this tank.The mollie and the 3 tetras, full grown, would approximate this max.However, when I was younger I had a 10 gallon tank and I had a lot more fish in it....I selected the fish based on where they spend their time, bottom, middle or top and I calculated it that way - allowing 2 fish per level...more if they were very small.Apparently the inch per gallon rule is just a guideline? This has been stressful for us because my daughter is special-needs and there is a limit to what she can understand...this sleepover idea we gave her...well, it's nothing short of amazing that we got her to buy that.So, needless to say, we have to make sure that we do everything right from now on because we know won't be able to pull something like that again.Thank you again everyone!!!What a great group! :)
 
The inch per gallon is a VERY general guideline, and in a lot of cases is worthless!! Mollys can be a bit nippy, and in general aren't the best choice for a 10g, though it might be do-able. I would even be afraid with the neons, given your daughter, they aren't the hardiest of fish. If something were to go wrong, you might consider a few platys. They are colorful, pretty hardy. There is no "reason" to have fish on all levels. It will make the tank look more full, and the fish will not all be competing for the same area of the tank, but it is still no excuse to overstock :o
 
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it's not a guideline, really more of a myth. it's fine if you have small, thin fish like tetras, but when you get bulky fish like mollies or cories that have more mass on shorter bodies, it becomes totally useless. if other fish could be converted into units of neon tetra (i.e. one cory = 3 tetras) then it might work. until then, best to go with less rather than more.
 
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