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Apart from over feeding fish, misjudging the tank’s nitrogen cycle is the biggest killer of fish with hobby aquarists.
What generally happens is the nitrogen cycle stalls, due to a lack of beneficial bacteria, this causes a buildup of ammonia and can be lethal for your fish.
When fish create waste, it causes a buildup of ammonia inside the tank. Your beneficial bacteria then brakes down this ammonia and create nitrite.
Unfortunately nitrite is also toxic to your fish, so again the beneficial bacteria are needed to break down the nitrite into nitrate.
At this point when the nitrate levels spike you then need to perform a water change as the beneficial bacteria cannot breakdown nitrate.
What you see in this cycle is a spike and decline in ammonia, then nitrite and finally nitrate.
It’s your job to ensure this cycle is maintained and continues through beneficial bacteria and water changes.