Fish questions

[3muttsandaboston]

My friend gave me a tank she was no longer using. She gave me a heater, filter, gravel, decorations, and a thermometer. The tank is 10 gallons. I was just wondering what types of fish you recommend. I haven't owned fish in a long time. How many fish can I keep in a 10 gallon? I know I want a betta, what types of fish can be kept with betas? Thanks for any help in advance! :D

[Christmas_Hamster]

There are lots of choices even for a little 10 gallon!

If you want to go with a betta you will have to try and find a mellow one. Not all bettas get along with other fish. Three or four cory cats would do well with one betta. Or three or four Oto Fish. Oto fish are small algae eaters and cory cats are small bottom feeders. For way more information may I suggest www.petfish.net/forum

[IRescue452]

First you need to cycle the tank. Going through the cycle first will vastly reduce the deaths of any fish. You will need a liquid test kit for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. No dry test strips because the chemicals on the strips start to degrade as soon as the package is opened and the strips exposed to the air. This causes faulty tests. Here is a site about the cycle. http://www.aquariumadvice.com/article_view.php?faq=2&fldAuto=21

Bettas can do well with several species. The problem is that most species like to nip fins, and the male betta's fins are exceptionally tantilizing. Possible tankmates include platies and swordtails, black skirt tetras, buenos aires tetras, diamond tetras, cories, kuhli loaches, and rasboras.

Most little fish are schooling fish. A well-stocked tank might be 3-4 livebearers or tetras + 3-4 cories or loaches + one betta. In such a small tank, stocking the fish all at once shouldn't throw off the cycle much once its established.

[3muttsandaboston]

What would your suggestion be then for a 10 gallon community tank without a betta?

[Alysser]

You can keep certain tetras. I have a 3 gallon tank and I kept 3 neon tetras in it. Cory's are wonderful bottom feeders and they are very good with other fish, very mellow. I have two cuties. You can also get 1 or two goldfish. 10 gallons has many options and it's a wonderfully sized tank.

[3muttsandaboston]

Thanks. I love cories I used to have 3 albino ones when I had my old tank. I had one with one eye who I named pirate. lol Cories are a definate for me I love them. I have also had tetras, danios, mollies, and many others in the past. I just can't decide right now what I want. What about shrimp, frogs and other small un fishlike species what types of animals can live with fish?

[Alasse]

Personally i would not keep goldfish in a 10gal...way too small for the dirty little beasties *L*

Cories, Khulis, Platys, Guppies, Swordtails, Dwarf Gouramis, Rams, Most of the smaller tetras would be suitable & Danios.

A planted shrimp tank would look awesome, there are some really beautiful shrimp available (not so much here in Aus though :( )

For a betta, the only thing i'd put with them is cories, bristlenose cats or khulis.

[3muttsandaboston]

I think I have decided on what I want. 2 cories, 4 zebra danios of the long finned type or some other small species of fish, and 2 Ghost shrimp How does this sound. None of these will eat each other and they will get along right? Is it too overcrowded? I think for my cycling fish I will get the danios and later add the ghost shrimp and cories is that a good idea? Or should I get the cories first? How many days before I get my cycling fish? I have read different answers on every website I visit. Thanks for all the help so far!

[Alysser]

As I said, you have many options. I've never had a mixture of shrimp and fish, before if that's what you mean. I only have an ecosphere which only houses shrimp that I got a Brookestone. Also, the only frogs I know of that are able to be in water their entire lives are African dwarf frogs:
http://allaboutfrogs.org/info/species/pn3_clawed_frog_t.jpg

Great webpage on them:
http://allaboutfrogs.org/info/species/clawedordwarf.html

Now the shrimp I have are red shrimp, and they are in a specially built tank that you cannot open. You must keep the tank in sunlight(not direct) so algae will grow and that's what they eat. Plus, they are microscopic basically. :p :rolleyes:

Here's a good shrimp webpage on LARGER varieties you can put in a tank:
http://www.petshrimp.com/shrimpspecies.html

Now, I don't know if you can keep shrimp with fish, because that's not something I have looked into. My shrimp are Red Shrimp, here's a picture of Davey Jones:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v708/bobbernut/IMGP2726.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v708/bobbernut/IMGP2728.jpg
They are very tiny, too take these shots I had to use SUPER macro and then zoom in on the computer program.

Sorry for the rambling..I am glad you are interested in Cories though! I love those fish. Good luck with your tank and when you decide on the fish take plenty of pictures!

ETA: SORRY, I posted this after you decided! I'm glad you chose what you did, I think they are a great choice. Now, I'll see if I can find any answers to your questions, because I am not sure if Shrimp and Fish get along well. I am sure you don't have to worry about Cory's and Ghost shrimp though, Cory's are bred to be docile towards other critters in their environment.(or at least that's what the lady at Petco told me.)

[3muttsandaboston]

I will be sure to take plenty of fish. Ghost shrimp can grow up to two inches and can be kept with small gentle fish who of course aren't big enough to eat them. I believe a zebra danio would be good with them.
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=1468
http://www.poseidonsrealm.com/GlassShrimp.jpg
http://eccentric.cx/wordpress/images/20050226/ghost_shrimp1.jpg

[Alysser]

I think I have decided on what I want. 2 cories, 4 zebra danios of the long finned type or some other small species of fish, and 2 Ghost shrimp How does this sound. None of these will eat each other and they will get along right? Is it too overcrowded? I think for my cycling fish I will get the danios and later add the ghost shrimp and cories is that a good idea? Or should I get the cories first? How many days before I get my cycling fish? I have read different answers on every website I visit. Thanks for all the help so far!

From this article on Zebra danios, I am sure they will be fine with each other:

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/fishspecies/l/aa060799.htm

Tankmates
Virtually any peaceful community fish is suitable as a tankmate for zebras. Because they naturally live in schools, it's wise to keep at least a half dozen of them together. They will readily school with other varieties of danios, and other similarly sized schooling fish such as the white cloud mountain minnow. I've had mixed schools of two dozen or more danios and white clouds, and they do very well.

I don't think that's overcrowded at all. Ten gallons is pretty big. When we got our tank, which was in June, we cycled for 3 days, but I would cycle for a week and I learned that the hard way. One of the fish died within hours after bringing it home(a neon tetra).

I also found this article on stocking a ten gallon tank:
http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/qa/f/faq0016.htm

Now speaking of tank it's time to go clean mine out. Gary isn't going to be happy, but anyway, I hope I helped you and whatever you decide I know you will make the right decision. Best of luck!

[3muttsandaboston]

Thanks everyone for your advice. I can't wait to have fish in there now that I have it all set up. I haven't had a tank in about 2 years and have really missed it.

[IRescue452]

You might want 4 cories. They will be much more active.
I would get the danios right away if you are using them to start the cycle. Then wait at least until your nitrites start to spike before adding the cories. Wait until the tank is fully cycled before the shrimp. I don't know if the danios will pick at the shrimp. They are nippers.

[3muttsandaboston]

Well we are going tomorrow to get some fish. I can't wait. It looks so pretty sitting there but will look so much better with fish in it. Thanks for all your advice so far!

[Christmas_Hamster]

How have you got it cycled so fast?

[IRescue452]

I believe the cycle is being done with fish. The water will need to be monitored everyday. Its only a few very tiny fish I think, so it won't be hard to keep everything running smoothly without harming the fish.

[3muttsandaboston]

Yes i'm cycling with fish. Which shouldn't take long or be that bad since the tank was used by my friend until the day I got it when we gave her pleco away and dumped it out when I got home I refilled it. I have decided on some different things after visiting a fish forum and i'm getting some fish tomorrow.
4 Platys
3 pygmy cory cats
2 sparkling gourami
5 ghost shrimp
and perhaps an otto

[IRescue452]

You'll want to get a male and female sparkling gourami, they are just like bettas. I do hope you've got plenty of hiding spaces for a lone female. Forget the otto, I discourage anybody from getting only one of a schooling species. They really are pitiful in a tank all by themselves, especially if you've seen the way they act in groups.
If the filter was kept wet the whole time between your houses, and it wasn't changed, there is a chance some of the bacteria survived. But it won't have had any "food" in the days that the tank was empty, unless you fed the empty tank. Lots of people feed empty tanks to keep the bacteria alive.

[3muttsandaboston]

She had a pleco which she fed in there the whole time. We gave him to her uncle since he was about 8 inches and way too big for the tank. I will skip out on the otto then thanks for the info.

[IRescue452]

What I meant was putting food in the tank while it was empty. If you continue to run the filter and put food in the tank, the bacteria has a better chance of survival. Do you know how many days it was between her giving away the fish and you getting the tank and filling it up?

[3muttsandaboston]

We gave the fish away on sunday. I brought the tank home on monday so it has been about 5 days since there has been a fish.

[IRescue452]

Do you have the filter plugged in so there's plenty of oxygen getting to the bacteria?

[3muttsandaboston]

Yeah I have the filter and heater plugged in and have since the day I got it on monday.

[IRescue452]

That's good. The more you keep everything running like normal, the less bacteria you'll lose.

[SaveThePoundDogs]

Kuhli loaches are reallly interested, and some flashy guppies would be great for a 10 gallon. But you can't keep a betta with flashy fishes, or long finned fishes because the betta will nip at them & you cannot keep nippy fishes in the tank becuase they will rip the bettas' fins.

[Genny]

I don't know what kinds of fish you have or are getting but I have had ghost shrimp in with goldfish and corries before; they got along fine together. I had the ghost shrimp for about 5 months. I just LOVE the corries though!

[3muttsandaboston]

Thank you, my dwarf gourami just snapped on my ghost shrimp one day and killed 4 of them. I put the remainder in with my betta and he is leaving them alone.

[Genny]

oh no, that's so sad! Those kinds of fish can be aggressive kind of like angel fish can be some times. So you only have one ghost left now? Did you say you got some of the little frogs? if you did then how did they do w/ the little shrimp?? because I just figured they would eat them.

[3muttsandaboston]

The shrimp are bigger than the frogs but they don't live together anymore so it doesn't matter I guess. My dwarf gourami is very gentle with other fish he just doesn't like shrimp I guess. I had 10 ghost shrimp so I now have 6 left.

[Genny]

oh ok cool... I use to have a male and a female gourami (sp???) but the male was mean to the female so I had to separate them. i have 3 grey corries right now and 2 spotted ones...very very sweet fish i just love mine!!!!