Fish questions

[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!!!!