ok some help please

[Rufio]

i have a 10 gallon tank right now
nothing in it except

1 golden platy
1 black molly
1 blood red tetra
1 neon
2 small sucker fish
1 zebrafish
1 glassfish


i heard that neons like to be in groups of 6.. would it be to much if i added 5 more neons?

[dwayne]

1 golden platy
1 black molly
1 blood red tetra
1 neon
2 small sucker fish
1 zebrafish
1 glassfish

Hi there. As it is, your tank is overcrowded, so don't get anymore fish...

I have a few questions, to help me determine your situation:
Are these fish all newly purchased? What I mean is, can you take a few back to the store?
Do you have another tank?
If you don't have another tank, you should take some back to the store, if they're newly purchased. Which ones are your favorites?

Here's my reasoning:

Neons, and even the blood tetra and maybe even the glassfish (I'm not sure?), like to be in groups of at least 5 or 6. If by zebrafish you mean a zebra danio, then they are also a schooling fish.

You could keep a school of 10 neons in that 10 gallon, as long as you keep up w/ the water changes. Neons aren't a bulky fish.

The sucker fish (assuming a pleco??) need at least a 20 gallon for one. They get pretty big.

~Tara

[Rufio]

hmm odd there seems to be plenty of space in the tank ... and i had all these fish in a 2 gallon for nearly 1 week with no problems

how do they keep them at the lfs.. they have like 30 neons in a 5 gallon tank

[Rufio]

also maybe you could reccomend some fairly large fish .. i would be willing to take out all of these fish and replace them for some larger nicer fish

[dwayne]

Rufio ~

The lfs can keep a lot of fish in such small tanks because they don't plan to keep the fish long term... and I think their filtering systems help a lot too. The reason there seemed to be a lot of room in the tank is because (I assume) the fish you got aren't fully grown yet. Take into account their adult size, and also you don't want to overdo the bioload.

2 good ideas for a 10 gallon (in my opinion!:) ):

School of 6 neons & 2 cories (cories are 'scavengers' and tend to stay at the bottom eating up whatever food the others leave behind) Cories are pretty fun to watch too, scurrying around etc...

1 Betta fish and 3 or 4 cories (bettas are so pretty!!)

There really aren't any 'big' fish that I can think of that you can put in a 10 gallon. Maybe one pleco fish, but they're pretty boring and tend to hide alot. Dwarf gouramis are cool fish, but I don't think you can keep more than one in a 10 gallon (they'll go after each other). I'm sure someone else on the board can give you a good suggestion!!!

You could keep your molly and platy, and add 1 or 2 more into the tank... that would be pushing the bioload a bit, but as long as you kept up w/ water changes I don't see a problem, as they don't tend to get very big/bulky.

Good luck!!
~Tara

[snakeskinner]

depending on the "sucker fish", I don't think you are overly overcrowded but you are prettymuch maxed out. These "sucker fish", are they skinny green, black or gold? or are they large headed, rough bodied and brown? Does the word Pleco or Plecostomus sound like what you have? If so, these fish reach over a foot long and definitely overload the tank. If they are the smaller type, you might be ok but even some of those get several inches long. I definitely wouldn't add any more fish at this time, maybe you could set up a second tank and split the group to add some more of the schooling fish. what type of filter do you have? Lots of filtration helps to keep big problems down, regular water changes and vacuuming are also a good idea. are you firmiliar with cycling a tank? if not, read the "sticky" posts at the top of this forum and get firmiliar with how the nitrogen cycle works as well as basic aquarium maintenance. It sounds very complicated and hard work but trust me, it's much easier in the long run as well as cheaper. Kyle

[Hound]

Just to answer the question of LFS stocking a bunch of fish in a small space. In general quite a few LFS and LPS don't care if a dozen dither type fish die each day. The profit they make from the live ones along with tanks, chemicals, and fish food more than make up for a few dead neon tetras.

The other end of the equation is that people who keep fish as a hobby usually don't like losing a few fish every week. That is why you don't normally go into someones home and see them keeping oscars in 10g tanks. For a 10g you are generally best off with a small school of small fish or one fish in the 3" range with some small scavengers.

[Rufio]

the plecos are black and gold

how about some angel fish ?

[snakeskinner]

if they are plecos then get rid of them. no on the angels, they get 7" and need lots of vertical space. a 10 gallon doesn't provide either fish with enough room. 10 gallons aren't the best setup for fish choices but there are several you can choose from. I have 2 10 gallons, one is a dwarf puffer tank, the other started out as a quarentine tank but turned into a snail/guppy breeder. Kyle