Excited 11yo and new 10g tank

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weldon

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Jan 7, 2006
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I'm trying to help my son out with his new tank. I'd appreciate any advice you have for a total beginner.

Our 11 year old got a new 10 gallon fish tank for Christmas from Nana and Papa and Uncle. It's a TopFin 10 gallon freshwater starter kit. We added 15lbs of gravel (no undergravel filter), some fake plants, and a castle (very exciting for the 11yo). We treated the water with aquasafe and added stresszyme to try and jumpstart the cycle. The kit came with a TopFin 10 filter (with a charcoal bag) and a heater. I tried to explain that we needed to wait for the nitrogen cycle to get going in the tank.

That lasted about 4 days and then we had to get some fish.

So we added two leopard danios and let them have the tank to themselves for a week. We used the biocoat right before the fish went into the tank. A week later, we did a 25% water change (with some light gravel vacuuming) and then added 2 more danios. Right now we've got all 4 leopard danios hanging out but the tank is only two weeks old.

I haven't been testing every day, but the pH has been locked at 8.0 or so. Nitrites have been zero, Ammonia was .25 with the two fish, but has climbed to .50 two days after the 3rd and 4th fish were added. Nitrates are at 20ppm today. I've been testing the water with Mardel 5-in-1 test strips and Mardel Ammonia test strips.

I'm going to help do a water change right after this post to try and bring these levels down.

Our plan at this point is to wait another two weeks and add a single Dwarf Gourami. Here are my questions...

Do we need to add more leopard danios to make them happy? Do they really need 5 or 6? They seem to zip around all the time (which I guess is normal for Danios) and I don't see them "schooling" per se.

I saw a dwarf cory (bottom dweller) in the LFS today (see I'm learning the lingo already after browsing the newbie forum for an hour or two). Can we add one of those to the tank as well?

Any guidance on how much food to give them? Is one or two "big" flakes enough for each fish to eat each day? We usually break them up and drop in a couple tiny bits at a time so less floats down to the bottom of the tank. Everyone seems to be getting some food, but there is one fish that is definitely more aggressive than the rest.

Any other small fish that do well in singles?

You can see some (really poor) pictures of the tank at http://www.flickr.com/photos/42071162@N00/sets/1786220/

Thanks!
 
Well before you start really filling the tank up wait for the cycle to complete which will take about a month with the fishload you have. Once both your ammonia and nitrites test at 0.0 without having to do a waterchange, you know that the cycle is done. Right now your main goal is to keep ammonia at 0.25 or lower and Nitrites at 0.5 or lower. The ammonia will go to 0.0 first which could take 11 or so days to happen. Then the Nitrite will fall to 0 2-3 weeks later. While you wait for this to happen, you and your son can go and research fish that won't grow too large (neon tetra, guppies, cherry barbs, gold barbs ...) The dwarf gourami will grow to about 4 inches or so so you are already limited on space. Good luck and welcome to these forums.
 
that is a really pretty looking tank, but id wait before adding new fish, the cycling process takes about a month where the ammonia spikes, untill the amonia fixing bateria grow, these produce nitrates (or nitrites i forgot which came first) then those bacteria grow to make the other chemical (nitrates or nitrites), each is less toxic than the one that came before.. so if a fish dies early, then dont be surprised. just keep doing water changes and testing the water. also for lots of really helpfull information, visit the article section and read up, the ICH article is extreamly helpful as you will probably run into ich oneday... also if you want to know more about ur dianos, google them or search them in the forems or species list. also dont worry about the dominate fish, this usually happens in schools, one fish dominates and one is the smallest, its the chain of command. it seems that u are feeding ok, much better than i do.. hence my snail population being high... although i dont have all the answers that u need, this site does as do others, so utilise them as much as u can!
 
First off...
Congrats to the kiddo on the tank. I was excited when i bought my first one, too :)

Danios are very active. They aren't neccessarily schoolers, but they do like the company of other danios. If you do get other fish, make sure they dont have long, pretty fins. They won't be long and pretty for long. Danios can be fin nippers, and there isn't much you can do about it.

Dwarf gouramis are ok as community fish. I bought some under the impression they are as peaceful as they come. That is a very wrong myth that goes around, at least in this area. If you get one, stick with one. They tend to be quite aggressive towards other dwarf gouramis.

Moving on. Cories like to be in schools. And a 10 is way too small for a school of cories. Unless they are truely dwarf of pygmy cories. I really haven't ever seen them for sale, but you may actually be talking about pygmy cories, in which case, you could get a school of them. They stay small, about 1".

Other fish that do well in singles... Well, there aren't too many I can think of off the top of my head. That would do well in a 10. Have you thought of a female betta? they can come in gorgeous colors, and their fins aren't as long and tempting as males.

You do have the right idea of waiting a couple weeks. Props on that, most people dont have the paitence to wait.
 
rrkss said:
The dwarf gourami will grow to about 4 inches or so so you are already limited on space. Good luck and welcome to these forums.
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We sat down and had the talk about waiting for the tank to be ready before we add the gourami, or any other fish. It was a lot easier than some of the other "talks" we have had recently. ;) We'll keep checking the water chemistry.

The Red Dwarf Gourami we were looking at had a sign at the store that said it grew to about 2 or 2-1/2 inches.
 
Lobo. said:
that is a really pretty looking tank, but id wait before adding new fisht
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Thanks! My son picked out everything, but I helped a little with arrangement.

We're trying to be patient and wait for the cycle to complete before we add more fish.
 
TYPO said:
Dwarf gouramis are ok as community fish. If you get one, stick with one.
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That's what we were thinking to do. Just get one red dwarf gourami (about 2", I think).

Moving on. Cories like to be in schools. And a 10 is way too small for a school of cories. Unless they are truely dwarf of pygmy cories. I really haven't ever seen them for sale, but you may actually be talking about pygmy cories, in which case, you could get a school of them. They stay small, about 1".
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The ones at the LFS here were tiny. About the same size as a neon tetra. Definitely an inch or less. I was hoping a single catfish might do well with the other fish in our tank. The ones in the store weren't schooling, but I'll talk your word that they prefer that arrangement.

Other fish that do well in singles... Well, there aren't too many I can think of off the top of my head. That would do well in a 10. Have you thought of a female betta? they can come in gorgeous colors, and their fins aren't as long and tempting as males.
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We'll look at those. We have a male in a bowl right now. Will the Danios bother a fish with such long fins?

You do have the right idea of waiting a couple weeks. Props on that, most people dont have the paitence to wait.
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It's asking a lot of a young kid, but I'm trying to use it as a means to teach him about water chemistry and the nitrogen cycle (I'm learning too, just trying to stay a chapter ahead of the class as I teach).
 
The cories at the pet store are still young and will get much bigger. Get at least 3 for the tank, spotted ones stay a bit smaller as do panda cories. They really are very sad fish without friends and while they don't "school" they do hang out together.
 
danios are too active for a 10 gallon tank. they'll be alright, but it wasn't the best choice. they need more room to swim usually.

dwarf gouramis get 2-3 inches long. i have a red honey dwarf gourami that is only 2 inches and they almost never get bigger than that in captivity. one dwarf gourami, especially a honey, will be fine for a 10 gallon. just make sure you cycle the tank completely.

cories need to be in schools. i wouldn't bother with them for a 10 gallon.

and you can fill your tank up more. you can fill it up to the black strip at the top or higher. i keep mine about 1/2" above it. it makes it so you can't hear the filter at all, and provides a little more room for swimming.
 
I realize it can be tempting to run out and stock a tank.

I did that when I got my first tank 12 years ago (big mistake)

Anyway.....

Your son did a great job landscaping that tank!
 
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