Newbie here!

[muttmama]

Hey everyone, I'm new to this forum and to aquariums as well. I just got a 10 gallon kit from walmart (i know its not the best, but for now it will have to do).

What I REALLY wanted was a 29 Gal, but i can't since I'm renting in an older house and the landlord really doesn't think the floor can support all the weight.

So I figure this 10 Gal will either make me love fish or hate em :) lol (not really, but at last it will make me decide wether or not I enjoy the hobby enough to invest big money for it)

So I've been reading alot the past few weeks about fishless cycle, and stocking guidelines, i think i'm pretty informed already about that, I'm still not sure what I'd like to stock in my tank, but for now, I'm taking my time, and not even gonna bother putting anything together yet. If there's one thing I don't lack, it's patience.

Someone told me that I HAD to get a bottom feeder/sucker fish/pleco/catfish or something along those line in my tank. Why? is it really necessary? It's only going to lower the amount of other fish I could possibly have. I don't have any interest in any of these at the moment, I'd like a bristlenose Pleco, but not till I get a bigger tank. (maybe in a year or so) With the amount of fish I could have in a 10 gal, is it really necessary? I do understand the benefits, but for a 10 gal with only a few fish, would it make that much difference?

Any suggestions?

[RockabillyChick]

really, so long as you don't mind cleaning the tank of algae and dropped food, no, you don't need a bottom feeder or algae eater. i never had any in my 10 gallon. i had a lot of algae, but it scrubs off, and my other fish nibbled on it a bit too.

in my new 20 gallon long, i'm going to have a few otos to eat algae because it does get to be a bit of a pain trying to scrub it all off the plants and the walls and the wood and the gravel........

[mishi8]

No, you don't need a bottom feeder, and, quite frankly, a 10 gal is too small to house many of them anyway. If you were to choose to get a critter to eat algae, you can consider otocinculus, shrimp (amano for example), a snail (zebra snail is a good choice), etc. However, even those are not necessary. :)

[muttmama]

i thought snails reproduced quite rapidly and were a pain to get rid of? how big does a Zebra Snail get?

[Pufferpoison]

get a mystery snail, their a little bigger than most, but if they do reproduce, you can sell them to the petstore, which im' sure you won't have to worry about with them as much as some of the pest snails. they are very cool to watch also.

[mishi8]

i thought snails reproduced quite rapidly and were a pain to get rid of? how big does a Zebra Snail get?

It's a Nerite snail (neritina natalensis) and only eats algae, not plants, plus cannot reproduce in freshwater. I have two in my 20 gal...apparently they are male and female, because they keep mating and producing eggs, but the eggs don't hatch (they lay eggs on the glass, gravel and decorations...look like white sesame seeds.) I've read they get about 2cm (0.78 inches) inches big, although I've got one that is around 1 inch...and they grow slowly. They are excellent algae eaters, because of them I never have to scrape the glass clean. :)

[stingray4540]

I wouldn't worry about the weight of the tank too much, in the future. Figure about 10lbs per gallon, so a 29 gallon would weigh roughly 300lbs. That's like less than two full grown men standing next to each other. Can two people stand next to each other in your house and not fall through the floor? If so then you should be fine. Also, when worried about weight, get a cabinet stand rather than a 4 legged stand to distribute the weight better.

[muttmama]

Thanks guys, I still think I'll wait until we get our own place to go bigger, then I'll be able to use this tank as a breeding tank/fry tank (assuming that I continue to obsess over fishies...which I probably will :) )

So getting a snail sounds like a plan, that should be ok with 1 male Betta right? I think that might be the extent of this tank....

1 betta
1 snail
maybe a few ghost shrimp?

does that sound ok?

[Emg]

Sounds good Mom.....you can add some shrimp, that would be fine and they'll help eat up leftover food that drops to the bottom.

You know, cories are a nice bottom feeding fish...you could get by with 2 of the smaller variety in there and they'll keep the bottom nice and tidy. You have to have at least 2 in a tank...more is better but I've kept just two together and they do fine.

Don't get discouraged right off the bat with your tank...you'll probably have an algae issue at some point and things will be a bit unsettled for awhile...but once it settles in all that should clear up.

My daughter has a 10 in her room with 5 guppies and 2 cories. All fake decorations....it was a few months of scrubbing algae everytime she did a cleaning...but after a few months all that cleared up and now that thing is trouble free ! Actually, it's been setup now for about 2 years.

There's a nice crop of some kind of carpet algae on the top of the rock decoration which looks alot like grass. The guppies actually sleep on it...lol..and I imagine it helps to suck up nutrients, so we leave it there. It looks pretty cool and it's the only algae in the whole tank. Even the glass stays nice and clean !
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y82/morroman/emgfishpics/th_DSC02296.jpg (http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y82/morroman/emgfishpics/DSC02296.jpg)

[muttmama]

do you mean 2 corys and a betta and a snail?
or just 2 corys?
Sorry, i just wanna make sure that i never overstock or put something really incompatible...trying to do this right :)

[Emg]

A betta...2 cories...and a snail if you want one will be fine in a 10gallon...even toss a few shrimp in if you want. Just go slow with the stocking...I would suggest not adding the betta until it's cycled. Hmm..start with the cories I think....and get some shrimp, put them in a smaller tank with an airstone for now..and a cover..lol..don't want any escapees. That way you can quarenteen them and also give the tank a chance to cycle some before adding them. I don't think shrimp will do well through a cycle...

The cories and the betta will get along fine. Just be sure there is plenty of plants/rocks or stuff for them to hide in if they feel the need. Silk plants with the betta. Their fins can get tattered from plastic plants and the silk ones look nicer anyway...a bit more pricey though.

[muttmama]

Awesome thanks! I'm really getting excited over this, I can't wait, within a few weeks I'll have bought all my needed supplies(list seems to be getting bigger and bigger lol) then I'll start my cycle, when thats ready it'll be fish time! yay :dance:

[mishi8]

At one point I had 4 platies, an amano shrimp and a zebra snail in my 10 gal, and it worked well. The shrimp was fun to watch, and the snail kept everything sparkling clean. :) Oh, and the platies did have fry, but they were gobbled up pretty quickly, :eek: so the 10 never became overstocked.

[RockabillyChick]

in a 10 gallon with a betta and a snail, you could actually do a small school of tetras as well, or a school of small-species cories (pandas or something) and ghost shrimp don't add hardly anything to the bioload so you could have a few of them as well, though the betta may eat them depending on his personality.

in my 10 gallon i started with a honey gourami (related to betas and about the same size) and 6 glowlight tetras and my tank was totally fine. weekly water changes and all my perameters were perfect. they're now all in a 20 gallon and im in the process of adding more fish (a school of black neons and a few otos, and possibly 2 female gouramis)

[Gumby131]

get 2 cories a betta and 2 guppies (male and a female)

[Gumby131]

oh and a couple of shrimp, you can pick these up by going to a large body of water in the early hours of the morning

[Emg]

guppies and betta may not do well together....it's the fin thing....the bettas sometimes mistake those pretty boy guppies for other male bettas...and well, it could get messy...lol...

But, I have heard some folks who have guppies and betta together with no problem. It's just something to think about when deciding.

[stingray4540]

What about this?
1 male betta
2 panda cories
some amano shrimp
1 snail
a small group of white clouds
cories will do good cleaning up left over food, and the amano shrimp and snail will take care of algea. And the white clouds are my personal favorite small schooling fish, they are very hardy and pretty and they actually school.

[mishi8]

oh and a couple of shrimp, you can pick these up by going to a large body of water in the early hours of the morning


Not sure where muttmama lives, but I know I can't just pick up a couple of shrimp around here. Besides, you'd want to be careful what kids of shrimp you get...they need to be able to live in fresh water, and you don't want them eating your fish. :p:

[Gumby131]

muttmama eh? whats that mean?
the shrimp i get are down in an irragation channel and the biggest ones i have ever seen are about 1 and a half inches long. so the dont even bother the angle fish fry i have in my tank they just sit around eating slime and shi*

[muttmama]

thanks everyone! i think i'm gonna go with the betta, 2 corys, and of course a snail :)

grumby131 - my name means i'm owned by a yellow lab mix... so shes a mutt, and is my furkid :)


i'm so excited! as for the shrimp, only bodies of water are SW, so i'm guessing thats useless... oh well

[Pufferpoison]

get some ghost shimp, usually they are 2 for a buck or cheaper, really really good cleaners and fun to watch. you can add like a dozen in a 10 gallon no problem, and if your betta eats them, he's got a cheap treat, but they get smart pretty quick. i have 3 in my 29G brackish water tank with a puffer and a mono and they have lived for a month w/o being eaten. but they know when to come out and when to hide :)

[fIsHy13]

Get mollies

[Gumby131]

ohhhh muttmama