Choosing Fish

Can you help my 5 year old get off to a good start?

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Hmm. probably not.. but lets try

-- What kinds of fish are good for a community aquarium?

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It depends on the size and type of aquarium you plan to set up. How large is the tank you are buying? Do you want to try and keep live plants?

-- I noticed that Petsmart said that some freshwater fish required aquarium salt while others didn't. How significant is that? Can I mix these fish?

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Some of the fish like mollies and puffers will require salt. I've never kept these fish before, but i'm pretty sure its very important to have the right environment for them. I would reccomend staying away from those fish for your first tank. That way you don't have to worry about compatability, and its also less work. Besides, there aren't that many freshwater fish that need salt, so you will still have alot of options.

Post your tank size up online, and then people can give you suggestions on what kind of stocking schemes would work good for that, and then once you find something you like, stock slowly -- only one kind of fish at a time, then wait a week or so before adding another.. its a pain, but your fish will be much healthier and happier for it.

goodluck

There are lots of combos for what you can do with a 10g, depending on what you want. You say a community tank? Would you like multiple fish such as a school of rasboras or a variety of guppys, or one larger fish like a betta? There are other interesting things you can add, like a snail or shrimp that your 5 yr old might like.

Live bearers such as guppies might work,
Small tetras such as neons, would work,
cherry barbs would work,
rasboras would work (probably not the swordtails as they are larger)
You could get a dwarf gourami and a small group of one of the smaller corys.

As for the salt, there are some fish that are brackish or full salt water that you probably don't want to mess with as they are more work for a beginner. For the majority of freshwater fish, you want to keep salt in the tank only as needed to get rid of ich and such.

To get some ideas of good tank combos for a ten gallon look around the newbie threads and take a look at what other people have suggested. Just remember that it is better to understock then overstock, and to look at the full grown size of the fish when you put them in. Also to remember that fish use different parts of the tank, so don't put in too many that use the same area. In addition, many of the smaller fish are schoolers, and need to be in larger groups, which limits the number of types of fish you can have in the tank. But a school of fish can be fun to watch!

Oh ya.. one more thing- check the yellow pages, or online (plantedtank.net has a forums section with a list of stores for each state) for other fish stores in your area. Petco isn't exactly the most reputable fish dealer, and you most aquarium stores will have a much better selection of fish.

Danios would work too, they come in a wide variety.

I've heard that some danios don't like the 10 gallon tanks, because they like to zip around and don't have enough space to move about. I'm not sure on that one, except to say that you ought to avoid the giant danios, which get (you guessed it!) giant.

oops.. i completely missed the part where you said it was a 10-gallon aquarium. In that case i agree with karna and sarcare above- for a community tank small tetras, rasboras, or danios are definently good bets. You could also consider adding an otocinclus cat- they have alot of personality, and stay pretty small so are perfect for a 10g. (i would only add 1 though so he has plenty of algae to eat).

you may be able to do a dwarf gourami and a small school of white mountain minnows too, although i've heard mixed things on how friendly the dwarf gouramis can be.