10g

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Chad

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Feb 4, 2003
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Hi all...I'm being given a 10g tank today. Supposedly it is coming with all the stuff (filter, heater, etc...). Anyway, really didn't want a 10g but it's all I'm able to get right now. This will be my first tank and I want to do it right (cycling included).
My question is...what do I stock it with?
I want to make sure I put in a couple of oto's and a couple of shrimp for the cleaning crew. Beyond that, was thinking about zebra danio's. They don't get too big, do they? Can't really find anything in the Species profiles on this site about them.
I have also thought about Neon Tetra's since they are fairly small fish, but aren't they hard to keep for newbie's? I should get a fairly tough fish to start with, dontcha think??
Any other suggestions? I will probably stick to the fake plants for now until I'm more confident in what I am doing.

Thanks in advance!
Chad
 
Danio's will fit into a 10, but may drive you crazy--they are very fast swimmers, alwasy zipping around. In a 10, it may be too much.

A dwarf gouramie and 3-4 small cories (pandas or skunks) would be nice. Or, replace the gouramie with 4-5 cherry barbs.
 
Congrats on your first tank!

First, consider how you will cycle your tank. Cycling your tank refers to establishing a colony of beneficial bacteria that will break down the ammonia that your fish produce as waste into Nitrites and then into nitrates. You have three real main choices here.

Fishless Cycling- Unless, like me, you are horribly impatient this is the method I would recommend. When you fishless cycle you set up your tank but don't put in fish at first. Instead you add small amounts of pure ammonia to the tank daily. The ammonia provides a food source for the bacteria so they can multiply and grow to the numbers needed to sustain the fish you'll be adding.

Fishy Cycling- This is old school and is done by adding only a couple of fish to the tank and allowing their waste to seed the bacteria colony. The big drawback here is that during the cycle the fish will suffer from high amounts of ammonia and nitrites. In fact, you could even lose some fish.

Bio Spira- If you are impatient and want fish right away, this is the way to go. Bio Spira is a little packet of the beneficial bacteria your tank needs. You add it to your tank then drop in all of your fish. The main drawbacks here are that Bio Spira is between $11 and $15 for a dose to treat a 30 gallon tank and sometimes you can get an inneffective batch forcing you to get more.

If you have a freind with an existing healthy tank you can do a poor man's Bio Spira type of cycling by getting some filter material from the existing tank and dropping it into yours.

As far as fish are concerned, danios are great fish to start with. they are hearty and entertaining. You might want to start with a group of four and then look around for other fish. Shrimp won't affect your bio load much and ghost shrimp are generally very cheap. You can get a few of those to help clean up the overfeeding you will almost certainly do at first.

Get a test kit so you can monitor your ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and ph levels. You should be doing this just about daily for the first few weeks. You should also be prepared to do water changes every day while your tank cycles in order to keep the ammonia and nitrite levels down.

A gravel vacuum and a couple of 5 gallon buckets (one for fresh water and one for the old tank water) are invaluable for a 10g tank. You should also test your tap water (let it sit for a while in a cup then test it) so you know what your base is. It ma y test differently in the tank. This will also help you notice if there are any nitrates or ammonia in your tap water.

Well, I guess I went on a little bit there but I know I wish I had been told alot of that before I charged in and started my tank. Good luck!
 
Thanks for the advice all! I like the idea of the cory's. Think I may wait on the danio's until I have a bigger tank!
I was also thinking about platy's. They don't get TOO big (2.5 inches)...maybe 3-4 of those, a couple three small cory's?

I am going to try the fishless cycling. My LFS isn't completely sold on it but doesn't see any harm in it. There is a sticky here somewhere that really details the process so will print it out and keep it handy! I am hoping that the tank I am getting really does come with everything I need so I can spend the money on getting the test kits. The lfs will test it for me but with twin toddlers at home with me it's hard to bring them in all the time!


Chad
 
That is all great advice. Another option on stocking would be any school of 4-5 smaller tetras like neons, glo-lites, black neons, emporer, or silver tip along with some sort of bottom feeder like cories or even khulie loaches.
 
Chad, if you read a couple of my posts, you'll see that I'm almost finished a fishless cycle in a new 10 gallon tank. It's been a month so far and I'm almost done.

I used an ornament from a coworker's tank for starter bacteria and used straight ammonia to cycle the tank because I don't have access to biospira.

I bought both an ammonia test kit and a nitrite test kit. I don't have a nitrate kit yet, but am planning to get one as my cycle is almost complete. It's been interesting to watch as the levels change over the cycle. I also think it's worth it to have the kits so that you can test the water periodically to prevent problems.

I'm a real newbie at this, so take my advice for what it's worth, which may not be much. :)
 
Another question - if I remember correctly, don't Platy's need a little salt in their water? If this is true, will this affect the cory's at all?
Dang, I wish I could find where I saw the part about salt. I know I read that somewhere!

Anne, how long did you keep the ornament in there? Did you just keep it or use it for a few weeks then give it back? I have a friend that keeps fish and I could probably borrow one from him.

Thanks!
Chad
 
Platies do not need salt. they live perfectly fine in plain fresh water. 3-4 will be great in a 10 gallon tank. Becareful when choosing them to get mostly females or all females. Too many males will fight for females attentions. Of course they may also begin breeding quite a bit as well. They are a colourful fun fish though and I enjoy mine.

some people think live bearers need salt but only mollies are brackish water and they still live fine in fresh. Liev Bearers tend to like hard water but for platies pretty much anything goes.
 
Originally posted by Chad
Anne, how long did you keep the ornament in there? Did you just keep it or use it for a few weeks then give it back? I have a friend that keeps fish and I could probably borrow one from him.
Click to expand...

Any underwater surface from a mature aquarium will be well populated with the desired bacteria. The greater the surface area, the greater the population, so a handful of gravel might be better than an ornament. You can keep the gravel in a nylon-mesh bag if you want to give it back (or if it doesn't match your gravel).

As to duration on either the gravel or an ornament, the longer the better, to a point. Even just a quick dip, or overnight would get you started, but the population will grow faster if all of the bacteria on the ornament get to reproduce for a couple of weeks. After a couple of weeks, the bacteria in your own aquarium will be going strong enough that your giving the ornament back won't make much difference.

Sorry to jump in, just putting in my two cents :)
 
Chad, I've still got the ornament in there (about 3 weeks) but I'll be giving it back fairly soon.

If you can get a cupful of gravel or so from a friend, that would even be better. I couldn't do that because my friend didn't have a lot of gravel to start with for some reason.

It seems to have worked, though.

Good luck - this place has walked me through the fishless cycle and I have had absolutely no experience with aquariums at all.

Kudos to this forum and its participants - what a fabulous resource.
 
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