First tank!

[miguelitro]

Well I decided that my Kindergarten Class needed some life so a fish tank was the choice(I allways wanted one for myself!) Someone gave me a 10 gal and another teacher's fiance is a distributer of aquarium stuff so i got the 2 filters( one of which stopped working one day and I started the other before I figured out that I could fix the first) which make a very soothing waterfal noise. I allways wanted a Pleco so after cycling the tank i got the standard and one Koi, then another Koi, and then the shark catfish and the decorative pleco. The children love the tank and are really responsible with it, they even learned to stand back a bit when looking in so that they don't scare the fish!
I am only hoping that nothing out grows the tank before the end of school in June! I dont think the Koi will make it 'cuz they are getting huge!

Any suggestions?
Comments?
Thanks
Miguelitro

 

[OrionGirl]

You'll need to figure out what you're going to do with the fish when they out grow the tank.

Did you cycle the tank? Testing parameters?

Koi get up to 24 inches and live for 30+ years--do you have a long term plan for them? They should not be released into a waterway, but rather need someone's backyard pond.

Shark cats a will need to go into brackish before long.

Standard pleco's get to 18 inches--way too big for a 10.

The "decorative" pleco sounds like a clown pleco.

 

[TKOS]

If I were you I would use platies instead of koi or goldfish. They have great colours, are fun to watch and stay nice and small for a 10 gallon tank.

And just remember, though they aren't actually sharks, anything labelled as a shark will be too big for anythign less than a four foot long tank.

 

[miguelitro]

Yeah, I have a pond lined up for the Koi, and well I don't know what I will do with the cats, maybe I will have to get a large tank for home, Any ideas on plecos in ponds?
Had my water tested at the local lfs and they said i was normal(the water anyways)
I was told that the cats would be fine in fresh water for at least nine months and then would need increasing salt, i'll have to research the brackish thing!

I'll check out some platies when the koi outgrow the tank.

 

[TKOS]

If you don't know about the nitrogen cycle and how it works in a tank then I suggest you read the stickies in the newbie forum. Great info there. Also I would get at least your won ammonia and nitrite test kit and with those fish in there test daily to see if the levels of ammonia and nitriet are climbing. If ammonia gets above 2ppm or nitrite above 0.25 ppm then do a big enough water change to get them down. This may mean daily water changes or even twice daily in the beginning but the fish will be much better off.