Son's new 10g has been up for about 3 weeks. Ammonia, etc. levels are all normal. Starting to see a little haze on the glass. Stocked with 1 black goldfish, 1 albino catfish, 1 tiger barb, and three guppies. Read somewhere that snails can keep the algae down. What is your experience. I've seen everything from "Bowl Buddies" to "Algae Eaters". Need advice, please.
Snail or no snail?
- Thread starter jamie1972
- Start date
Also, your tank is over stocked 
The goldfish (sounds like a black moore) needs approx 20g just for him. Your tiger barb is a schooling fish so he needs two more friends at least however, your tank doesn't have the room Maybe take either the guppies or tiger barb back (tiger barbs are aggressive and you may wake up one day to dead guppies). Your albino cory cat needs at minimum 2 more of his kind as he is a schooling fish as well. I would take the tiger barb back and the goldfish, get 2 more cory cats, keep your guppies, and call it at that. 
That sure will help keep a nice clean tank and happy fish
The goldfish (sounds like a black moore) needs approx 20g just for him. Your tiger barb is a schooling fish so he needs two more friends at least however, your tank doesn't have the room Maybe take either the guppies or tiger barb back (tiger barbs are aggressive and you may wake up one day to dead guppies). Your albino cory cat needs at minimum 2 more of his kind as he is a schooling fish as well. I would take the tiger barb back and the goldfish, get 2 more cory cats, keep your guppies, and call it at that. That sure will help keep a nice clean tank and happy fish What?! We "graduate" the goldfish to my parents' coy pond when they grow to a few inches long. And how do you know that a "schooling" fish isn't just fine without others of his kind? Does someone here practice Fishy Psychoanalysis? lol (no offense intended, some of us take this hobby WAY too seriously)
But it makes me sad to hear about a single tiger barb being kept with other fish, sad for the barb and the other fishes it will torment because it lacks companionship. Tiger barbs are fun and active, but they really need to be with others to play the way they like, and they nip nip nip, everything that goes in the tank, including my arms. They are not schooling fish in the way that some others are, but they need to be kept in groups (or in a species only tank) to save the rest of your fish. It isn't psychology so much as common sense and experience.
rwspear76
American By Birth,Soldier By Choice
Look, if you dont want the advice, dont ask here, go to your LFS where they will tell you anything to get you to buy a fish, and then maybe you will get the answer that you want to hear
jamie1972 said:
LoL :laugh:homer3d455840 said:
jaime1972 why are you taking such offense when all of us are trying to do is help you out? We did not know what you were planning to do with the goldfish because you did not tell us and the statement that tmtpowers made was correct. Schooling fish need to be kept together to feel comfortable that is why they are schooling fish.
: Now I may be wrong but you sound like a person that doesn't really care about the hobby or the fish and their well-being. It seems that you just want to throw the fish in the tank and leave them as if they were nothing more than a moving painting. I don't mean to hurt anyone's feelings it's just that it seemed that you were attacking somone who was just trying to help and we should never do that. I hope you do the right thing for your fish sake. :dance2: Good luck!
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jamie1972 said:
Lots and lots of expierience and lots and lots of trial and error (either our own expierince and trial and error, or other peoples expierience and trial and error) and research on fish in there natural enviroment combined with brain power. And actually, you need 6 or more schooling fish of the same species to keep them happy, not the low number of 3 tmtpowers suggested. Looking at some of the reasoning behind this, it's arguable that over 20 would be the minumum. Look at a school of minnows (or tetras, danios, barbs or rasboras if you live in a tropical climate) in any river, pond or stream, there's sometimes hundred's of them schooling together, why? so they don't get eaten. Now if you have any brain at all, you should be able to realise what would happen to the fishes behavior (won't show usual/natural behavior) and why that would hapen the fishes behavior: becuase it's constantly scared of being eaten!
And BTW, we may be taking this hobby way too seriously, but your last statement in the quote above proves to me that you don't take this hobby seriously at all, wich is really a shame as your dealing with live animals here and I don't see myself paying too much attention to your posts from now on.
an answer to the original post?
I wasted a minute or two reading to find out if a snail is really worth having and did not see an answer. I have some snails in my guppy tank that are there accidently (via live plant) and I am slowly trying to kill them off because I fear overpopulation. Is this a possibility? or should I just leave the few that are somehow still alive alone and see what happens. comments welcome. thanks
I wasted a minute or two reading to find out if a snail is really worth having and did not see an answer. I have some snails in my guppy tank that are there accidently (via live plant) and I am slowly trying to kill them off because I fear overpopulation. Is this a possibility? or should I just leave the few that are somehow still alive alone and see what happens. comments welcome. thanks