Stock my 10g!

W

wrigh003

AC Members
Jun 21, 2005
23
0
0
I stocked my 10g!

OK, you don't have to actually buy the fish and put them in there, but I need some help figuring out what I want to keep. :help:

My dear wife bought me a 10g starter kit for christmas, knowing that I want to eventually get into saltwater/nano-reefing. Now, the conventional wisdom is that you should at least attempt to keep a freshwater aquarium alive for a while before getting into the more expensive and complicated land of coral and specific gravity, etc, so that's what I want to do.

Problem:
I really like the looks of a couple of fancy goldfish and figured that just one or two would be OK. I guess I have never seen goldfish as big as the ones that people on here keep mentioning, though- if a pair of 4" long (or more!) goldfish is going to be more than this little tank can handle, then I guess that's not the best thing to do.

I guess what I'm looking for is a suggested stock list for a 10g tank. The reason I'm more attracted to goldfish is that as they are larger and well, rounder, they seem to have more personality. I'd rahter have a couple or three fish that are pets (complete with their individual idiosyncrasies, etc...) instead of a tankful of anonymous neons. So, suggest some fish that are interesting to watch, cool looking, etc.

Aside from that- am I just going to have to suck it up and buy a bigger tank if I want to keep goldfish? There aren't even fish in this tank behind me right now and already I'm upgrading? Geez...

Thanks in advance-
Jake
 
Last edited:
Lol Jake !

Well, for a 10....and fish with personality....shell dwellers....a trio of the multifasciatus to start with...you'll soon have many more...lol...they are very prolific and are community breeders. They don't eat thier babies. Lots of personality...mine always come up to the front of the tank when they see me.

A tank for them would be fairly easy to setup. Sand substrate with a few rocks and LOTS of shells. You could toss in a few fake plants just for color. Here's a thumbnail of a 10 gallon I set up for some multis...just to give you an idea.......click on the pic for a larger view....more shells than I have in this tank is prefered though.....


OR

You could have a dwarf gourami with some cories.....cories are fun to watch and always busy...they're also good at keeping the gravel tidy. Or, instead of the cories...some kuhlii loach...maybe 3. But you'd see more of the cories than the kuhliis.

OR

One bonded pair of german blue rams...or bolivian rams..though I think they'd be happier in a 20long....I know folks who keep them in 10's and they seem to be fine. You could add some endlers in there for a nice school of smaller colorful fish...even though they aren't much for personality..lol..they would provide the rams with some tasty snacks when they spawn...and they WILL spawn (the endlers, that is)

Just some ideas to work with Wrigh...have fun ! :)
 
gup is the answer

Beautiful tanks EMG!!! I'm jealous and stonished... i love the way you decorated them... really... wow...! amazing

Jake: as i see you want BIG fish for a small tank... i would put some fancy guppies there, there's tons of colors in them and they are adaptable fish, you will learn a lot from them, they are very prolific too so you won't get bored of watching them
 
wrigh003 said:
I really like the looks of a couple of fancy goldfish and figured that just one or two would be OK. I guess I have never seen goldfish as big as the ones that people on here keep mentioning, though- if a pair of 4" long (or more!) goldfish is going to be more than this little tank can handle, then I guess that's not the best thing to do.
Click to expand...

You don't usually see them that size because people stick them in 10g tanks where they can't grow properly :)

Even one goldfish is too big for your tank. Absolute minimum is 20gs and 30gs is better. The tank also needs to be double-filtered. With a 20g tank you could either go with one filter rated for 40+ gallons or two filters (better) rated for 20+ gallons each.

One of my LFS has a trio of 10" goldfish in a bare bottom 180g display tank. It has two Eheim 2126 filters on it. Gorgeous fish and the tank is kept immaculate. There is a lionhead, a black oranda, and a redcap oranda.

When my son saw these he just had to have one. So we bought two and they are currently in his old 20g tank in his room. We will be moving them, probably next month, to my old 36g downstairs. Right now it's full of quarantined rainbowfish waiting to go into my next 75g, which I will be starting on this weekend.

Be warned: this is addicting and if you are already thinking about upgrading then you are already hooked. Don't skimp on space for the fish or you will just end up buying another tank :)

Roan
 
i ive had a few diffrent combinations in my 10 but my fav is the one in my sig right now

the von rio flames are suposed to only get 1.5 inches and a pretty red orange color on thei tails and fins when thier happy and healthy, they also have personality to spare. the corys are pretty self exsplanitory but pandas are adorable and peppers look like mini pitcus cats cept they are missing the long whiskers.

i wish i had a khulis but my shipment failed to come in good thing i only have 2 empty 10 gallons left and one empty 5 . and im getting a 55 in may i hope.
 
Thanks for the pointers, all- I guess I will have to have a smaller community tank for a while before I go plunk down the cash for a 55g+ to keep a couple of goldfish in. :) There's a redcap oranda that is currently about 1" long that really looks cool at the Petco across from my work, but if I'm doing the little guy a disservice by dumping him in this little tank, then that's no good.

Also- how carefully do you examine the tanks that the fish are in before you bring them home? I almost bought that little redcap (who looked perky and fine), but some of his buddies in the tank weren't looking so hot (one was dead, and one was almost there), so I decided I'd pass.

I am going to try to check out a couple of non-chain/ locally owned places this afternoon and see if they look any better.

Are dwarf gourami too large in their adult size for a 10g? If not, what would pair well with one or two of those?
 
I usually pass on fish if most of the tankmates at the store are in sad shape. If it's something you REALLY want and it looks healthy despite what the other fish look like, you could purchase it IF you have a quarenteen tank setup and are willing to keep it in quarenteen for at least a month before adding it to any of your setup tanks.

Smart move on your part though....
 
Well, I started today. I think I am going to keep posting in here to avoid cluttering up the rest of the forum with my noobster observations on the workings of the tank and the cycle. I feel like a kid again- I had forgotten how cool fish are to look at, take care of, and just watch.

Went by Petsmart today after work, and wow, what a difference. The Petco that I have been going to/ browsing the last couple of weeks (convenient to my work) looks like they carry the castoffs/leftovers from this particular Petsmart. I couldn't believe the difference- I was just going to go to Petco and see what they had that looked workable, but after 15 minutes with nobody checking on me and no employees visible anywhere near the fish, I left- lucky for me! The Petsmart had better looking stock (even some of those huge goldfish I said I'd never seen...), better selection of fish, cleaner tanks, better selection of accessories, and (key) employees that actually wanted to help. Good customer service is so hard to find these days... Anyway.

Wound up going with a frisky pair of red wag platys and a pair of silver mollys (actually, I'll qualify that. The red wags must have wagged themselves out in the bag on the way home- they are quite subdued now that they are out in the tank. The mollies, on the other hand, haven't stopped racing around since I let them out). The red wag female looks pretty fat- she is probably pregnant. I also got a nice fake rock/ cave deal for them to swim through and a couple of plants. One bunch of Java fern and two big bunches of ____ for whatever fry come along to hide in. Can't for the life of me remember what it's called, but it's the real version of the fake stuff that you normally see in a beginner aquarium. This is my first time with real plants- we'll see how they work out.

Today's parameters, 1.16.06:
77*
pH 7.5
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate:0-5
Nitrite:0

Added 2 medium red wags, 2 silver mollies
Java fern
Mystery plant
Cave
 
Last edited:
java moss

If you can add some java moss to your tank, it helps reduce the ammonia and nitrite levels, heres a link that might help with the info
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom