best starter fish

[zig zag zoey]

i have a 10 gal taink i want to start useing but im not shure what kind of fish i should stock it with...or how fast i have had alot of fish before but im still a newbie my last bach i only had for a mounth and the poor fry died. i like bigger fish like betta i relly dont like little ones like zebra but i want your appinon on how many of each kind to put in the taink. i relly dont cair salt watter or fresh but i need to know how mutch salt to mix with 10 galls of watter.

[Bettachris]

stay away from saltwater now, as it is not as simple as add salt and fish, alot of numbers involved.

for a good 10 gallon, never go with female livebearers. baby fishes are not something to be wanting unless you have a large enough tank. now all male livebearers are ok because you wont get any babies to overstock your tank.

again a 10 gallon isn't really enough room for anything, but the best smaller starter fish is a dwarf gouramie,

only one though, they will get about 3-5 inches which may be pushing the tank overload, but it should be ok. after the tank is cycled and everything is leveled off, you can base your stocking off of it.

[zig zag zoey]

i was recherching today and now i am thinking 1 red tail black shark and 3 or 4 platie but im not relly shur i will have to reshertch more

[mynameislola]

When you do your research, keep in mind the adult sizes of the fish and their habits. Those shark fish grow to be about 5 to 6 inches long, way to big for a 10 gallon tank. Platies tend to breed if you have more than one of them.

My best recommendation for a starter fish is still one Betta. They can breathe room air from the top of the water if there isn't enough air in the water. As long as you keep the tank warm enough, they are fairly disease resistant. Plus they're pretty.

If you really really want more than one fish, how about the neon tetra? They rarely breed, stay very small, and are also pretty.

Please remember you need to cycle the tank before the fish go in. Do you have the test strips to check the water? If not, I'd let the cycling go on for about a month unless you have access to used gravel.

My fave kind of test strips are the ones that test for several things at once. Ph here is a problem.

[zig zag zoey]

i do have can git some gravle from my nabor who has who knowes how many fish and the gravle has been in ther for about a year now :) so i can put a table spoon of that gravle mixed in with my new gravle and let the taink rin for a week than git the fish. i do want more than 1 fish and i am a fan of exocticks just like my grandma grandpa mom and dad before me thay have had all te fish under the sun from betta ton puffers and everything in between! i will look up the neon tetras are thay small like zebras? i relly dont like fish that small but that might have something to do with how scinny thay are and ther isnt mutch to look at. what about this one kind of grandma fish thay are half vilit at ther head and the other half by ther tail fin ts yellow ornge can sombody give me info on them ther pritty but i couldnt find mutch on them.

[zig zag zoey]

i looked neon tetras up and i like them i herd i can mix them with cardnal and glow light tetra how many of each bred can i keep in my taink? i want diffront colors and types and things like that thats why im askin about the other small tetras i think thay will look good espechly together i herd thay should be in groops of 6 or more but im not shure i dont want to over stock that wouldnt be good but i want to stock so i have 2 or 3 extra gallons so thay have room

[mynameislola]

The basic rule for fish is one inch of adult fish for each gallon of water. A 10 gallon tank isn't all the way full, usually, so plan on 9 useable gallons. With that many fish in the tank, you will have to be vigilant about the 20% water changes twice a week, and keeping the filter clean, and adding new charcoal as necessary.

A neon tetra is about an inch and a half long full grown. Cardinal tetras are about 2 inches grown up. Mixing types of fish can be a problem because they may need different temperatures or hardness of the water.

[zig zag zoey]

but can thay live together? and what about glowlight tetra? can thay all live together 3 of each witch makes 9 fish in all and 10 gallons. 20% how do i know how mutch is 20%? and what is charcoal? why do i need it? how do i know if i have hard or soft watter? if i have hard how do i soffton it?

[Bettachris]

see the major problem that i am 100% sure u will run into is over stocking.

a ten gallon isn' t really enough room, and for the types of fish that you want you will need to upgrade or change your stocking plans.


yes tetras can live together, but they will like to school with members of their species, which will lead to problems as a school is usually good around 5-6 fishes. but when you want 3+ species in a tank with a school as single fishes dont do usually as well, you can be looking somewhat around 15 fishes.

and there are two issues here, 1) being stunting, 2) alot of fish = alot of fish poo.

This will cause high water parameters and will end up have a bio-overload crashing the tank.


really if you plan on sticking with a ten gallon, and looking to house small fishes like tetras and some barbs you will probably have to look into only one speices.

----

now if you are looking for exotic fishes that will stay small, you can possibly go with a small group of bucktooth tetras. These fishes will probably grow to 3 inches and will kill anything else you add to the tank.

really to be honest, when i start a new tank, i think about two directions.

a) exotic
b) community

you can't mix both, now you will need to figure out what direction you want to go, and also you must consider your gallon size.


the reason why all of your tanks have failed in the past is overstocking/poor filteration/stocking the tank way to fast.

and you should really consider changing the stocking plans away from red tailed black sharks, and more that one group of tetras.


---

here is a link to a picture of my newest tank, it is a species tank that is colorful with a small group of tetras called harliquens and a group of 8 or so. the tank is colorful and well balanced.

here is my photobucket image homepage: videos and images.
http://s104.photobucket.com/albums/m191/BettaChris_Fish/

here is the link of the tank:
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m191/BettaChris_Fish/Fish%20Tank%20Pics/DSC00459.jpg

here is the link to the harilquiens:
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m191/BettaChris_Fish/General%20Fish%20Pics/DSC00461.jpg

here are some videos of my community tank:
http://s104.photobucket.com/albums/m191/BettaChris_Fish/Fish%20movies/?action=view&current=MOV00485.flv

and another video:
http://s104.photobucket.com/albums/m191/BettaChris_Fish/Fish%20movies/?action=view&current=MOV00484.flv

this is a video of my gar, if you choose to go in a exotic direction:
http://s104.photobucket.com/albums/m191/BettaChris_Fish/Fish%20movies/?action=view&current=MOV00368.flv

[zig zag zoey]

ok i will look up the tetra that i like and see what i want more i just thaught it would be cool to have diffront fish in a taink but i can compromise and i do feel so bad when fish die so i wont kill fish unless i have no choise. 9 small fish (3 neon 3 glowlight 3 cardnal) is to mutch for a 10 gall???? thay wont school together making 1 big school?? i am going to git a cupple plants (plastick becouse im not ready to fool with live) a cupple caves or something and gravle this weekend so i can let it run for a week than next week git the fish. my mom and grandma wont talk to me about fish anaymore becouse thay are sick and tired of it so yea.

[zig zag zoey]

ok i decided to just git a betta if i can keep that alive for a year or more than i will look into gitting a bigger taink and more exotick fish (even tho i higly dought i will git a bigger taink) becouse i dont want to pay a fourtion on fish i dont think i can cair for the right way i just want to be shure i can take cair of a fish. can sombody tell me a good way to tell how old a betta is? i want to know how mutch longer the fish has. and what is good batta food?

[mynameislola]

nine small fish is WAY too much for a 10 gallon tank. Here is the math: 3 cardinal tetras, 2 inches each is 6 inches of fish. The neons are an inch and a half each, times 3 fish is 4 and a half. Add just those 2 kinds of fish and you get more fish that can be held safely in the 9 actual gallons in the tank.

The betta is a fine choice. My last betta lived three years after I got him. Some can live to be five. The fish you see in the pet store are between 6 months and a year old.

It will need a heater because they are warm water fish. I have had good results from the VisiTherm brand. It is easy to see the temperature it is set at, and they turn themselves off if the water gets too low instead of burning out.

What kind of filter are you using?

If you don't spend money on fish, you can buy some good gravel.

[Bettachris]

the bettachris method of money:

if you dont want to spend alot of money on fishes, that do it the right way so you dont end up spending more replacing fish and stuff because they die. if you do it the right way than you save. trust me!

[zig zag zoey]

i got the taink set up today its all running right and everything when i was in the store i saw a taink that was just like mine and it was a 5 gall so i have a 5 gall i alredy have a heter running and an air pump stone ect. my filter its 1 of those wheel things but before the water gose on the wheel it gose throo this blue mesh stuf i dont know??? i am thinking of gitting a snail to controle algie but do yous think i should? i have allwise wanted 1 but im not shure if i will have to feed it something to supplement it becouse maby enuf algy dosent grow or something.

[cstrohmeyer]

I would pass on the snail. A siamese algae eater would be better, and would still wait a while for this fish.
Algae will grow as a bi-product of Nitrates and carbon dissovled in the water and lighting. You will get more nitrates with over feeding or poor quality food (undigestible ammino acids- which make up proteins).
Make sure you only rinse your wheel and blue mesh, as you want maintain and grow a healthy bacterial colony for removal of ammonia and nitrites.
As stated by Bettachris, take it slow, use the right equipment, and ask a lot of questions and read a lot.
Here is an informational site with a answers to a lot of these questions:
http://aquarium-info.blogspot.com/

Carl
Aquarium Maintenance since 1978, now on the web.
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/

[Cutepeach]

When you do your research, keep in mind the adult sizes of the fish and their habits. Those shark fish grow to be about 5 to 6 inches long, way to big for a 10 gallon tank. Platies tend to breed if you have more than one of them.

My best recommendation for a starter fish is still one Betta. They can breathe room air from the top of the water if there isn't enough air in the water. As long as you keep the tank warm enough, they are fairly disease resistant. Plus they're pretty.

If you really really want more than one fish, how about the neon tetra? They rarely breed, stay very small, and are also pretty.

Please remember you need to cycle the tank before the fish go in. Do you have the test strips to check the water? If not, I'd let the cycling go on for about a month unless you have access to used gravel.

My fave kind of test strips are the ones that test for several things at once. Ph here is a problem.

NEON TETRAS are not starter fish. They require that the tank be up and cycled for months before putting them into a tank. They are very fragile fish. My husband often waits a week before selling them once he gets them in from over seas because they don't quite do so well in a new enviornment.

[mynameislola]

Neons also need, IMHO, a larger tank so you can have enough that they school. 20 years ago we had a 55 gallon tank with about 30 neons in it. So nice.

I dunno what a siamese algae eater is, but the chinese type are well known for eating other fish's eyes. 0.o

[zig zag zoey]

i have herd that alot of places sell CAEs that will chace and bite other fish as SAEs so i dont want to take the chance

[zig zag zoey]

im gitting 4 african dwarf frogs on friday :) in going to be the crazy frog lady (i live frogs and wish i could have diffront breeds like kain toads sooo cute!) insted of a fish lover like everyone els in my famly

[BarkingPup]

Well, actually having one fish is quite satisfying. I know many people swear by seeing the magical wonder of schooling fish in a large tank but I, personally, after five years of having them find having one, lone fish (As well one that CAN be alone) is great. You don't have to name a whole bunch of fish and you get to spoil him/her to death. I still have two zebra danios from a previous group but after they die my Sucker fish gets a whole 36 gallon to himself:)

For starter fish I would suggest danios or a hardy tetra. Livebearers are a no go unless you have all females and none of them end up pregnant.

[zig zag zoey]

why not live barriers? iv herd that thay are the best for starters like me?? can somebody tell me how to rais/lower PH levles???

[mynameislola]

Live bearers can be lots of extra work. The babies will need their own tank, with special tiny food and sponge filters. Some live bearer babies have to eat fresh baby brine shrimp which need their own tank and salty water.

Ph can be very difficult to adjust and stressful for the fish to go through the changes. IMHO it is way easier to get fish that can live comfortably in whatever your tap water's Ph is. To get an accurate measurement of your tap water, put some in a glass container, leave it overnight and test in the morning.

To test the aquarium's pH, first the tank has to completely cycle. You will know that's done when you test the water and the ammonia and nitrite levels are 0. Then you can test the pH. The KH thing you asked about in another post is the hardness of the water.

Here is a link about pH and KH. I only got a B in Chemistry, and that was 20 years ago, so most if it is gibberish to me.

http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/ph.htm

My tapwater is so salty, it is actually considered brackish. We fix that with a reverse osmosis filter.

[cstrohmeyer]

pH and kH are important to all fish, but it is kH that seems to have the most confusion around it. kH is basically the buffering ability through calcium to absorb acids that naturally get added to an aquarium through biological processes (examples are nitric and carbonic acid). What is often forgotten is calcium is important for ALL fish for normal osmotic function and disease prevention. Also not all methods are equal for raising or lowering pH. I have found Wonder Shells superior for maintaining a healthy kH (they respond more rapidly than aragonite and add needed electrolytes). Regular addition of well or spring water is also beneficial, as both these sources tend to have s proper kH (not always though) and also tend to have a proper Redox Potential.
For more reading on these subjects, I strongly recommend these URLs:
http://kh-aquarium.blogspot.com/
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Information.html
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Basic_Aquarium_Principles.html

Carl
Aquarium Maintenance since 1978, now on the web.
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/AboutMe.html
http://fish-as-pets.blogspot.com/

[zig zag zoey]

well the parints will eat ther babys and since i relly dont want fry i ont try to prevent it same with the frogs. what dose IMHO meen????

[zig zag zoey]

my tap watter cumes from a well!

[mynameislola]

Some fish will eat their babies. Some will take good care of them for a while, then eat them. Some, like my angelfish, are very nice to the kids even after they grow up.

IMHO means in my humble opinion. My tap water also is from a well, but the well is in town and run by a water company. There is so much flouride in the local water that it turns kid's teeth brown. 0.o

Soon I will have an empty, set up, 15 gallon aquarium with no fishies. The last batch of angelfish babies is going to the pet store next week.

What should I put in it?

[zig zag zoey]

wow thats alot of floride! but my well is right neer my house it has no floride or cloreen or what ever its called (foregot right now)

[mynameislola]

That's cool that you have good water. Dealing with the chlorine is a pain for lots of fish owners.

My starter fish were cichlids because of the really hard water. With the reverse osmosis system I can have just about anything.