Choosing fish Grrrr?

Question

I am trying to figure out what tpe of fish to get. I am playing with the idea of a 10 gallon tank now.

So far I want to put in a little corydora cat fish, and a betta.

I dont know what else will work in the tank? Are there any small fish that I can put around 6 of in the tank?

All the livebearers are really pretty, but how fast do they reproduce? I dont want to end up with alot of fish, so are these a bad choice? Can you only put male livebearers in the tank(so that there are no baby fish)?

I ONLY want to keep freshwater fish.

Thanks for all the good info so far. I wasn't considering goldfish, I realise they need to live in large tanks and are very messy(no convincing needed here).

My dorm has a 10 gallon limit for fish tanks.

Answer 1

As far as live bearers, most pet store employees can at least figure out the males from the females. If you stick with one or the other, won't have to worry about breeding. Corys do best in schools of at least 3. If you can, I'd upgrade to maybe a 20 gallon, you'd have a little more leeway on the amount of fish. If you want a betta, stay away from anything with colorful/fancy tails-like male guppies. Also, probably best to stay away from gouramis. Small fish for a 10 gal, only thing you could really get away with would be neons with the betta and corys.

Be sure to cycle your tank before adding the fish to it. Here's a link, do a search for fishless cycling.

http://www.aquariacentral.com/

http://www.aquariumboard.com/forums/home.php

Answer 2

1st I'd test your water hardness. If you've got hard water go with livebearers like platty, swordtails, molly and guppy. Ideally in an all livebearer tank add 1 teaspoon of salt per gallon. If you don't over feed the fish, and don't proive too much cover the adults will take care of any babies. A single female betta will also be a great colorful addition. A single male betta might work out, but you should be sure he is no being picked, or that he's psycho. (You should be prepared to have to keep him in seperate housing.)

In softer water go with tetras. Tetras of the same size will school together even if they aren't the same type. A male betta will likely be fin nipped in a tetra tank.

With a male betta cory cats are ideal tank mates. Cory cats are schooling fish, and they will school in groups of 4 or more. Also you can add ghost shrimp, but they tend to end up as lunch sooner or later.

PS- Avoid mixing fancy male guppy with male betta. Male bettas tend to think they are bettas. Also don't be fooled into think you can mix a male, and female betta. It's generally not a good idea.

Answer 3

I started with a 10 gallon, then a 20, then a 28 and now a 55 gallon. All within a 3 month period. You will not be happy with 10 gallon tank. The less water you have to work with, the more difficult it is to maintain the correct balance of the environment. Also, you need 1 gallon of water per inch of fish (not per fish), .. with a 10 gallon tank, you will be lucky to have 5 or 7 fish in it. My 55 gallon only has 16 fish in it .. and I wouldn't put in any more. It gets crowded easily. My advice ? Start with the largest tank you are allowed to start with. You will have a lot of dead fish in a 10 gallon. Good Luck to you ! :)

Answer 4

First if you want other fish keep the betta to itself, they're aggressive.
Male fighting fish are bred in Thailand for the purpose of competitive combat, and people gamble on the outcome of the matches. Male bettas are aggressive and even attack their own reflections in a mirror. Fights between male bettas are begun by placing two evenly matched fish in adjacent glass containers. When the fish make attempts at attacking each other, they are removed from the separate containers and placed in a single larger container. When they have recovered from being transferred, they take up a side-by-side position and begin a long series of swift attacking movements. Because their teeth are small, they nibble rather than bite, concentrating their attacks on the fins.

next - don't mix goldfish with tropicals. First, goldfish tend to thrive at sub-tropical temperatures, which means about 68 to 72 degrees Fahrenheit. This is not to say that 75-degree water will kill the goldfish. It's just that the lower temperatures are healthier for them. Cooler water holds more oxygen, which larger goldfish require for good health.

Second, goldfish tend to be much more massive than tropical fish. As they grow, they can easily eat more than the tropicals. The latter may end up suffering from malnutrition. At the same time, goldfish also produce far more waste products than the typical tropical fish. Some tropical species require very clean water and goldfish will make this rather difficult to maintain.


Third, temperate water fish (such as goldfish) and tropicals tend to carry different diseases and parasites and tend to be resistant to their specific diseases and parasites. Thus, the mixing of the two can expose each to health problems they are not at all capable of coping with.

The fact is that many species of fish often seem to get along well when they are young. As they mature, however, trouble can start. You might not notice problems immediately because aggressive or predatory behavior may occur at night. For example, your Chinese algae eater becomes both large and aggressive as it grows and could eventually spell serious trouble for your goldfish. Your first clue might be a dead fish, or two.

Cory's are great. For safe ph levels use 1 1/2 fish for every gallon.

Good fish choices are: guppies, molly's, neon tetras (watch some breeds, there more aggressive and will eat babies)gold, neon are really good, they like to school, so buy at least 3 of each when buying. Gourami's are really nice and so are silver dollars. Swordtails are another option too.

I've never had a problem mixing any of these together.

Good luck

Answer 5

Get compatiable fish for each other, and don't worry about the reproducing. Be sure there are no places for the babies to hide, and that will aide in natural fish food for the other fish in your tank. Also, maybe try having the water temp somewhere around 75-77....I have noticed my fish rarely have there babies around the mentioned temp. If some of the babies survive, take them to your closiest pet store, they may be tempted to buy them, or even give you credit. You might even want to search online and find a fish auction site, and sell them there. I have done well doing that. The fish with the more larger tails, are usually the males, and the fish with the smaller tails, less fancy tails are most of the times females. I always said, the males are prettier then the females.

Answer 6

If you are going to keep tropical fish you have to maintain a certain temperature, the correct ph,the correct water hardness and have a good filtration system. Once you have that done you choose fish to suit those conditions. If you don't match up all those things your fish will die.

Answer 7

In my 10 gallon tank, I have Guppies (They BREED-- BAD CHOICE - unless you have them for feeder fish-- we use ours as feeder fish). a black Molly (These come in all shapes and sizes and colors), an Albino Cory, a Chinese suckerfish (Alage eater) a Snail, a Clown Loach (he eats the snail babies) and I have Glo Lites. Bettas do not do well with other fish.

Our Betta is in a 1 gallon tank, with his own air supply and light, They are picky fish (Eating and maintenence), as we have already lost two (one got something called Fin Rot, the other died because her water temperature was too cold).

Answer 8

Oh welcome to such a wonderful and addicting hobby. I myself have gone way over board with the fish keeping, such much as I actually went to school to get my degree in fish studies, lol . My first tank was started for me when I was 8 since then I have grown into a 1600 gallon built in salt and 380 fresh and just started recently a 55 brackish, because gosh darn it we love the little guys(smile). I’m telling you, you’re going to love it as well.

Cory cats are such a wonderful little fish, but please remember to keep them at least groups of three according to the type; they are a school community fish and do much better as a team (smile) plus know that they don’t stay small forever, if keep well and healthy. Bettas are aggressive, but no need to worry about him in a community tank, bothering others, but rather others bothering him, more often than not, his fins will attract other fish and they will pick at his fins and him, at times making him sick. He may however rule the roost on food being offered. He can man up (or rather fish up) and defend himself with his sharp little bite if and when needed. Other than that he makes a great tank mate as well.
DO NOT mix your Cory or Betta with Goldfish, as Goldfish have no stomach and their food goes in and pretty much right back out, which means high levels of ammonia, very bad for a tank. Plus goldfish should be kept in coldwater colder than you would normally put a tropical water fish in. They like their water about 68 and tropical should be keep in water at about 72 degree up depending on species.

Rule of thumb, Goldfish should only be keep with other goldfish. Livebearers (unless you don’t care about the babies being eaten) should stay with livebearers, Tropical with tropical and Cichlids with cichlids. However I’m here to tell you, rules are also meant to be broken. Breaking the rule means, you spending a little more time ,effort and money to get a tank large enough, making the tank livable for everyone, allot of education on environment and a patients, because I’m here to tell you, trail and error, means you will loose some of your fish due to others simply eating them.

If you were a new customer of mine, I would first have you start off with a few starter fish. Black mollies, for a ten gallon, no more than 4, as these bad boys are hardy, so much in fact that they can be easily used to start a freshwater tank and saltwater tank and survive, breed and continue to live. In my saltwater tank, I still have 8 very large sailfin mollies, and 10 black mollies living peacefully in my saltwater tank, they where my starter fish from 6 years ago. If your mollies survive, then great, See if you can get them from a store that will buy them back or allow you to trade them in, if you don’t’ want to keep them for what you really want. Also know that they are relatively cheaper than most fish. YOU WILL LOOSE SOME FISH DURRING THE CYCLING PERIOD, so know this before you buy. DO NOT buy fish or let them talk you into getting a gut load of fish for your new tank, most of them will be dead in 24 – 48 hours if you do. Your heart will break, your hopes of having a tank will be lost and you will just flat out feel bad…it’s not fair, to you or the little guys.

Start off with just four hardy starter fish, Black mollies, black skirt tetras, for a tropical tank.
Don’t let them talk you into any others…

Make sure whatever you do, you go in that store armed with education on your new hobby, so they will not and can not take advantage of you. Most of them will at least try.
After your tank cycles, you can go for the gold. Tetras are wonderful, hardy and colorful, great community schooling fish, for a beginner, great with Cory Cats. Do NOT use cory Cats to start your tank. They will not if barely make it.

If you need more help email me.

Answer 9

http://www.timstropicals.com/Compatibility/CompatibilitySearch.asp

go to that page and type in the corydora cat fish...... it will tell you what fish are compatible with him... and remember,,, only 1" of fish per gallon... otherwise you wont be able to have your tank under control..... best wishes

Answer 10

in my opion i think the fighter fish is oso beautiful.but i donno ur country got this type of fish or not.we can see wheter this type of fish is male or female,because both of them r not same..but they will fight together when they meet,because of tat they called figthing fish.but tis type of fish easy to take care.my neigbour always feed this type of fish,they put them together.lastly they meet together they did not fight oso...other fish lik gorden fish oso very beautiful lol ^(00)^