Fish for a ten gal tank?

Question

we just got our two year old daughter a ten gal fish tank for christmas..we're waiting till after she gets tired with her toys before we buy the fish and we were wondering what types to buy? I would like tropical but my husband says just get regular gold fish..

Answer 1

The 1st things to do is start cycling the tank. Basically put in some water, and add a pinch of fish flakes every day.
http://www.firsttankguide.net/cycle.php

Honestly I don't really recommend goldfish. Goldfish are really small pond fish and need 5-10 gallons per fish. (You'll need 10-15 gallons per goldfish unless you have great filtration, don't over feed, and don't clean the tank every week.) Also if well kept a goldfish will last 10-15 years.
http://www.kokosgoldfish.com/care.html

I'd recommend 5-7 small fish. Either livebearers, or danio. Ideally you should test your water, and buy fish based on your pH, and kH (hardness). If your water is soft (lower than 10 kH), and basic (7 pH or lower) neons would be a good choice. A good place to learn about the various types of fish, and their needs is http://www.liveaquaria.com

Livebearers: (They like hard 10+kH , and basic water 7+pH)
guppy
swordtail
platy
Molly (These guys aren't as hardy as their cousins. Your tank is a bit too small for them.)

Avoid:
gouramis- Most gourami are fairly aggressive, and need. A dwarf gourami is peaceful to everything other than other dwarf gourami (the males tend to fight a bit), but it's not very hardy.

Betta- Betta are highly aggressive toward other betta. You can put 1 male betta in there, but not any other betta male or female. Females can sometimes live together, but I generally say 5 gallons per female with a min of 3 females. (Females generally fight it out until they work out a pecking order.) That said a single betta would be fine with most fish unless you have fancy fined fish like male guppies.

Answer 2

No more than 10 fish or other things like frogs total. You can go for a community fish tank, just make sure that the fish can live compatibly with each other. Tetra's are a good way to go, as there are many different colored ones. We even have some small frogs in ours that can live in the water. My niece, who is 2 1/2 has such a good time just watching the fish and the frogs in the tank.

Answer 3

Take dolly's advice above. Mollies, guppies, swordtails, platies and the like are a little more interesting than goldfish (and are less likely to grow too big) and much easier to care for than tropical saltwater fish. Don't even think about a saltwater tank for a young child; it's way too much work that the parents will end up doing.

Answer 4

Don't get goldfish - they need 15 gallons each, minimum, and if not given enough water space, they can fould up the water quite quickly (they are poop machines!)

You should go for a nice, colourful community tank.
Start with a school of 6 tetras:
neon tetras http://www.geocities.com/theslidersmarsh/img/neon.jpg
cardinal tetra http://filer.case.edu/~jjw2/cardinal.jpg
lemon tetra http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/characins/images/LemonTetraWFCh_C1124.jpg
harlequin rasbora http://www.tropicalfishcentre.co.uk/harlequin_rasbora.jpg\
glowlight tetra http://www.solodvds.com/images/fish/Hemigrammus_erythrozonus_s.jpg
zebra danio http://www.aquariumfish.net/images_01/zebra_danios_w180.jpg
... the list goes on and on and on.

And a dwarf gourami is ideal for a centre piece fish http://www.biol.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/users/naibunpi/Image/Gourami-photo-old.jpg OR a male betta, or TWO female bettas.

OR should could do a livebearer tank, with some guppies and some platies:
http://www.save1004.com/guppy.jpg
http://www.elmersaquarium.com/image_fish/01_Platy_MICKEY_MOUSE.jpg
You could get one male and two females of each. ALWAYS get 2 females for each male. OR just get all males.

Answer 5

To start with I would put goldfish in there! Because I have a two year old and she puts things in the fish tanks!!!

Answer 6

Dolly is right. Remember an inch of grown fish per gallon of water.

Answer 7

I like the regular gold fish but the answer above is good too.
Good luck!

Answer 8

Dolly has good advice, but another one my husband loves is killifish. They're a little less common, but there are hundreds of types, with all types of coloring, from solids to spotted to striped.

Answer 9

Guppies, mollies, swordtails, these are all hardy colorful fish that will do well in your tank.

Answer 10

don't get goldfish..... they die prett easy and then your daughter would cry from a death of tiny little goldfishes.... you can start with guppies,because they are small and pretty, or tiger barbs.....