What Should I Get...?

Question

I just set up my 10 gallon aquarium yesterday, I know I need to wait 2 day before adding fish... but I don't know what kind to get. I want as many fish as possible and I want a wide varity of them. Please Help!

Answer 1

Actually, there's a little more to it than waiting for 2 days :) Cycling is a process, and just letting the water circulate through the tank for 2 days does nothing other than evaporate the chlorine - but you should still be using a water conditioner for chloramines, which will not evaporate.
As for the actual cycling, well, In the wild, and in established tanks, there are nitrifying bacteria that break down toxic ammonia from fish waste and excess food into less toxic nitrates. In a brand new tank, these bacteria don't exist, so any fish in the tank will produce ammonia, which, not being broken down by bacteria, will kill or weaken the fish. So, it is vital to cycle your tank.
There are a few methods. Do you have access to an established tank? These bacteria live in the gravel and in the filter cartridge, so if you can get some from another tank, you can put the bacteria right into your tank (don't let the gravel or filter cartridge dry out). If you do this, in a day or two, your tank will beready for fish.
Another way is to get Bio-Spira. It is the actual live bacteria in a little pouch, and your tank will instantly be ready for fish.http://fishstoretn.com/bio_spira.html

Other methods, which include putting a source of ammonia in the tank and letting the bacteria build up on its own, or putting a fish in and letting the fish produce ammonia (which borders on animal cruelty, because the fish will suffer from the ammonia in the tank), take 2 to 6 weeks before your tank is ready. If you rush that, any fish you buy may die, so try one of the instant methods I mentioned above (bio-spira or gravel from another tank)

So while the tank is cycling, is when you can choose your fish. Your tank is only 10 gallons so your options are fairly limited, but would include:
One male betta OR
One dwarf gourami http://www.biol.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/users/naibunpi/Image/Gourami-photo-old.jpg
And a school of 5-6 tetras (one of those following types):
neon tetras http://img225.exs.cx/img225/3290/neontetra6mc.jpg
cardinal tetra http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/Fishpics/cardinals.jpg
lemon tetra http://www.aqua-fish.net/imgs/fish/034.jpg
harlequin rasbora http://tropicalresources.net/phpBB2/templates/BMan1Blue/images/profile_pics/fish_profiles_heteromorpha1.jpg
glowlight tetra http://www.solodvds.com/images/fish/Hemigrammus_erythrozonus_s.jpg
zebra danio http://www.winternet.com/~mchristi/fish/zebradanio.jpg
That wouldn't be too much variety but it would be a lot of movement and color.


You could also go for livebearers... this means guppies, endlers and platies (swordtails and mollies are also livenbearers - but too big for your tank). You could get 5-6 guppies and/or platies and/or endlers, just make sure you always get 2 females for every male. That would make a nice variety of colourful, active fish.

Oh... just fyi, petstores are usually way off the mark when they try to give fish advice. You can't forget that they are just regular shmoes working for minimum wage, and that they usually do not have training or experience working with fish. Make sure you ALWAYS research anything before you buy it.

Answer 2

Zoe's Right about the Bio-Spyra. 1 Treatment will prevent a ton of problems your first 2 months.

Fish Reccomendations:

4 Fancy guppies - These guys are cheap, colorful and breed a lot. They're pretty easy to take care of. As long as you change the water every couple weeks, they're easy. Don't bother buying a ton of them... they will breed quickly and the babies grow fast.

Rubber Lip Pleco - Entertaining guy with a huge mouth & small body. They don't grow much over 1.5 inches. They can get you your pleco fix without all of the biological waste bigger ones provide.

2 Tiger loaches (not the helodies variety, but the other one). They stay to about 2 inches and they're non-stop buddies palling around everywhere. They will not bother the other fish (or their babies). Be sure they're not the helodes kind... There are 2 species sold as tiger loaches. One is docile and friendly, the other own (The helodes) are super aggressive, quarrelsome, and get large.

You can try some varieties of smaller tetras. I prefer Pristella tetras, since they seem to be more owner responsive. Blind Cave Tetras are also cool.

Upside down catfish are cool in a 10 gallon if you get a few of them and provide them with NO place to hide or one very small hiding place for them to quarrel over. They'll swim around stinging each other in the butt all day trying to gain posession of the territory without doing any harm. If you plan on having any decorations though, you midas well forget these guys. You will not see them for months.

Freshwater flounder are also pretty cool in a 10G. They go well with guppies, since they both need a few tablespoons of salt to thrive.

One single horeseface loach may be cool. They swim through the gravel & poke their heads out. They grow to 5 inches, but they are pretty skinny. They're super cool if you have sand as the base.

Stay away from neon tetras and ghost cats your first few months. They are very sensative to ph swings and water quality. They get sick & die if the water isn't very high quality.

Don't buy Clown Loaches, Common Plecos, Oscars, or Gourami (other than neon dwarf variety). They will all outgrow the 10G fairly quickly and be unhappy. They're often sold as babies and none of them will work in a 10g even though they are all attractive fish.

Don't buy snails unless you have something to eat their babies... they reproduce uncontrollably and will make a mess without predators.

Answer 3

since my friend zoe has already explained the cycling to you ill touch a bit more. im not sure if she mentioned it to simple terms. fish are a source of ammonia. ammonia in a tank will kill your fish. it takes about 2-3 weeks for bacteria to turn ammonia into nitrites and nitrites into nitrates a much less toxic form of ammonia that wont harm your fish. to add a source of ammonia without killing the fish add fish food everyday to the tank or add pure ammonia. of course not having fish in it for the 2 weeks you do this so none die while the tank cycles.
as for different fish for a 10 gallon you cant have too many so heres some cute small fish i myself have. mollies, korydoras, red eye tetras, & tiger barbs. here are some that are very colorful and i just love but they get big in size(up to 6 inches at least) so youd need to upgrade your tank sooner or later if you got them-cat fish, bala sharks, red tailed sharks, iridescent sharks, & pink gouramis. ive pasted a step by step nitrogen cycle and 4 options on how to cycle your tank without fish in the link below. hope this helps and have fun

Answer 4

listen to zoe about the cycling. also the suggestions for fish listed by zoe are great.

I just wanted to add my two cents. do you want variety so there are lots of different colors and sizes and such? because this can be achieved with female bettas. they come in TONS of colors and quite a few fin variations and body shapes, so they would all look different. it's really the only kind of fish you can have so much variety with because in a 10gallon you shouldn't really have many types of fish because tropicals are usually schoolers, so they need many of one kind. which means a bunch of cookie cutter fish.

here is a link to Petco, where you can now order fish, including a few types of female bettas.
http://www.petco.com/Shop/petco_ProductList_PC_productlist_Nav_447_N_10872+30+4294957519.aspx
also to pic the individual fish out yourself most places like petco and petsmart have female bettas now.

here is my female betta tank, just so you can see you can get a very wide variety of looks in one tank without making any fish feel alone because it doens't have enough of it's kind.
http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/7732/females0vp.jpg
http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/6489/females23gl.jpg

plus you'd be saving 5 or 6 bettas from poor conditions, because most likely they'd be adopted into a home where the owner thinks they're perfect for a tiny little bowl when they actually need filtration and heat.

Answer 5

Zoe's got it almost all right, with the exception of the statement about the nitrifying bacteria not being present in a new tank. They are there, but they can't go to work until they have attached themselves to some sort of surface,and formed significant colonies. The other important part of the equation is oxygen,Nitrosonomas and Nitrobacter are aerobic,(they require oxygen to function) that's why aeration is important. Now you know the whole bacteria story.----------PeeTee

Answer 6

Your local pet store will be able to tell you what fish can go together and what cannot.

Answer 7

just look around and see which fish get along together