I bought my son our first 10 gal. aquarium for his birthday last month. We were told that Platies, Mollies, and a few other fish would be best (she suggested we start with 6 fish). First we bought two platies, then added two more tiger barbs a week or so latter (people at Wal-Mart said they were good tank mates, ha ha). The tiger barbs were MEAN to the platies (nipping tails, chasing endlessly) so we removed them and the next day one of the platies died, probably because my dh unplugged the heater and forgot to plug it back in overnight. So we have had just one platy now for a few weeks. My son loves him but I want to add more fish and I'm nervous. Do you think our platy is lonely and needs companion fish? Should we only add other platies, if so how many for a 10 gal. tank? Would it be ok to mix in some mollies too? Any advice or thoughts would be great. Thank you!
2007-05-26 19:32:44 · 5 answers · asked by monkey mom 2 in Pets ➔ Fish
I never trust workers at places like Wal-Mart. The best places to find out about aquarium fish are books and forums. If you are going to be keeping live bearing fish like Platys then I suggest you get a copy of a book called "Guppies, Mollies, Platys. A Complete Pet Owner's Manual". It is an inexpensive book full of great information.
You should get your Platy a few friends. If it is a male then get 2 or 3 females. If it is female, 1 male and 1 or 2 females. You may also want to get a Dwarf Gourami or Honey Gourami as a smaller centerpiece fish. The Honey Gourami being the better choice because it is more hardy.
You may also want to study up on new tank syndrome and how to establish a bio-filter. Best of luck with your aquarium.
2007-05-26 20:18:12 · answer #1 · answered by Dustinius 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Well, I guess you've learned not to trust the WalMart fish experts. You could add more platies. If you get a mix of both male and female, it should be 2-3 females per male. These will overpopulate your tank in no time. The same would hold true for any of the livebearers, including mollies. And livebearers can hold sperm from a male and give birth to young about every 28 days for up to 6 months. So depending on the gender of your surviving platy, and what it's been with in the last few months, it may have company before long anyway. ;)
You could also add some corydoras catfish (2-3), a male betta, a dwarf gourami (but not with the betta - this would be an "iffy" combination), smaller danios, African dwarf frogs (at least 2; make sure these aren't African clawed frogs which eat fish!), or ghost shrimp.
You should also add any fish a few at a time. Your tank is new, so it's just building a bacterial population to take care of the fish wastes and you don't want to overload it and get cloudy water!
2007-05-26 19:53:04 · answer #2 · answered by copperhead 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Like it has been said, you needed to of cycled your tank first, so make sure you test the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate.(They have Jungle brand ammonia test strips for 10 bucks and 5 in 1 for ten bucks at Walmart) Anyways, once your done cycling, DONT go to walmart!!! They know nothing about fish!!! Yesterday this one couple said they had a ten gallon and wanted to fill it up. The walmart "expert' told them that they could get up to 10 fish now, and guess what they wanted to get
-1 melanachromis auratus
-1 yellow lab cichlid
-1 tiger barb
-1 male betta
-2 small plecos
-2 male guppies
-1 freshwater crabs
-1 koi
What a great tank idea. I decided I couldn't let that happen, so I gently but in and told them that why that would be a BAD idea. They finally decided on 4 panada corydoras, 3 ghost shrimp, 1 male betta, and a few platies. So yes, I think it would be okay to add some more fish to your tank. Check online to see what gender your platy is, then if it is a male get 2 more females, if it is a female get two more females. Wait a week or two to get more fish, and test the water levels. Yes, mollies would be fine to add to the tank, but the normal black mollies grows to be 4+ inches, so I would recommend 3 female dalmation mollies. Wait another week, test levels, and then you can get more fish. Personally, I would get 5 ghost shrimp and 1 male betta. Don't worry, everyone makes mistakes; at least you are trying to fix yours.
2007-05-27 04:43:04 · answer #3 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You need to let your aquarium age to grow good bacterias so it can "cycle" properly. You can only gradually add more fish. The good bacteria will grow on gravel, rocks and filter media. Also 10 gallons is quite small, and platys will breed a lot! Put some plants in there for fry and you won't have to buy new fish. Mollies and platys get along great! You should have bought clown loaches and a plecostamus to clean the algae althouh if you do get a pleco they will grow quite large, but they are good for cleaning tanks. Give your tank time to age and wait and see if your platys mate before you add more fish!
2007-05-26 19:45:42 · answer #4 · answered by bored....zzzzzzzzz..... 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the smaller the tank the more work for you and the faster things can go wrong. yes you must have a filter and do water changes at least once a week how often you change the filter media depends on how many fish you have and how often they eat. most people change it every month yes you need the conditioner to get rid of harmful things like chlorine from your water Never change the bio-wheel, it is there to house good bacteria that help keep you tank clean If I were you I would get a bigger tank just to make things easier and to keep the fish healthier but if you decide on the 5 gallon I would do 2 water changes a week instead of 1. good luck
2016-05-18 23:07:02 · answer #5 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋