What are good beginner fish in a fresh water aquarium, it is a 10 gallon aquarium.?

Question

I am not sure what I did wrong, with my 10 gal aquarium, we followed the instructions and when we got home today, our gourami fish was dead. I am a beginner at having an aquarium and needing to know what would be the best for this beginner aquarium. I am not sure what I am doing wrong, with this aquarium, as I have put in the AquaSafe per instructions, I have the right amount of rocks, heater and a Whisper Filter for the aquarium. My algae eaters are still alive, as well as our other fish. I'm not sure why, our gourami fish died. Please no harsh or rude answers. Like I said, I'm a beginner for owning my first aquarium.

We had the gourami fish for 3 days, and have had the aquarium for the same amount of days.

Thank you all so much for your answers so far, i'm taking in all the information that you all have given me. I appriciate the help. I think I will wait til after the new year to put in some mollies or guppies.

Answer 1

I don't think it's your fault. Since you are a beginner, I suspect you don't know the nitrogen cycle. Well, the nitrogen cycle is the process where bacteria (nitrosomus and nitrobacter) builds up and consumes the ammonia that the fish or other living thins produce and turn it into nitrite. Then, nitrobacter, a different bacter, turn nitrite into nitrates. Ammonia and nitrates are harmful to the fish and other inhabitants. Nitrate in harmful in high dosage. It takes about 6-8 weeks to "cycle" the tank.

As for beginner fish, gouramis are good. Tetras and barbs would probably be the best choice.

Neon Tetra
Cardinal Tetra
Silver-Tipped Tetra
Columbian Tetra
Serpea Tetra
Phantom Tetra
and Bleeding Heart Tetra

Cherry Barb
Tiger Barb (nipper)
and Rosy Barb

Good Luck and I hope you don't have any more problems!

E-mail me for any more questions!

Answer 2

Fish die for inexplicable reasons, unless you are a professional Icthyologist, and even then.....The Gourami was a good choice. They are gentle tank mates, breed easily, which is fun to watch, and are not spooked easily. They also are pretty tolerant to temperature changes and overall water conditions. I usually start a new tank with a Gourami for those reasons. When you do find the ocassional dead fish, and you always will, examine it. I have found that seamingly innocuous fish can turn nasty when the lights go out. Some algae eaters are exactly those kind of fish. Did the Gourami look tattered, missing scales, uh (sorry) eyes sucked out? Some damage to dead fish does happen post-mortem but if it keeps happening, suspect a wolf in sheeps clothing. Buy some more Gouramis if you like them. You did not specify your algae eater. I love the little corydoras catfish. Especially more than one. They perch on the bottom, but, sort of, school. One goes to the top for a bubble of air and drops back down near the other. Then another will do the same. They are especially gentle. For a community tank stay away from the group of fish called Cichlids. Some are nasty tank mates and the barbs, cute but nip fins. Neons are good. Usually fish that have been tank raised since the beginning of hobbyist aquaculture are a good bet. Male Bettas, related to Gourami, are attractive. BUT one to a customer!! A cheap water quality tester is a good investment. Read a little about common diseases like ich. You will meet this beastie one day. I would guess that your problem was bad luck. Try again. It's a great hobby.

Answer 3

Hi....Just because one of your fish died, doesn't mean that you're doing something wrong. Usually when you set up a new tank, it's a good idea to wait 2 weeks before getting any fish. Also, fish get stressed out from a move, and will die within a few days of going to a new tank. I've had excellent luck with Tetra's. There's a lot of different kinds of them, and mine have lived for many years. Invest in a good book about keeping an aquarium so if a problem arises, you'll know what to do. You'll learn as you go along, good luck :-)

Answer 4

This is called New Tank Syndrome. Your tank needs to be cycled. This is usually done without fish, but can be done with fish.

You need a kit that tests for ammonia, nitrite, nitrates and pH.
What you want to happen is to grow beneficial bacteria that will take care of the ammonia (fish wastes) and nitrites (by-product of the ammonia) and turn them into the less harmful nitrates. This takes time. 4-6 weeks or more.

Since you already have fish and they are surviving so far, you need to keep a careful watch on the ammonia level, and do water changes to keep it from going into toxic levels. This will slow down the time for your tank to completely cycle, but it will be less stressful on your fish.

Heres what we want to happen - we want to get a measurable amount of ammonia - but keep it below 1 ppm. Depending on how many fish you have in your aquarium, it may take a few days or a few weeks to reach this level.

If you ammonia spikes over 1 - do a 20% water change. The ammonia level will eventually start to decrease and you will see a rise in the nitrite level. Your nitrites need to be controlled as they are just as toxic, if not more so, than ammonia. So if you get a nitrite reading of over 1 ppm, do another 20% water change

After a few more weeks, you nitrites will drop to 0 and you will get a nitrate reading. Yay! You have cycled your tank.

I hate that the people where you bought your set up didn't tell you how to cycle and to slowly stock your tank.

Depending on which algae eaters you have (like plecos), even 1 may be too many for a 10 gallon tank.

Answer 5

you can try 6-8 zeebra danios, or 100 red cherry shrimps!! on serious note, go to your local fish store and see what fish fit your taste. do you want an active swimmer or a slow swimmer? at 10 gallons you're pretty much limited to the tropical community fishes. 10 gallons tank at best hold 9 gallons of water, so i would try to keep under 8 fishes.

Answer 6

Who's to say, the fish could have been sick when you purchased it, hard to tell. Beginner fish , are guppy's, neon's, just make sure when you buy different fish they have the same temperament. You don't want something aggressive like an angle fish with guppies.

Answer 7

let your tank run for twenty four hours with out fish in it as it gets the chlorine out of the water and helps the filters get used to working then add gold fish they are ideal first fish and nice to look at i got some and they still here and that is what i got told to do but only get two and then after two weeks get another one you must wait two weeks though as the ammonia in the fish tank will be established after two weeks. hope this helps you

Answer 8

I just set up an aquarium about a month ago, and this article really helped me out. It explained everything I needed to do to get started.

Hope it helps with your problem.

http://prizedpetsparade.blogspot.com/2007/11/simple-steps-to-starting-fresh-water.html

Answer 9

We started out with regular Fan Tails. And we still only get them. They stay alive the longest, at least for us, and are good fish.
We don't get the Algae Suckers anymore. They kept attacking our fish and ripping their scales off...so yeah...don't know what to say about them other than I don't really like them.
And we don't have a heater in out tank.
So yeah...Good Luck! Hope I helped some...

Answer 10

Mollies, or guppies are good beginners hang in there it is an art and it takes time to master