Ask Me Help Desk - Questions about fish.

Questions about fish.

So my lovely friend decided to buy my daughter a 10 gallon fish tank for her 3rd birthday. Looking for some LOW maintenance fish and plants.

Is it okay to add the plants later on?

Is a back ground necessary?

It says it's a tropical fish tank, and comes with a heater and lamp, also came with 2 different water cleaner things and a waste reducer thing. Do I need anything else to have tropical fish?

I would really like to have a clown fish, are these good community fish?

How many fish can I have in a 10 gallon tank?

Clown fish are saltwater fish... that's a whole other world to tropical fish.

Salt water fish require.. well... salt water. Tropical just means fresh water but heated.

You need to have the tank set up for a few weeks before adding any fish to let the water cycle.
It would be better if you could have some plants in there, even just fake ones because it gives the fish somewhere to hide.

And I'm not sure how big 10 gallons is sorry :o

I have Mollies in my tank... they are hardy and come in a lot of different shapes and sizes. Pretty fish, very friendly too, mine come up to the top of the tank and nibble your finger at feeding time.

Great thanks Shazzy, I am not ready to tackle slat water yet... 10 gallons is 36 liters. Are Molly's in expensive?

Chlorine removing chemicals and PH adjusting chemicals/test kit, thermometer. Temp 72-80F; nominally 76.

5-10 fish depending on size.

Filter media needs to be changes periodically. Gravel needs to be rinsed thouroughly when purchased. You also need to remove about 1/4 of the water every month and replace after removing chlorine, getting the temp about right and adjusting the PH.

With any tank, before adding fish, please allow the tank to cycle for at very min. 2 weeks. You can add live plants. Live plants will cycle your tank faster. You can also add live bacteria once every couple days during this time to help make the water healthier for fish.

Make sure you have a good filter system with a bubbler to oxygenate the water.. Also a heater. Most tropical fish like the water at 75 degrees or warmer.

Easy fish to start with would be Zebra Danios. They are very hardy fish and can withstand a lot of changes within the water chemistry. Purchase about 3 of them, let them sit in the tank for a good week maybe two then you can start adding other fish.

Easy fish to care for would definitely be mollies and platies.. These fish are brackish though, so you're going to need to add freshwater salt. They do a lot better in salty water. Also, salt adds electrolytes to the water and helps keep disease under control as far as ick or any type of fungal and/or bactieral infections. Not to mention it does keep stress levels low.

When adding fish.. do two or three at a time over a month span. Adding too many will put your tank into shock and kill the fish. Always keep in mind that it is 1 inch of fish per gal. So don't get any big fish ;)

Change the water by 25% every week and a 50% water change every month. Never empty out the entire tank and scrub it. Doing that will reset the biological culture in the tank causing the tank to cycle all over again. When tanks cycle, the nitrites, nitrates and ammonia levels spike dangerously high.. Those levels should always be at zero.

A good water conditioner that I really like is called PRIME by Seachem. It's a red bottle. It has live bacteria in it along with additives to help control nitrites, nitrates and ammonia not to mention clean out the chlorine in the water.

Test your water before adding anything else such as PH balancer, bioclear (waste control). The less you need to add to your tank to maintain certain levels, the easier its going to be. Once you start messing with chemicals such as PH, then it will always and forever be an on going thing. The only thing extra I put into my water is salt.. and my fish are all fat and happy. PH balancers are typically used for the more fragile fish that need to live in perfect conditions in order to survive. Mollies, platties, danios and other community tropical fish don't need that. They will do fine in the water that you provide.

You can take a sample of your water into the petstore and they should test it for you to see what the tank is doing. Unless PH or anything is off the chart, don't even worry about it.

I think that should get you started...

Bella, my Mollies were about $4 each... nice and cheap!

http://www.grandaquatic.com/images/m...lfin-Molly.gif
Sailfin Molly

http://www.mermaidaqua.com/fish%20ca...loon_molly.jpg
Balloon Molly

http://www.irananimals.com/fish-page...sh/molly01.jpg
Regular 'Ol Molly

OOO I like the regular old Molly the best!

Thanks guys, I really appreciate all the info! What types of plants should I get, and how many?

Get as many as you want and whichever ones you want. You can't go wrong with plants.. The more plants, the more oxygen in the tank. Plus, with lots of live plants, your tank will have that "natural" look to it.

Great thanks Lucky,

I went and bought 4 today, they are just little ones in little pots. Should I take them out of the pots or will they be fine as is? I have gravel not sand. I am going to get a background this week end too.

You can keep them in the pots if you want to... makes it easier to feed them. But its up to you.. either way they'll be fine.

Crap, what do you mean feed them? You have to feed them?

You need to feed them at first. There is no fertilizer in the tank for them to grow. At the pet store, they should have plant fertilizer either liquid form or in tablets. The liquid form is iron... the Iron will turn your water a different color.. kind of like a light yellowish-brown. Its safe for fish.. If ever the plants start to turn a little yellow, that's when you want to add the plant food.

Even though you cannot order from this website, it still provides lots of good info about fish and plants.. about what is compatible with what, how to care for it and what size tank is required. Aquarium Fish: Tropical Freshwater Fish and Saltwater Fish for Home Aquariums

In my tank right now, I have platy's and guppies. Beware, if you buy either chances are there pregnant, and then you have to either let the babies die (be eaten) or by a bigger tank. Buying livebreeders was a bad choice, but.. I guess I love them, new babies every month to name! A ten gallon will fit about 5-8 molly's/guppy's. Another great fish are tetra's, you can get blue and pink ones :), also a single betta would love you for giving him a ten gallon... hmm.. well at the moment I can't think of any more easy to care for fish that would be happy in a ten gallon (It is a pretty small tank.. )

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Thought I would add a few photo's, I started with 2 guppies, and one platy, in a one gallon tank (I didn't know!! ), I updated to a 10 gallon, and now my 30 gallon, I am waiting for it to "fill out" a bit, as it seems there is no fish :P

None of the plant's are real and the rocks I stole out of my mom's garden SHH don't tell her!

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The only problem with putting a Beta fish in with other fish, is the other fish might pick on him. These guys need to be in slow moving water. I have heard of them actually dying due to stress just because of the powerful flow from the filter.

You can have an entire assortment of fish from tetras to platties and swordtails. Mollies are very popular. You can also get cory catfish, dwarf aquatic frogs (very popular with kids) and some neat looking barbs (just don't get tiger barbs).

Just remember, add the bottom dwellers dead last, such as the cat fish, frogs and algea eaters. In fact! Don't even get an algea eater until you see algea in your tank. Cat fish are great at keeping the bottom clean.. but still should be added last. If anything goes wrong in the tank, those guys are the first to go.

"a single betta would love you for giving him a ten gallon", I meant for him to be alone (If that's what you were referring to).

My betta didn't mind the filters flow, but I adjusted it so it barely caused a current.. it just moved the water slightly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emily94

"a single betta would love you for giving him a ten gallon", I ment for him to be alone (If thats what you were reffering to).

My betta didn't mind the filters flow, but I adjusted it so it barely caused a current.. it just moved the water slightly.

Do you have algae eaters?

I have one in my main tank which is a 30 gallon, but no there wasn't one with my betta.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emily94

I have one in my main tank which is a 30 gallon, but no there wasn't one with my betta.

I hope you don't get snails. They are the hardest thing in the world to get rid of. Clown Fish will get rid of snails.;)

Snails are gross, there all slimey and icky looking.