Newbie: Need helping making 10gallon tank!

[atticus27]

I have a 10gallon that i want to make into a fish tank.
I want to have ottos (the algae eaters) or SAE Siamese algae eaters; ones that won't grow big like plecos since it's a 10gallon.
I also want a green theme with plants.

Question is: what kind of fishes should I get?
If you had a 10gallon, what fishes would you put in there? I don't know much about types of fishes so i need a recommendation.

Thanks in advance!!

 

[neilanh]

Welcome to AA!

Will this be your first tank? Please read the articles in my signature about the nitrogen cycle and fishless cycling, they are filled with great information that you'll want to know about your aquarium.

Definately go with ottos over the SAEs for that small of a tank. SAEs can get a bit bigger and need more room to move around than a 10g tank can provide. other types of fish you can look at would be a school of some type of tetra, or rasboras, something along those lines.

If you're wanting to go with live plants, check out our planted section, there is a wealth of information in there to help you get going.

 

[runninwoof]

i agree, read up on fishless cycling!

plants are fun, but you need lighting to support what plants you choose.

do not overstock!
about 1 inch of fish per gallon is good.

as for what fish to add. hmm personally when i move i will have 3 10 gallons and these are some of my ideas for 10 gallons:

community-tetras, danios, and guppies.
shrimp tank-red cherry shrimp and ottos
betta sorority- female betta
shelly tank - shell dwellers (although they like hard water with sand and dont really like plants)

 

[mike47517]

I would say Livebearers, tetras, white cloud mountain minnows, bettas (no more than 1 male per tank), danios, rasboras, and ottos, or eaven a shrimp tank as runninwoof suggested. Just a few suggestions.
Oh and i agree be sure to look at the fish cycling thread.

btw: welcome to the sight!

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

I would stay away from livebearers, (unless you got a place to put all the fry), and I would also stay away from betta because they normally limit you down to only a few other fish in the tank if that. For a 10 gallon I would keep it simple, get a couple ottos (if your going with live plants.) Get 1 BN pleco (if your not getting the ottos) I suggest getting like 2 dwarf gourmis and a small school of some sort of tetras (around 3-5.)

Also some inverts would be nice, some dwarf shrimp would be nice like RCS, Yellow shrimp, blue pearls, ect. I like my shrimp, he is a bamboo shrimp and a filter feeder, they get bigger then the dwarfs though.


Got any more questions send me a pm or post back on here.

 

[Zagz]

Welcome to AA! I would have to agree to stay away from livebearer's unless you go all males. I would consider a small school of tetras for good color and some otos.

 

[atticus27]

hey guys, thanks for the warm welcome

Yeah I am totally going to get some tetras and ottos now haha

I want some of those ghost shrimps or whatever shrimps there are out there, just some sort of shrimps but i'm not sure if their going to die easy or if any other fishes are going to eat it. Are shrimps algae eaters too?

As for bettas; male or female is one less agreesive? Should I get a female and male betta?

For fish cycling, is that when you have to let the ammonia and nitrate and nitrite level settle down? I was scanning through a website really fast because I had school. I'll reread it when I have time and when I'm done with homework heh.

Alright, thats all the questions I have right now. Thanks again!!

 

[runninwoof]

female betta is the less agressive, and can be kept with a community.

yes the dwarf shrimp eat algae.

and yessir the fishless cycling is letting the biofilter get established before you add fish, so that your fish dont die!

also if u want plants then you gotta get the lights for it.

 

[HooKooDooKu]

...As for bettas; male or female is one less agreesive? Should I get a female and male betta?...

I've been doing some research on bettas myself... considering a future 10gal filled with a betta sorroity.

First, at least one interesting place to learn some stuff about betta is www.bettatalk.com. It's run by a woman who breeds/sells bettas. Of course her bettas are akin to buying pure bread dogs, while what you get at the local fish store is going to be a mutt.

But here's the basics of what I've learned from her site...
1. You CAN NOT have multiple male bettas in the same tank... they will fight to the death.
2. A male and female can not share the same tank except for when breading. Otherwise, one is most likely going to pick on the other one (and while generally it will be the male going after the female, the other way around sometimes happens.
3. You can have multiple females share a tank, but you have to realize that there can be trouble. You can't just toss them into a tank and expect them to play nice. That generally only happens if you have a set of sisters that have lived together since birth. Otherwise, you have to have a backup plan for when one of the females gets picked on and must be seperated from the others.

Somewhere else I recently read that with female bettas, you don't want to put just two in a tank together. You really want 3 or 4. The reason is that the females will establish a pecking order. When you have only two, the domoment is likely to bully the submissive. But with three, the Alpha-betta is out numbered and is therefore less likely to bully the others. Of course there is still the possibility two or more might gang up on the third and beat her up a bit.

 

[elwaine]

I would have to agree to stay away from livebearer's unless you go all males.

Just my $.02, but I think that male and female livebearer's can make excellent first fish. Here's why:

It takes several weeks (minimum) to several months (more likely the case) until your new aquarium stabilizes and you have a disease free, relatively balanced ecosystem with "happy" fish. Any time you add live stock (plants or fish) you run the risk of adding disease, snails, algae, aggressive fish - or fish that will be picked on to death by the original inhabitants.

None of the above represent insurmountable problems, and most of us deal with them on a somewhat regular basis. But if you start out with livebearer's, you never have to add additional fish to your tank. Of course, you'll now have the opposite problem of what to do with excess fish... but that's only a problem if you don't like eating fish. (Just kidding.)

And as you can sort of see from my Avatar, they can be quite colorful. Of course, the two fish shown in my avatar are both male Endler's, but the reason they are smiling is that there are a bunch of lady Endler's Livebearers in my Aquarium.