What new fish should I get?????

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melisphillips

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Feb 21, 2003
Messages
17
Location
San Francisco, CA
I have a ten gallon tropical system that has been up and running for a month with a hang on the back filter. I have 3 neon tetras and one honey gourami and NO ammonia or Nitrites. I am all cycled and ready for some more fish!! Yeah! I am just looking for some advice. I would love some type of catfish but any ideas anyone has would be great! My boyfriend would like a shrimp but I am not sure if this is cool?

Also...down the road I would like a frog. Can anyone give me some advice on these?

Thanks!
 
OK, the posibilities are near endless. Alright, they're not endless, but there still are a lot of choices you can make.

Getting a bottom feeder is a good idea. Plecos get too big for your tank, so avoid them. A lot of other catfish are nocturnal, like my spotted raphael. So, unless you like to sit in a dark room looking at a dark tank, you'll probably never see it after you buy it. There are, however, lots of good catfish that stay out during the day. I don't have one, but lots of peole are crazy about cories. Some of them are very colorful and they are more active than other catfish.

As for the shrimp, you could get some ghost shrimp. They make a neat addition to a tank, but you have to research how to take care of them. I had four and I liked them. But, I must have done something wrong because they all died within a week, so I don't think it was natural causes! :roll:

The frogs are cool. But, make sure you don't get a clawed frog, as they get big, mean, and will rip your other fish to little bitty fishy pieces. make sure it's a dwarf african frog. There is a thread about them in the general freshwater forum. Check it out!

You are at an exciting point in the fishkeeping experience. Make sure you stay calm and pick out a good fish. I know at least I get all kinds of excited when I am about to buy new fish. I learned the hard way not to rush out and buy a fish before I knew about it. There are lots of good fish out there. If you take your time, do plenty of research, you can find the fish that you (and your other fish) will live with and love.
:mrgreen:
 
Cory catfish. In a tank that size 3-4 of them would be fine. They get to be about 2 - 2.5" in length. Make sure to feed them sinking bottom feeder tablets. Also I would get a couple more neons. They like groups of 5 or more best. Don't overload your tank though. Too heavy of a bioload will mean a lot more work changing water all the time. I would add the neons and cories and leave it at that. You can always get feeder shrimp like ghost shrimp. They stay quite small (1 inch or so) and you could get a few. They don't add much to the bioload at all.

Throw some live plants in there as well. Java Fern is your best bet as a dead easy plant to care for. Larger shrimp and crayfish and crabs tend to snatch the occasional fish for a snack (neons make good snacks).
 
*nods and agrees with tkos*

A few cories would make a great addition to your tank. And you would do well to add a couple more neons. Or, instead of a bottom feeding cat you might want to look at an algae eating cat such as an oto.

Theres a bunch of diff kinds of algae/filter feeding shrimp that would go well in a 10g, aren't dangerous to fish and don't add much to the bio-load. Ghost shrimp seem to be the standard shrimp, but theres some really cool ones out there. I have a few cherry shrimp in my 10g; pretty lil red guys maybe a 1/2 long, although now the tank is planted I never see em LOL Theres also Bamboo shrimp (also known as wood shrimp). These guys get about 3 inches long and have really cool fans instead of claws (they are filter feeders). You can check some of em out here: http://www.azgardens.com/newalgaeaters2.php

tkos makes a good point about overstocking. A 10g is a very small tank; what would be a small ammonia spike in a 55g, would be a tragedy in a 10g. Keep on top of your parameters, as I get the feeling you guys have been, and you should have a great tank :)
 
Thanks for all the help. I think I might go with a few cories and then think about the shrimp. I will probably add to my tetra count too. I started off with four but one died during my cycling.

Thanks again! :D
 
Anytime melisphillips :)

And just a coupla FYI:
This is my Bamboo shrimp; he (she?) is about 2 inches long: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=1129&password=&sort=7&thecat=500 . I'm really amused by him. In the QT tank he's in atm, he sets himself up precariously on that plastic plant in the outflow of my filter, and we discovered he actually has a set pattern when he uses those 4 filter fans! I think I'm gonna call him Ralph (Macchio; he looks like hes doing the wash on-wash off thing from Karate Kid LOL).

Do scroll thru some of the previous neon posts; some of us have had a hard time getting regular and cardinal neons to survive. We think it has something to do with the stock on the east coast, which means you should be ok over in Cali, but still a good thing to be aware of.
 
Its been my experiance that Neons die the second their hit by the return flow of a HOB filter.


It seems the slightest shock or anything kills them instantly.
 
My two neon's are trying to outgrow my guppies.. haha I didn't know they could get as big as mine are...
 
I have had my three neons for about a month now and they seem to be fine (knock on wood!). Maybe the west coast stock is healthier???

Cool Bamboo shrimp!! Is he/she expensive? Is he/she easy to take care of?
 
Unusual William; the outflow of my HOB is strong enough to knock the woodshrimp off his perch occasionally, and the 2 surviving cardinal neons swim right thru it. I wonder if the more unhealthy ones simply can't handle it (these 2 have survived whatever killed the other 3 as well as a bout of ich...tough lil buggers). I have a pic up on wetwebmedia's site so you can see what I mean (just scroll to 25g QT tank; should be the 2nd on the list): http://wetwebfotos.com/Home?actionRequest=userview&userID=2788

So far I've found the Bamboo/Singapore/wood shrimp (they go by all 3 names) the easiest living thing in my tanks (except for the snails who I ignore completely; those are the lil brown spots in the 25g pic LOL). Because they are filter feeders, you don't have to feed them specifically; they set themselves up either by the intake or the outflow and grab all sorts of microscopic goodies; I believe suspended algae makes up a goodly part of their diet. Planted tanks are also great for em as theres always lil bits of plants floating round. This one cost me $8, but it was an impulse buy *slaps her own hand*. I had read about em previous, so I wasn't getting anything I was unfamiliar with, but it looked SO cool in that lfs I couldn't resist LOL you can get them much cheaper from www.franksaquarium.com or the website I posted previously. Oh and btw melisphillips, if you check out the link I posted above, theres pics of the cherry shrimp there as well.

And yeah, I do think the cardinal/neon stock you folks get on the West coast is much healthier then the guys we get over here on the East.
 
Heck they won't even stock cardinals in Nova Scotia. Too easy to die I guess. But they are great fish to watch. I think in the end you are lucky to have had 3 of 4 survive cycling. They generally aren't recommended for it. You got some tough fish, keep them healthy!!
 
I don't know, I've seen a crapload of them die instantly when they got hit by the HOBs return.

one even got stuck to the intake, Perfectly healtyh [ seemed that way, anyways ] and died in the two seconds it took for me to get him off.

I'm really leary of ANYTHING small anymore, like Neons..

The smallest thing in my tank right now is two month old black Saifin mollies. They are just under a month old. Sweet, adorable, cool little buggers they are.

They like to school with my 4 balloon mollies. altho they are just as often off on their own, hiding in what little space they can find.
 
Slightly OT, but chances were your neons were unhealthy to begin with William; healthy fish are strong enough not to get stuck to the intake.

Because your fish are coming from different suppliers melisphillips, you shouldn't have the issues with neons the way us East coasters are. Just make sure you QT (as you should all your fish :) )
 
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