brand new aquarium owner

[alesunrebeka]

hello. i recently was given a 5 gallon tetra aquarium (was purchased @ walmart). i have never owned an aquarium before, so i will probably need a lot of help. the aquarium has a filter, heater, some unattractive brown rocks for bedding, a couple of decorative plants, some sort of pink fake/coral rock, and a clam shell that would open up and blow bubbles if i could figure out how to hook it up. and of course, most importantly it has a sucker fish living in it. although he hides, and most of the time i'm left wondering if he's still in there at all i want to add a couple more fish, but i have no idea what i should get. i know that beta fish fight, so that would be no good. and i know that gold fish are 'dirty' fish. any suggestions on what i could get, fish wise? i also want to add real plants, and different decorations. but i know that i can just visit my local pet store to get those.
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[LyndaB]

Welcome to the forum!

Do you know what kind of "sucker" fish you have? Some of them get to be 10 inches long and, obviously, that small tank wouldn't be the proper home for it.

Definitely do lots of research before you purchase any fish. Most of them will be way too small for that tank. You could have some shrimp or snails. But personally, other than that, I wouldn't advise any fish other than a solitary betta for that tank.

You're going to want to read up on the nitrogen cycle in order to keep your tank healthy. It's not as simple as just buying a tank, filling with water, and dumping a fish in hoping for the best. There's a huge learning curve at the start of this hobby but once you get the really important stuff under your belt, you can relax and really enjoy your tank.

 

[alesunrebeka]

i have a pleco plecostomus (according to the internet), sucker fish. he's blackish/grayish/brownish with white spots. a catfish? can the betta live with the sucker fish? people have told me that they attack other fish. since he is an algae eater i would like to keep him, as he is supposed to help keep the tank clean. i will try to post a picture of him if i can figure out how to do that

 

[hippy guy]

Here's what id say. I say take the pleco back, because most get huge, and you'd need like 200 gal. For. A good stock for a 5 gal would be a betta (male or female) and some shrimp, you could 8 or so, as they have almost no bioload, and there great at cleaning things up. Heck you could even get a goofy looking snail with all that
You also may want to read about the tank cycle process, (fishless cycling is the most favored here) but if you absolutley have to keep a fish in there from the start check out fish in cycling. (I will warn you, however, that the shrimp and snail may not survive a fish in cycling, and the betta, or even the pleco you have now might not 100% either :/ )
One last thing, for plants mario moss could be done just with window light, or ambient room lighting, but for most plants, you will need to ugrade the lighting to something more powerful (its always fun getting new gadgets for your tanks )
I hope you keep us posted, and just so you know everyone here loves pics
Good luck on the tank, and have fun.

 

[redsea]

Welcome to the forums.