Amaranth
Aquarium Advice Newbie
After a year without fish, I’m finally getting back into the hobby. I’ve previously kept bettas (loved them), neon tetras (hated them), tiger barbs (fun little fish!), and albino cories (love!). After asking my family to care for the barbs last summer while I was in the Czech Republic I returned to find one skeleton, one completely missing fish, and one half-dead, listless barb. I didn’t really want to go through the effort of cleaning and restocking the tank at that point, so I tore it down. Since I recently got my own apartment, I’d like to set up an aquarium again.
I’ve kept the fish mentioned above in a 5.5 gallon tank (not together!), so my plan was to reuse that aquarium and get a male betta. However, I was cleaning last night and discovered a 10 gallon in my parents’ basement. That got me thinking “Well, maybe I could use this and get the betta, and some cories!” I have a few drawbacks with the larger tank – I don’t have a proper filter or heater for it (Hagen Stingray 5 and a 25 watt heater), and I’m a bit concerned about moving it once I move out. But enough with the rambling and on to my questions!
I’ve kept the fish mentioned above in a 5.5 gallon tank (not together!), so my plan was to reuse that aquarium and get a male betta. However, I was cleaning last night and discovered a 10 gallon in my parents’ basement. That got me thinking “Well, maybe I could use this and get the betta, and some cories!” I have a few drawbacks with the larger tank – I don’t have a proper filter or heater for it (Hagen Stingray 5 and a 25 watt heater), and I’m a bit concerned about moving it once I move out. But enough with the rambling and on to my questions!
- Is there much difference between moving a 5.5 and a 10 gallon tank? I imagine it’s not much harder/more delicate, but I could be wrong.
- If I go with the 5.5g, there would just be the one betta. Would he do ok with a snail? I know that likely depends on the betta’s personality and the type of snail. I was thinking maybe a nerite? I think they’re pretty, but I’m also open to any other ideas since picking something just because it looks good is a horrible idea.
- On that topic, does anyone have any good online resources on keeping snails and different varieties? I’ve yet to find something I consider reliable, but then again I haven’t looked too hard.
- For the 10 gallon, I’d need to get a new heater, filter, lid, thermometer, and probably substrate. I’m not thrilled about shelling out extra money to do that (~$65 by my estimate?), but I can be persuaded if enough can provide explanations that it’s worth it.
- For the 10 gallon, if I use it, I was thinking one male betta, and maybe 6 cories. According to aqadvisor.com this would be alright. But I’m wondering: would it be alright to mix cory species? For example if I had three albino and three panda. I was under the impression that the difference between these guys was their color, but apparently they’re different species? Sorry to be so ignorant on this topic, but I really did think they were just different patterns. Also, AqAdvisor has a warning that albino cories should not be kept with bettas, but there’s no problem with pandas. Is there a reason for this? Simply different species/behaviors?