Starting a new tank

[Ff_emt2008]

Hey everyone

So my brother just found a old 10gal fish tank that he wants to set up for his daughter so I was wandering if I gave him one of my hob filters (just up graded to a canister filter last week so still running my 2 hob) and 5 gals of my tank water if he would still need to cycle the tank? Also what would be some good fish to put in a small tank like that looking for something with lots of bright color? Thanks for your help

 

[Rivercats]

All you need to do is give him one of your HOB filters, but be sure to keep it wet on the trip to his house with it. It won't fully cycle the tank but will give it a good jump start. 10g tanks cannot hold alot of fish but you could do a very colorful Betta and either 4 Pygmy or Dwarf Cory cats or 3 Julii or Panda Cory cats. Otherwise you could do something like 3 male Guppies and 1 male Platy for alot of color and not have to worry about being overrun with fry. Then you could add a colorful gold mystery snail and even some shrimp for variety. So the way I'd do it is set up the tank with your HOB filter and get one Platy male to finish the cycle fish in. After the tank is cycled then you can see about adding other additions to the tank.

 

[librarygirl]

What fish do you have? It may or may not instantly cycle the tank, depending on the bioload of your current tank and what fish are going into the 10. Most likely it would either fully cycle it or be pretty close.

10 gals are a bit limiting in terms of fish though. I wouldn't do too many corys in a 10 as they are active fish; pygmy or dwarf maybe but that's it (pandas, etc get too large) but they can be hard to find. corys are active fish so they should have more room.

Your friend could do:
-- 1 betta (you can try some dwarf shrimp with it and/or a snail but it'll depend on the betta whether it will tolerate tank mates) OR
-- 3 african dwarf frogs (dwarf, not clawed) OR
--3-4 guppies OR
-- 1-2 platy OR
-- a shoal of 6-8 nano fish like ember tetra, celestial pearl danio or chili rasbora (don't mistake neon tetras as being nano fish; even though they are small they are very active and need more room than a 10 gal); you could also do a centerpiece fish like a sparkling gourami (avoid the larger gourami). You could try 4 of the pygmy or dwarf corys too; just be sure your substrate is smooth (sand is preferred) or their barbels can get infected or erode. OR
--3 guppies and 1 platy