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hyetexa2001

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Apr 25, 2004
Messages
40
Location
n. hollywood
Hi my name is john and today i got my first 10 gallon aquarium i have had those little 1 gallon bowls and sponge bob aquarium and they are all really boring its not fun to have those you need atleast a 10 gallon and imo gonna get a 50 gallon soon oh wait i have to tell you what im here for lol.

Well today i went to my cousins and got my first 10 gallon it was very dirty and full of guppies and babies the water wasnt even half way full okay i took them out of that put them in a bag along with the rest of the equipment i took filter media these droplets which i will get to in a moment and a bunch of other stuff when i brought everything home i scrubbed the aquarium clean but not crystal clean of you know what i mean. i the gravel omg it was the worst made the whole house stink when i rinsed them the whole sink was full of brown water that was nasty anyways i took a bowl type of think that has a wire mesh at the bottom filled it with gravel and rinsed it but i left all the other residue such as these little things that looked like roots no they werent alive they just were they root type of things but the filter took care of it. And the filter sucks by the it is slowwww it it took hours of working to get the water to even flow at an ok pace its like 8 years old what can i say along with everything else well thats not the point here when i was done with everything and the water was filled up i added the droplets which i thought were dechlorinating droplets but it turned out they were just for helping to balance the water and a lil l8r i put in the guppies thinking the water was good but then a few mins l8r i saw the fish slowly starting to die im like what the hell is going on i mean i didnt use any type of soap on the aquarium what could be wrong so i threw away all the dead fish and decided well the guppies were small fish but i have a goldfish in a very small container that i had to keep it in for a short time i thought maybe ill try putting it in because it is large and it is very hardy i put it in and nothing happened but so an hour l8r i decided to but my betta fish in with it too and nothing happened to it either i guess its because bettas have lings and it breathed from the surface instead of taking in water thru its gills any ways theyre all doing fine but im thinking about getting the goldfish to put in more fish i mean if i leave the two together they will be allright but i want more colorful fish and i cant do that if i take the goldfish out im gonna give it to my friend for like the hundreth time hes got a 29 gallon aquarium full of goldfish so he takes it i have taken it and given it back so many times i lost count lol. so what im trying to say is what do you guys think is better take the goldfish out and get new tropical fish or just leave it like that and if i do take it out what kind of fish should i get i want mainly fish i can keep with the betta.? whoah i didnt even notice writing this much lol . ok you guys decide ill just wait here thanks byr Very Happy
 
Wow. 8O
That sucks about the guppies.
First, if your friends tanks is full of goldies, I would take the one you have back to the lfs. Being bumped around isnt' good for it and sounds like your friends tank really doesn't need another. Appropriate fish for a ten gallon tank would be things like the small tetras (neons, gold, ruby, etc), dwarf gourami, live bearers (guppies, platies), shrimps, maybe a few (3) cory cats just to name a few. Granted, all those fish aren't gonna fit in one ten gallon tank, just throwing out some ideas. I would keep the betta in there, add some platies, neons and maybe a dwarf gourami as your centerpiece fish. I think that would make for a busy/colorful tank. Good luck. Oh, and don't forget to pick up some dechlorinator 8O
 
I agree with Fluff...lack of dechlor is most likely what killed your guppies.

Are there any guppies left?

Your betta may not get along with a gourami. I like corys with bettas cause they really leave one another alone.
 
I agree with not bouncing the goldfish around.
This is probably not what you want to hear, but 10 tank is too small for a community.
Sure some people get a few fish to survive in one, but there is a big difference between surviving and thriving.
Think of a 10 gallon tank as an efficinacy apartment for a human. You know, one of those 1 room apartments with a sofa bed, kitchenette in the corner and a closet bathroom. ood for for 1 person, but if you had 4 or more people in one you could survive but you would all be miserable.
Your 10 gallon will be easier to maintain than the bowls, but it is still a very small amount of water and is subject to fast changes in water quality from slightly overfeeding and temperature swings. Even the small ammount of heat from a fluorescent hood will raise the temperature some. An incandescent light will raise the temperature up to 10 degrees. Setting the tank near a window or an outside wall will chang the temperature.

I would keep the goldfish in the 10 gallon. By the time you add some plastic plants and maybe an arch or something for him to swim through the tank will look complete and he wll have enough room to swim around comfortably.Goldfish eat a more vegetarian diet while bettas eat a more insectivor diet so if you keep them together one of them will get the wrong diet.
Since you rinsed your gravel good the tank will need to cycle so be careful not to overfeed your fish. What type of filter do you have? If it sucks in the food at feeding time you should shut it off long enough for the fish it eat. Food that just goes right in the filter will foul the water, especially when the tank hasn't grown enough bacteria to break it down.
If you have an undergravel filter you don't need to shut it off at feeding.
You said the water flow was slow. If it is a filter that has removable media such as floss or a sponge you probably need to change it (or rinse out a sponge) and clean out tubes that may be caked with algae. If it is powered by air pump you may have too small of pump or a crack in the diafram. The diafram is a rubber cup inside the pump that pushes the air through and many companies sell replacements for a couple bucks. At 8 years old that could easily be the problem. I prefer a power head to air pumps because they move more water through and are quieter.Power heads also need to be cleaned out occasionaly.

After your tank has cycled for a month and you are getting algae in their I'd add 1 snail. Only 1 or they'll breed. A snail will help with the algae on the glass and decorations without adding as much to the bio load as a catfish would. I don't know of any small cold water catfish for a 10 gallon tank.
If you get too much algae that the goldfish and snail can't keep up with block light from windows hitting the tank and/or put you light on a timer so it is only on when you are home to enjoy the view. The fish doesn't need a full day of light and goldfish will only eat live plants so I'd go with plastic.

If you decide to go with tropical fish you will need a heater. You shouldn't mix goldfish with tropicals because the warm water steps up their metabolism (they eat and poop more).
A community aquarium looks good with top dwelling fish, mid dwelling fish and bottom dwellers. For example the betta(top), guppy or plattys(mid) and cory cats(bottom) mentioned in the last post has all three. A 20 gallon tank is the smallest that would be suitable for that.


Use a gravel syphon to clean your gravel and and remove about 25% of the water about once a month. Do not take everything out to clean it as most people do bowls. This kills all the beneficial bacteria.
 
Do you have water dechlorinator? How often do you do a PWC?

Goldfish get really big upto 23" long and a 10 gal is way too small. IMO goldfish should be kept in ponds or very large aquariums over 400 gal.

I'm guessing your tank isn't even cycled, so if I were you, I would get rid of the goldfish and put the betta back where it came from. Once you do this read this http://www.aquariumadvice.com/showquestion.php?faq=2&fldAuto=15

Even though this is in the saltwater section, it can be used for freshwater too. I would add one shrimp if I were you or you could use pure ammonia, but this method seems more complicated.

If you don't have a test kit, you'll need one http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=4454&ref=3532&subref=BE&N=2004+113074

Read about this unless you already know about it http://www.aquariumadvice.com/showquestion.php?faq=2&fldAuto=21

Be patient, it may take more than a month before you can add fish (time varies, which is why you need a test kit).

HTH
 
garden toad.. i don't understand how you can say that a goldfish is acceptable in a 10 gal tank and a school of 6 tetras is not... a 10 gal can easily be a community tank assuming that the breeds of the community are small. A school of 6-8 tetras has much more room to move around than a fully grown adult goldfish, not to mention the amount of waste that goldfish produces is huge compared to smaller breeds even in numbers... thus possibility for spikes in ammonia can be harmful at a quicker pace
 
When my daughter was 5 she got a fancy goldfish. It was about 1" long. I put him in a 10 gallon tank. I kept a snail with it most of the time. The snail was replaced a few times. Five years ago we put it in a pond. The fish was about 4 1/2" long.

My daughter was 19 when we put it in the pond so the fish lived in a 10 gallon aquarium for 14 years.
It was never sick.

The water was never cloudy because I didn't overfeed it and did 25% water changes every month.

It dissapeared from the pond, probably a racoon ate it.
 
the fact that it lived for 14 years i don't doubt.... on thing that i think alot of people forget on here is the fact that fish in captivity will only grow to a suitable size for their enviornment... the fact that the goldfish don't grow to 23 inches in a 10 gallon tank is because they would be wedged in there and literally unable to move. my argument wasn't that you can't keep a goldfish in the tank (although I do think that when he stops growing he maybe a little cramped) my argument was that a 10 gal is fine for a small community of 'compact' fish
 
I don't know alot about goldfish, but fancy goldfish are stunted right? My link is on a common goldfish. Goldfish can live up to 40 years (the record is 43 years old), so it would take a long time to reach that size.
 
I don't see a problem with one school of tetras in a 10 galon established tank. IF you stop at the tetras and if you can keep the temperature level. I know that 1 goldfish can handle a temp fluctuatin better and they do not produce as much exess waste if kept cool and no other fish.

Have you ever known anyone to keep a tank of just 6 small tetras? I haven't.

Most people with a school of tetras decide to add bottom feeders. Corys are nice. Should be kept in schools too. At least 3. Don't for get a snail or some other algae eating fish.
How many fish are in there now?

I suggested 1 fish. Schools can't even school in a 10 gallon tank. As long as they san see each other they don't swim together in a group.

I'm not saying that that goldfish wouldn't enjoy a 400 gallon tank. It would reach full size in one and could have other fish to live with.
I would be happier in a mansion myself.

I'm just saying you CAN keep a1 goldfish healthy in a 10 gallon tank with proper mantinance.
He already has the goldfish and it will handle the cycling process.

Didn't he say the goldfish was in a bowl? Would it be better off in a 10 gallon alone or given to someone who has a 29 gallon full of goldfish ?

Yeh, you're right. Do it that way.
 
Have you ever known anyone to keep a tank of just 6 small tetras? I haven't.
Click to expand...
I have only 3 Tetra's in my 10 gal tank. Nothing more.

Snails don't really eat algae. At least most snails don't. They also won't reproduce like crazy if you don't want them to. If you get apple snails, you can have as many as you want (I had 11 in a 10 gal tank and they never reproduced), just don't give them the things that they need to reproduce. Keep the water level high, this will help avoid reproduction.

You can keep a school of tetra's perfectly fine in a 10 gal tank. And fish do not grow to their environment. They adapt. They become deformed and stressed from being in too small of a tank. That goldfish that grows to 23 inches will die from stress and deformation in a 10 gal tank. There have been several threads about this topic in the past. It is kind of like humans that are kept in small boxes (I've seen pictures, gross) all their lives. Their spines become deformed and they adapt to the environment. Eventually they die, never reaching their full potential.

For the 10 gal tank, I'd go with a school of 6 Tetra's or other similar fish. You could also have a few bottom dwellers, but you don't have to. I wouldn't worry about algae eaters. Just use a good ol fashion algae scraper.
 
I'm just saying you CAN keep a1 goldfish healthy in a 10 gallon tank with proper mantinance.
He already has the goldfish and it will handle the cycling process
Click to expand...

You can keep one, but doing that would be cruel. Heck, the oldest living goldfish lived in a bowl, but if you look at the picture, you can see how deformed it is http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/414114.stm I don't know how it lived because every other goldfish I've seen kept in a bowl or small tank has died without living to a size over 6 in.

I say find someone with a pond and give it to them.
 
jcarlilesiu said:
the fact that it lived for 14 years i don't doubt.... on thing that i think alot of people forget on here is the fact that fish in captivity will only grow to a suitable size for their enviornment... the fact that the goldfish don't grow to 23 inches in a 10 gallon tank is because they would be wedged in there and literally unable to move. my argument wasn't that you can't keep a goldfish in the tank (although I do think that when he stops growing he maybe a little cramped) my argument was that a 10 gal is fine for a small community of 'compact' fish
Click to expand...

This is so not true. An animal will not stop growing just because it outgrows it's aquarium. It's bones will begin to bend and the body will eventually become deformed... well, I really don't want to get into all that. The point I do want to address is, the fancy goldfish kept in a 10g tank for 14yrs was listed as a fancy goldfish. If this is the egg shaped goldfish, (fantail) I could see that as absolutely possible. They don't get nearly as large as their comet cousins. And a comet is what the poster has and will no doubt die from stress in the small tanks, way before it's time.
 
Thanks guys for helping me this much but this is what im thinking i want to get 2 chinese algea eaters i want to get a few tiger barbs but they will fight with the betta so thats out of the question i want to get about 5 tetras and a few snails but i dont think petco sells snails. and howcome apple snails dont breed in an aquarium

Oh and one other thing one of you said that a fish doesnt stopp growing it just starts to get deformed and thats exaclty what happended to the fish that died he had these two small fish and the tails were really crooked and i kep wondering why but now i know and my friend has a koi that he kept in a 10 gallon tank for 9 years and its doing fine i havfent noticed any deformation on it but it looks sorthve wierd i cant explain an its only about 5 and a half inches long i feel sorry for the little guy but what can i do i cant get him a better home cuz i never see the guy. Anyways thanks for the advice : )
 
Ahhh that tish was soooo cute. Well you can't argue with the care of a fish that lived that long....the proof is in the pudding. But I think Tish is an exception rather than the rule as to how long a goldfish can survive in a bowl. You can run across the freeway blind folded and survive but I wouldn't recommend it.

Nor would I recommend chinese algae eaters.....they are too big for a 10 gallon. Especially 2 of them. And they aren't so good at eating algae in my experience.

Usually you can find mystery snails at petsmart. I currently have a betta living with black skirt tetras and they get along. Corys are also good tankmates for bettas and they come in a variety of colorations. Very cute fish.
 
Chinese algae eaters are territorial and may become aggressive in smaller tank too. They should be kept in tanks of 30g or larger. I think I'd stick with the cories, small tetras and your betta.
 
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