New to aquatics!

[gavinkai]

Backstory/confession- thanks for reading! My son was set on a gold fish for his 4th birthday back in December. We got an old Aqueon 1 gallon minibowl from a friend and we headed to the pet store where the attendant helped us settle on a little feeder gold fish which my son named Wall-e. We decided to get a tank mate and the attendant suggested a little Panda Cory would be good. We followed the instructions for set up and everything seemed fine for about a month, then the Cory died. I started doing research and realized that I had a total ignorance of fish care and aquarium care in general. I started doing weekly water changes/gravel vacuuming while I continued to research and gather the funds to put Wall-e in a safer home.

We don’t have a lot of room, but I was able claim a bookshelf in the living room with enough space to fit a 10 gal tank. I thought this would be the best option to keep Wall-e happy and start a small community tank until we can settle on a good spot to get something lager to grow into in the future. I’ve been very excited to get into this hobby and doing research like crazy.

I picked up a 10 gal Aqueon LED starter setup on sale, upgraded to an adjustable tank heater(set at 74°f) and planted it with some micro sword grass and dark red Ludwigia. Set the tank up Friday morning, added plants and fish Saturday evening. We also added 2 olive nerite snails to keep him company until it’s safe to add a another fish as a tank mate. I picked up an API full test kit so I can monitor levels and packed the empty space in the filter with some loose biomax media I picked up this afternoon.

I checked levels this evening and got the following.
PH ~7.5
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
I plan to continue to check every couple of days.

My questions for whoever cares to give their thoughts:

- What would be an acceptable tank mate to eventually add for this set up? I really like Plecos but not sure which type would be a good match for this smaller (for now) set up. Rubberlipped Pleco perhaps? Very interested in shrimp as well if they would be a good fit.

- Any suggestions on acceptable additions to the community would be greatly appreciated.

- Any general suggestions for a new comer for things to watch out for as I’m getting the cycle going and letting Wall-e settle in to his new home?

- Water changes, how often and how much water? Should I use the gravel vacuum or just scoop water out? I use Stresscoat+ as a de-chlorinator.

- Been feeding Essentials goldfish pellets and I just got some Hikari algae wafers to keep the snails happy - any suggestions?

- Lighting - the tank setup came with a lid with 9 LEDs which seems decently bright. I am thinking of DIY adding some lights for night time as well as some additional lights for day time. Necessary? Recommended? Any ideas?

Thank you so much for reading and giving me you thoughts and ideas. I really appreciate it! Cheers!

 

[Skai]

Check the water quality every day and prepare to do quite a few water changes. It's very good you've started looking into the backbones of the hobby most people don't realize are there like water tests and things. I wouldn't worry about tankmates and the like until you have a fully cycled tank. Once it's up and running that question can be tackled at your leisure. I do worry about a goldfish in a 10 gal but you mentioned saving up for a larger tank so I'm not gonna go preaching.

Water changes. When you test (again an everyday thing until the tank is stable) replace 50% water every time the Ammonia reads .25 ppm. It'll get there quick as goldfish are notoriously dirty fish. When you do water changes just suck any surface debris off the gravel don't go deep into the rocks.

This link will give you more in-depth look at cycling with fish https://www.aquariumadvice.com/i-just-learned-about-cycling-but-i-already-have-fish-what-now/

For the lights... well, it's hard to say. Right now you have plants which will have the biggest benefit with good lights. The fish won't really care that much. Are the leds specifically plant lights? It didn't sound it from your description. Both those plants prefer moderate light. Does the tank get any natural sunlight? A lot of not plant specific lights don't give off the different/correct types of light. That's also why there are specific grow lights for indoor green house set ups. It might be you leds are fine. You'll have to see how the plants do. If you want to add more lights just for aesthetic purposes for the fish. That's perfectly fine. Wall-e probably won't care.

Food should be fine but you might want to consider mixing it up from time to time to give a nice balanced diet. Maybe with dried bloodworms or bug bites.

74 degrees is right at the upper limit of goldfish recommended temps. Goldfish are cold water. You might water to drop it down a few more towards 70.

Just keep an eye on those water parameters and if Wall-e starts behaving oddly or gets white spots that look like salt or isn't coming up to eat. Just anything that strikes you are odd. We'll be happy to tell you if it's something to be worried about or not.

 

[rlederer]

I agree with Skai but would like to emphasize his point about goldfish. They are coldwater fish, not tropical, so adding tropical fish is not a good idea, except maybe white cloud mountain fish

 

[libertybelle]

Do you have any idea what kind of goldfish you have? Perhaps post a picture. That will help you plan ahead both for how big it’s likely to get and what tankmates it can have.

Ex: white cloud minnow are a great compatibly option temperature wise but some goldfish will get big enough to snack on them. Smaller or fancy goldfish are unlikely to get big enough or are too clumsy to catch them!

Snails are a better option than fish or shrimp for algae control. Nerites come in pretty patterns, eat tons of algae, won’t get too big like a pleco or get eaten like the shrimp.

 

[gavinkai]

I believe him to be a common goldfish, but I am not sure. He was sold as a "Feeder" fish from a large tank. He is very quick and agile and has no problem darting around. When I get home I'll take a glamour shot and post it here.

We would love to have some other fish in with him eventually, but I am not in a rush. I know I need to get the tank cycled and stable before we add anything else. The goal is definitely for a community tank eventually.

I knocked the heater down to around 72 this morning, all that I have read says goldfish prefer 68-74 for water temp.

Thanks for all the replies!

 

[gavinkai]

Here are some photos ?

 

[Skai]

Common is a good guess... especially since he was sold as a feeder. But some common goldfish have been reported to reach 18" in size so... there's that. I don't think it's likely yours will but goldfish, especially ones that might have strains of unknown breeds in them have been known to surprise.

He could also be a comet... but his tail might be a bit short for that. Common and comet (i think) are fairly similar in average size. I haven't kept goldfish so I'll let someone who actually does confirm or correct me.

 

[libertybelle]

Personally I would probably (once the tank is cycled obviously) put him with a school of white cloud minnows. If he grows fast enough that you’re worried about him munching on his buddies then when he graduates to the bigger tank the minnows keep the smaller tank.

This is how multiple tank syndrome starts...

This is assuming that you mean to graduate him to a bigger tank as mentioned. If you think there’s a chance you won’t be able to do that for a while it would be better to leave him on his own. As mentioned these guys can get huge fast and tankmates will just increase the bioload even more.