Zachw - 10G

[Zachw2193]

I am a new member and I am also new to to the hobby. I just started a 10 gallon freshwater tank about 3 weeks with one gold panda platy and 3 peppered corydora cats. I've been doing my 25% water changes every week, and will do one later today. My water is still a little cloudy and ammonia was very high two days ago when I performed my last water change. Also, I have a Fluval 30 HOB filter and air stone disk. Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated as I start this new hobby.

Quick tank update. I lost my gold panda platy today and I discovered I have two female Cory's and one male. I started seeing eggs on the walls of the tank last night and noticed the sacs on the bottom of two of the Cory's. What should I do with the eggs? I don't have a big enough tank to keep them all. Also, what would be some good tankmates for the Cory's? I've lost platys in the past two months and I'm unsure why. Any ideas or advice for new tankmates and what to do with the Cory eggs would be appreciated. Thanks in advance ☺

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[Autumnsky]

Your tank might not be cycled. Or you could be experiencing a mini cycle.

If you change the filter pads for cleaning and throw away the pads you are throwing away any beneficial bacteria / BB that is growing to keep the tank in the nitrogen cycle. If you wash/rinse them in untreated tap water you are killing the BB. Keep the same filter pad til it is literally falling apart and rinse in pwc water and/or treated water to remove Chlorine and Chloramines, etc.

AND "up" the pwc schedule with the additional ammonia you have, try every other day and a larger amount. Test after each change and each day. To keep the fish safe from the toxic effects of Ammonia, NitrIte and NitrAtes if the water is unsafe territory do another pwc. Use Prime if you can get it for water conditioning the tap water.

Reduce your feeding by half is usually a good way to start. If you are feeding flakes, they turn to ammonia very quickly. Consider Hikari brand (pelleted foods and don't cloud the water) as a basic food, like Micro pellets, and Omnivoire Sinking Wafers.

 

[Zachw2193]

I'll start doing more water changes, and I'll look into getting the Prime. Is there anything wrong with keeping just my 3 Cory cats in the tank, or should I add more fish to the tank? I've tried mollies and platys and they've both died. Should I just start doing the water changes more often and once i get the parameters into a safe area, add another Molly or platy?

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[Autumnsky]

The Cories can be sensitive as well to unsafe water parameters.

Three fish are fine. Wait til you get the tank stablized / fully cycled.

30% pwc, refill, then another 30% pwc (you can take a break in between ). It helps equalize the new water parameters to the old and better the tank water with less stress to the fish. Than say doing a 90% pwc which can be stressful for the fish, too much parameter change all at once. Then check the parameters and if still in toxic/unsafe level, do another.

Also if you have a liquid test kit for all that test stuff it is really helpful to monitor progress.

 

[Zachw2193]

Sounds like a plan. Thanks so much for the advice. Do you have any suggestions as to what else to put in the tank once I adjust water parameters? My girlfriend loved the gold panda platy but I kind of want to add a bit of a bigger fish? Or should I add two smaller platys?

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[plantnoob]

With a 10 g tank I'd stick to smaller fishes. With larger fishes, both your mechanical and biological filter will be taxed and may not be able to handle the bio load. If you really want to add more, I'd suggest something like endlers, guppies, maybe small tetras or rasboras. Also always think go by the final size they'll grow to and not what size they are in the tank at the fish store.


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[Autumnsky]

Good advice Plantnoob.

I recently got some Snakeskin Endlers (was also told they were called Cobra???!) and they are very flashy with a bit of metallic as they swim and turn. Adds a bit of sparkle. My males are all together and the females are in a different tank. These guys tails are a little ragged, they came from someone with too many fish in the tank. I really like them.

My recomendation would be just going with up to 6 male Guppy or up to 8 Endlers. Or maybe 6-8 Neons and, add another Cory or 2 AFTER the tank is stable down the road. In other words stable tank, add small bunch of fish, the wait for stability, then add the Cories.

An additional option would to look at nano fish, like Boraras Brigitae Chilis or any of their cousin Boraras, or Microdevario Kubotai (love them). You can get more of them since their adult size is smaller.

One more additional option is to look for a 20 tall. Fits in the same space

 

[Zachw2193]

Thanks for all the advice and suggestions. Those are cool looking fish.

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