starting off need advice on 6gal tank
- Thread starter Ashleynewbie
- Start date
In my honest opinion and short experience.... If your budget allows you to.... Get the biggest tank you can afford and comfortably fit in your house. I started with a 1.5g for 8 months. Then I actually started researching and looking stuff up about actually keeping an aquarium correctly.... Which led me to this great site and very great and helpful members. After a lot of reading and looking stuff up.... I bought a 46g bow front.... Then went to a 55g.... And now I have a 72g bow front. If budget is an issue.... Buy used. Craigslist has a lot of great prices and usually include a lot of extras to help you get started. The bigger your tank the more options you have for your stock.... Please do look into the proper way to cycle your tank and don't make the same mistake a lot of us newbies make. Hope this helps in some way..... Welcome to the tank and a great new hobby.*PEACE!*
Although what MrNiteOwl said is true, sometimes it's not an option, and hey we've all got to start off somewhere 
Good to see you're not trying to overshoot it with cramming loads of fish into a tiny space as lots of people insist in doing with their first tank. I like the idea of a couple of ghost shrimp, and on top of this fish wise.. a lot of people will probably say a male or female betta (which works well). Personally I'd want a bit more in a 6 gallon. If you follow the "one inch of fish per gallon" rule then you have approximately 6 collective inches of adult fish you could stock. A pair of dwarf gouramis, male and female, could work in there, because they only stay around 2 inches, but it depends whether your LFS sells females - a lot don't because they don't sell as well as males due to the lack of colouring.
As for alternatives.. it'd be probably easier to tell you what wouldn't work. Any form of livebearer in a male and female situation would end up with a population boom as they reproduce like mad. Having said this, a few MALE guppies, perhaps 4, could work really nicely because they're colourful and reasonably active. I would suggest the smaller type of tetras but they do like to be in groups of 6 or more and you could be pushing your stocking limit with that. Avoid anything too active, like danios or "glofish", and anything that likes to be in a big shoal.
Now of course, if you had a bigger tank you'd be much less restricted, but I think maintaining a small tank can be just as rewarding. If you haven't got the tank yet I'd suggest looking around for some cheap deals on something a bit bigger, as said Craigslist is always a good start.
Just remember to read up on cycling your tank properly - a lot of books (actually, one I read last night which I considered gospel in my earlier years) and websites, not to mention LFS, only see cycling or decribe cycling as a period of a couple of weeks where the tank "settles", when it is actually the build up of beneficial bacteria in the filter system and on hard media such as stones and gravel. I'm sure MissFishy will stumble acorss this thread at some point, in her sig she has a great site which is probably the most simple explanation of cycling you'll find and will guide you through the process. Hope this helps
Good to see you're not trying to overshoot it with cramming loads of fish into a tiny space as lots of people insist in doing with their first tank. I like the idea of a couple of ghost shrimp, and on top of this fish wise.. a lot of people will probably say a male or female betta (which works well). Personally I'd want a bit more in a 6 gallon. If you follow the "one inch of fish per gallon" rule then you have approximately 6 collective inches of adult fish you could stock. A pair of dwarf gouramis, male and female, could work in there, because they only stay around 2 inches, but it depends whether your LFS sells females - a lot don't because they don't sell as well as males due to the lack of colouring.
As for alternatives.. it'd be probably easier to tell you what wouldn't work. Any form of livebearer in a male and female situation would end up with a population boom as they reproduce like mad. Having said this, a few MALE guppies, perhaps 4, could work really nicely because they're colourful and reasonably active. I would suggest the smaller type of tetras but they do like to be in groups of 6 or more and you could be pushing your stocking limit with that. Avoid anything too active, like danios or "glofish", and anything that likes to be in a big shoal.
Now of course, if you had a bigger tank you'd be much less restricted, but I think maintaining a small tank can be just as rewarding. If you haven't got the tank yet I'd suggest looking around for some cheap deals on something a bit bigger, as said Craigslist is always a good start.
Just remember to read up on cycling your tank properly - a lot of books (actually, one I read last night which I considered gospel in my earlier years) and websites, not to mention LFS, only see cycling or decribe cycling as a period of a couple of weeks where the tank "settles", when it is actually the build up of beneficial bacteria in the filter system and on hard media such as stones and gravel. I'm sure MissFishy will stumble acorss this thread at some point, in her sig she has a great site which is probably the most simple explanation of cycling you'll find and will guide you through the process. Hope this helps
Heres Missfishys site
a must read !
MissFishy's Guide to Fish
and like MrNiteOwl said this really is a fantastic site filled with great people
a must read !
MissFishy's Guide to Fish
and like MrNiteOwl said this really is a fantastic site filled with great people
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Good tank mates for Ghost Shrimp are the Small Tetras such as Neon Tetras, Glow Light Tetras, and Black Phantom Tetras, also Harlequin Rasboras, African Dwarf Frogs, Bettas, White Clouds, Fancy Guppies, Corydoras Catfish and other fish that are too small to eat the Ghost Shrimp. *SUNSMILE*
A bit of reminder, a 6 gallon tank is really small and a full grown ghost shrimp and full grown fishes of the above-mentioned types would only allow you to a maximum of 5 to 6 tank pets not taking into account whether you're putting in other ornaments. you can check this minicourse for other pertinent information.
A bit of reminder, a 6 gallon tank is really small and a full grown ghost shrimp and full grown fishes of the above-mentioned types would only allow you to a maximum of 5 to 6 tank pets not taking into account whether you're putting in other ornaments. you can check this minicourse for other pertinent information.
If you have a little money to burn and if they're available, I'd suggest Celestial Pearl danios, or maybe a few dwarf emerald rasboras. They're fairly uncommon which is kinda cool, and they stay really small - my celestials are about 3/4 of an inch long, the rasboras stay about that size too, so you could put six or maybe even seven in a 6 gal. safely.
