beginner with little space!! lots of questions

[mandakay]

well, i am wanting to start an aquarium. i am not too sure what i am wanting in it but i KNOW i want apple snails. snails are the love of my life and its basically the main reason i am wanting to start and tank again.
i dont know what goes well with others but i would like a tank of goupies, with an apple snail and a beta.
or a tank of drawf gouramis (i have had these before and they kept fighting!!)
an apple snail, some black widow tetras, and neon tetras.
are any of these combos possible? or even all the fish i named in the same tank.
i dont know what size tank i want to get.
also is it REALLY hard to move fish and aquriums? we are moving to chicago in about two years and i dont want to move the fish and have a bunch of dead fish on my hands when i get to chicago.
i want to be sure i am making a wise investment. i have seent that tanks are definally not cheap.
i think i am wanting a 10, 15, or 20 gallon

 

[FishGeek]

I would got with a 20G and do:
3 Black Widow Tetras
5 Cardinal Tetras (more pretty and more hardy than neons)
1 Honey Dwarf Gouarmi
1 Apple Snail

Give you a variety and color

 

[mandakay]

yeah? that sounds good.
i was just doing some looking at the fish i like and if there ph, kh, and water temps are same. some where, some wherent.
i found that i can house a male betta, some goupies, some zebra danios, and my apple snail together.
i have heard that bettas need to be housed alone, but its not true... is it??

also is it possible just to have a tank of snails? i like fish too, but like i said, apple snails are the main reasons i am wanting a tank again. maybe just a betta and a snail would be fine?

 

[FishGeek]

It depends on the temperment of the Betta. There are some people on here that have Male Bettas with other fish and there is also some people that have tried and failed with this and they had to rehouse their Betta. I wouldnt try Guppies as the first fish with a Male Betta. The general rule of thumb is to have the Betta as the main color focus and the other fish are dull and dont have exotic fins. These characteristics tend to threaten the Betta and make it feel as though they need to defend themselves. I personally dont like the idea of trying to put a Male Betta into a tank smaller than 55G. To me it just seems to crampt to house a "fighting fish" with others if you go smaller.

 

[zoo minsi]

mandakay if you like snails you might want to check this site out they have some very kewl ones, i never new there were so many variations.
http://home.mchsi.com/~masts/snail_bucket.htm

 

[mandakay]

thank you!*thumbsups

 

[FroggyFox]

I wouldn't suggest putting more than one apple snail in a tank unless you're prepared for the mass of little snails that will surely result. Check out www.applesnail.net for more info on them.

I would go with the 20...its a nice size starter tank, many more fish options than the 10G and hardly any bigger. I wish I would have started with a 20 instead of a 10.

YES tanks are difficult to move. I dont know how far Chicago is from you...but whether you move 3 houses down or 3000 miles away, it still means upsetting your tank and the possibility of losses. That being said...2 years is a long ways away...and if the largest tank you're looking at is a 20 then you should be fine, and hopefully you wont get a case of MTS (multiple tank syndrome) or it'll be just that much more interesting when you move. I think if I were in your shoes I may buy the setup used (try www.craigslist.com for your area) and then maybe when you move try to sell it to someone else the same way and start over in the new city.

Oh...also you mentioned gouramis and bettas and guppies...not that you said you wanted them together, but just in case you were thinking it...thats a big no - no to have guppies and bettas together, or to have gouramis and a betta together. As you saw sometimes its not good to have gouramis together either, some of them do best when they're the only gourami in the tank.

For your fish choices in a 20 I think maybe I'd try a dwarf gourami, 2 female and 1 male guppy, an apple snail, 3 corys (type that stays around 2 inches) and maybe a group of neons. Or you could do that and substitute the guppies and neons for your black widow tetras and just be sure to get at least 5 or so.

Thats my two cents

 

[zoo minsi]

well guess ill chime in with my 2 cents on moving tanks, its a pain in the butt moved a 55 and a 10 this summer. only had to go 5 miles and was not fun. no no no it was not. but i dont like moving to start so maybe im biased. but if i just had to move the 10 or maybe a 20 i dont think that would have been so bad.