Fish selection

[hutucong]

Well, my fishless cycle is almost done, fianally, I believe. Now it is the time to think about the fish.

The tank is 10g. I planted three plants already. My house use underground water which is hard and 8.4 pH. I think the pH is too high. The pH of tap water at my company is around 6.8. So I decided to use my company's tap water. And the tank temp is around 78 ~ 82F these days. I found sometimes it will go to 84 if AC is turned off.

I am a starter, so I want the hardy, samll size low price fish at first. And the fish food should be flake type. Previously I though white cloud is a good candidate, but maybe the temp is too high for it? Then how about cherry barb? I concern the pH. It seems that cherry barb likes pH less than 7. If I totally use the tap water from my company, it is OK. But I concern that if sometimes bad things happen, I have to change a large percent of the water, I have to use house underground high pH water, will that hurt cherry barb?

So, guys, any suggestion? And if I consistently use the underground water at my house, (it is easier than I carry water every week from company to my home) is there any fish can fit in?

By the way, because the temp of my tank is around 76~ 82. I did not put heater into tank yet. Do I have to set up heater now or I can wait a little bit late whne the weather is cold?


Thanks in advance!

 

[discus4everGrl]

Well, since you are doing a fishless cycle you don't have to opt for "hardy" fish that you may not want later. Once the cycle is finished, and I would advise that you do wait until then, you can put what you want in the tank.

You could use some of your water to augment the ph of the work water if you like so your not constantly carry large amounts of water back and forth from work. Since, its a small tank this shouldn't be too much of a worry.

The tank is warm enough, but I would recommend having a heater on hand. You never know what could happen. If there is anything that I have learned from having an aquarium its that weird things have been known to happen, and if your not prepared, those weird things are bound to happen when you can't get to a pet store. You only need a 50watt heater which is not expensive. I would recommend you spend the couple extra dollars to get a fully submersable one when you do.

 

[FroggyFox]

Pretty much any fish that you get will be able to adjust to your high pH...I would not worry about hauling water from work, that sounds like too much trouble. I dont think I would even mix the two waters because you would have to mix the same exact ratio every time since the two water sources are SO different.

Some cichlids really do well in high pH...although your 10G is not the best choice for any cichlids, except some of the small ones like shell dwellers.

The first one that came to mind for me was zebra danios...they're definitely hardy and a great beginner fish. They're very clean and lots of fun to watch, as well as good eaters so you dont have to worry about them being picky like you do with some other fish.

For other fish...you might see what is available to you locally...write down some names of the ones you like and then come back and do research on them to see if they'd be happy in a 10G tank, make sure they don't get any bigger than a couple inches etc.

If you have money for the heater now you might as well put it on now, if not you can wait. The heater only turns on when it is needed, so its not going to heat your tank up anymore than it already is, unless you set it that way. Now (while you're cycling and dont have any fish) is a good time to experiment with the heater and all of the equipment you're using instead of making adjustments when you have fish in there. The other thing a heater will do is not give you as wide of temperature fluxuations, if you set it to 78...the tank won't go down to 76 anymore so it'll only fluxuate maybe 4 degrees in a day instead of 6. A heater set pretty high (say at 83) right now during your cycle will speed up your fishless cycle