Stocking a 10 gal

[Newman]

a single goldfish in the 20H wouldnt be very expensive really but goldfish can range from 15-$40 for really nice ones. plus you said you cant support the wight so i guess 20 gallon is out of the question for now.

if you find you water is very alkaline and hard, try out guppies, or endlers, or maybe a few planties. bettas can handle any water really.

 

[Mulder]

General hardness is pretty high, as in over 180ppm, but carbonate hardness is below 10ppm. Could that account for the tetras failing to thrive? The pH is 6.5. Nitrites and ammonia were 0ppm, and nitrates around 10ppm.

So hard water fish like guppies, platies, and betta seem my best options. I'm reluctant to stock more than about a third of what my tank can handle at one time. I read that somewhere as a stocking guideline, and I'm not sure how scientific it actually is, even if it seems like a good idea.

 

[Newman]

actually thats odd. tetras like low KH so i have no clue why they didnt make it. a medium GH like that is tolerable for many fish. this water is too soft for livebearers imo. especially with pH6.5. you have to measure pH in a water jug after the tap water has stood around for a day. or just measure the pH in your tank.

stocking slow is good. few fish at a time.
check AqAdvisor online to figure out stocking.

your best bet now is corydoras, betta, rasboras or tetras, dwarf gouramies, sparkling gouramies, maybe some small species of loach, and also small pleco species.

 

[Mulder]

I did the testing on water taken directly from the tank.

What do you recommend for a yoyo loach? I've seen some recommendations for 10, some for 20 long. I've read one of those would probably eat the snails, but I'm really not attached to them.

 

[FreshyFresh]

Liveaquaria suggests 30g minimum for a yoyo loach.

 

[Newman]

yeah dont do yoyos in a 10 gal. Botia sidthimunki are a cooler choice, not wild caught and should be hardy. they also stay around 2" and they like snails i believe.

 

[Mulder]

Oh whoa. Those are beautiful! I'm reading that they really need a sandy substrate, though. My gravel isn't sharp, but its still a bunch of rocks. I'm also reading they really go for live prey. Should i be planning on a small daphnia tank? Or will they take to frozen or freeze dried food?

 

[Newman]

read more into them usually loaches take frozen food well like chopped bloodworms and brine shrimp. shrimp pellets should be taken too. as well as your live snail population.

if your gravel is round I'd imagine they will be fine. otherwise switch to sand. or add appropriate color sand to you gravel. you wouldn't want conflicting sand and gravel but the two would mix ok and will soften the substrate for the loaches, if the sand level is higher than gravel. but really gravel alone should not harm them at all.

 

[Mulder]

So I bought a pair of lady bettas. They were in a sorority tank, and I stood there for the better part of an hour watching them. There was no aggression, no ragged fins, nothing.

When I got home, a friend had brought me a male betta. I'm reading that aggression is likely to be an issue and I shouldn't house the male with the females. I can't easily return any fish. I am fine with breeding, though. At the moment I'm floating the ladies' bag in the 10 gal and setting up my crappy 3g for the male. Its not what I wanted, but I don't know what else to do with what I have.

 

[Newman]

you should not house a male with females in a 10 gallon-40 gallon tank. in larger tanks that are very densely planted, this may work because fish have places to hide and line of sight is easily broken. but it's not the best idea.

if you want to breed (I have tried this a few times with plakat dragon bettas) you're in from a lot of work. there needs to be a breeding tank, a tank for the female, and a tank for male. you need to condition them, then introduce them in a certain way (hurricane glass involved, as well as Styrofoam cups). the average fishkeeper should pass on betta breeding. do it only if you are really interested and have money to spare setting all of this up. don't forget you need to spend money and food cultures, grow-out tanks or containers, lotsof work maintaining water quality. and you could end up with 100+ bettas.

if you want you can likely have a betta sorority in your 10gal with just about no other fish. 4 female bettas is the rule, idk if you can fit more.

 

[Mulder]

I meant more along the lines of "If breeding happens, I'll deal." I'm not particularly interested in trying to do so. Is 3g with an airstone going to be enough for a single male betta? If not permanently, for a month, two tops? If I shift my baby gecko over to my empty 20g, I can sanitize his 10g to fit on my heavy shelves.

Do I need anything more than the pair of females in the 10g? Are they like tetras that need a certain number to school? Or can I just let the two be as long as there's no aggression and injury?

 

[Newman]

if there is no aggression, let the 2 be. if there is aggression try adding two more to balance out aggression issues. 4 females max usually in 10 gallon. from what i hear.

male is fine in 3 gallon but he needs that airstone or filter, and a heater. bettas jump so make sure all tank have no gaps in cover.

 

[Mulder]

I lost the male. 3g tank, with airstone. I didn't have a heater in the tank, but I put it between a pair of heated lizard cages and got a nice steady 76F water temperature. I did daily water testing, and usually ended up changing about 1/3 the water daily. I "seeded" his new gravel with a handful from the established 10g, and tossed in some fake plants.

I think I am going to separate the females. I don't see them chasing each other, or flaring fins, but one definitely looks better than the other. That one has perfect fins, full and vibrant. The other female's fins are looking frayed. I don't think it's fin rot, since the rays look completely undamaged, but if it is, I'd need to separate them anyway. There's no discoloration or anything, just the fins seem to be fraying between the rays.

If I've completely overlooked something, please let me know. I don't seem to be doing too well with fish.

 

[Newman]

bettas like 80F water and they dont mind a tiny amount of salt in the water for well being (a teaspoon for 5gals is good). you should also be using Indian almond leaves to get tea-colored water. the leaves have good tannin properties(better that dried oak leaves or other common leaves) that help fish health. but if you cannot get them then just go collect some oak leaves and what not. one or two leaves in a 10gal should be fine.

changing water every day was likely stressful on a new fish. when i get a fish i do not change the water as frequently as i normally do until about the 4th week. just so that the fish gets used to everything. they key there was to have a cycled 3 gal waiting for him, so the absence of a good cycled tank plus stress probably did him in. or just bad care at the LFS.

 

[FreshyFresh]

My four lady bettas are as vibrant and active in ~72F water as they are in the 80+ my tanks can get to in the summer.

 

[Newman]

Bettas come from warm water environments. it makes sense to keep their water at that temp if you can. but they can tolerate other temperatures well.

 

[FreshyFresh]

I hear you. People say they cannot tolerate moving water as well. I've found this to not necessarily be true also. They adapt quite nicely.

 

[FishDad]

I was surprised to find them to be a good community fish.

 

[Newman]

yeah they can be decent community fish too. but i finds the males to be picked on by larger fish like Angels a lot and they like to chase around colorful fish like platies. it's all good though as no fish are harmed physically. only an issue if it happens constantly and the fish get stressed.

and i have kept plakat bettas before, and they appreciate low- medium current because even the male doesn't have long fins to slow him down. those fish are lightning fast.