Hi, i'm fairly new, and I am looking at stocking a 10 g tank. When a minimum tank size is given for a fish, is that reserved solely for that fish? i.e., a cockatoo dwarf cichlid requires at least ten gallons. does that mean if i got it, i could only have that fish or is there overlap? Please helpme, as I'm hopelessly confused.
stocking a 10g fresh
- Thread starter bigrojo28
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Ok, that helps a lot. I just though the cichlid looked really cool. I thought maybe one of those with 2-3 platies or neons. Also, gerald, as far as dyed fish go, are there any really common ones that i'm likely to find at a pet store? I want to avoid them if possible. Oh, one more thing: are mickey mouse platies recognized as a breed, or are they just regular platies dyed?
the mickey mouses are a natural color morph from selective breeding. no dyeing involved.
a few fish that are ofted dyed are blood parrot cichlids (sometimes called "jellybeans"), glass fish (these guys have the obvious neon "disco" colors), "painted" tetras (these will be various pastel easter-looking colors), and anything with the word "tattooed" in its name (i've seen this done to everyone from bala sharks and tinfoil barbs to gouramis and the aforementioned parrot cichlids).
some people would also argue that you should avoid red danios (aka "glofish".. google that term for more info), but they have been genetically supplemented, not dyed. you can decide the ethics of that for yourself.
now, onto your other questions. i don't have personal experience with SA dwarf cichlids, but allow me to give you some "err on the side of caution" advice, if i may.
i don't know if it's a good idea to plan for an apisto in a 10g, especially if you're aiming to make a community tank. most breed profiles i'm reading say that dwarf cichs should be kept in groups, and there's not really enough room to do so in a 10g. if you keep a single fish, he or she may tend to be more aggressive and bully (or eat) smaller fish like neons.
in addition, they often prefer very different water chemistry than livebearers like the platies you've mentioned. the platies like hard, neutral-to-basic water (pH 7 and higher), whereas SA dwarf cichs usually prefer soft, neutral-to-acidic conditions.
if you've got your heart set on the cichs, my suggestion would be a bigger tank, and as much reading as you can do before investing your $ into a setup.
if you're sticking with the 10g idea, there are an infinite number of smaller, more "newbie-friendly", and equally colorful fish you can pick out. the general stocking rule is 1" of fish length per gallon, but this is not an exact science (for example, 6 1" neons will produce less waste than a 6" fish).
wow... lots of rambling. sorry! hope i've helped a little.
a few fish that are ofted dyed are blood parrot cichlids (sometimes called "jellybeans"), glass fish (these guys have the obvious neon "disco" colors), "painted" tetras (these will be various pastel easter-looking colors), and anything with the word "tattooed" in its name (i've seen this done to everyone from bala sharks and tinfoil barbs to gouramis and the aforementioned parrot cichlids).
some people would also argue that you should avoid red danios (aka "glofish".. google that term for more info), but they have been genetically supplemented, not dyed. you can decide the ethics of that for yourself.
now, onto your other questions. i don't have personal experience with SA dwarf cichlids, but allow me to give you some "err on the side of caution" advice, if i may.
i don't know if it's a good idea to plan for an apisto in a 10g, especially if you're aiming to make a community tank. most breed profiles i'm reading say that dwarf cichs should be kept in groups, and there's not really enough room to do so in a 10g. if you keep a single fish, he or she may tend to be more aggressive and bully (or eat) smaller fish like neons.
in addition, they often prefer very different water chemistry than livebearers like the platies you've mentioned. the platies like hard, neutral-to-basic water (pH 7 and higher), whereas SA dwarf cichs usually prefer soft, neutral-to-acidic conditions.
if you've got your heart set on the cichs, my suggestion would be a bigger tank, and as much reading as you can do before investing your $ into a setup.
if you're sticking with the 10g idea, there are an infinite number of smaller, more "newbie-friendly", and equally colorful fish you can pick out. the general stocking rule is 1" of fish length per gallon, but this is not an exact science (for example, 6 1" neons will produce less waste than a 6" fish).
wow... lots of rambling. sorry! hope i've helped a little.
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you're welcome.
do you know about cycling? http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/freshwater-beginner-information-questions/4084-fishless-cycling-everything-you-wanted-know.html
^that link should help. basically, you will save time, money, and stress on yourself and fish if you do a fishless cycle rather than plop some fish into your tank and let nature take its course. it takes a lot of patience, but ime/imo it's worth it.
if you already know all this stuff, i apologize. just making sure.
do you know about cycling? http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/freshwater-beginner-information-questions/4084-fishless-cycling-everything-you-wanted-know.html
^that link should help. basically, you will save time, money, and stress on yourself and fish if you do a fishless cycle rather than plop some fish into your tank and let nature take its course. it takes a lot of patience, but ime/imo it's worth it.
if you already know all this stuff, i apologize. just making sure.
Yeah, i guess a claw frog would be a mistake, lol. Yeah, i've been reading through all the posts new and old today, and i've found some stuff that will really help and allow me to beat my parent's setup from a few years ago, which i'm sorry to say had painted glassfish in it... We wouldn't have bought them if we knew about their origins, but the pet store just called them fruit salad fish, and we never even thought twice about it.
Ok, another question: would my tank be able to support a clown pleco? In the previous setup (bear in mind I was 5), i believe we had a common pleco, which got HUGENORMOUS in about a month, and then died of starvation. Needless to say, for that month, our tank was spotless. I know clown plecos only get about 1/3 - 1/2 the size of regular plecos, but I wouldn't want to buy one just to let it starve... Also, the tank may be 15g, if that makes much of a difference... I'm trying to find it right now... But even if it is, I'll probably stock it as if it's a 10g anyway.
A 15 would be minimum for a clown plec, you will still need to be diligent about weelky water changes.
Keep in mind that clown plecs are wood eaters so they do need drift wood in the tank. They won't really touch any algae.
If you give me your tanks' demensions I can tell you for sure what gallon it is.
Keep in mind that clown plecs are wood eaters so they do need drift wood in the tank. They won't really touch any algae.
If you give me your tanks' demensions I can tell you for sure what gallon it is.
Its hexagonal, 21" tall by 8" side length by 15" across (side to side). IT's 17" from corner to corner, if that helps. I got 7560 cu. in., which is (i think) 123886 cm cubed (probably wrong) which i get to be the sam number of milliliters, which would be 124 ish liters which would make it about a 30 gallon tank, which can't be right, can it?