A friend of mine is planning on gifting my 9 year old daughter with a 10 gal. that will fit on her bookshelf. I have not had a whole lot of experience with fish tanks and currently have a 20 tall and a 20 long with live-bearing fish in both. The betta in the bathroom I have managed to keep alive for about 2.5 years and he still looks happy but I have already lost fish in my 20 long guppy tank, not to mention two of the ghost shrimp also. I'm worried that she will be heartbroken if any of her fish die because she seems to be so attached to the fish we already have. Help me please with setting up this new tank and figuring out what to put in it. Please and thank you kindly in advance for your wisdom.
Suggestions on 10gal
- Thread starter leah_1983
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You def want it cycled properly before you put fish in then... i am trying to think of hardy fish to put in it that will allow for a small community tank... You are limited by the tank size... You could try some danios (i really like the long-finned varieties or the purple passion ones. But you will need at least 5 of them for schooling. Rainbows are pretty, but get larger and also need to school... Maybe someone else has some better ideas... All I can think of are tetras, danios and the like. You would be limited to only 1-2 species, tho it can work if your daughter is into them.
Good luck and hope your daughter enjoys her tank
Good luck and hope your daughter enjoys her tank
Your daughter is 9 years old and so I am going to suggest a book,'The Simple guide to Freshwater Aquariums" by David E. Boruchowitz. It is very readable, answers a lot of questions, nice pictures and a good resource. You can probably get a good used copy on Amazon for a couple of dollars. It will not overwhelm her and will give her something to do while stocking the tank and how to make decisions. You can't put all the fish in at once and this will help her chose.
I am having trouble replying in the thread I saw about Blue Parrot Cichlids. I log in but it keeps making me log in IDK. Anyway I went to a pet store today to try to get ideas. I want to get a ten gallon starter tank setup, and I saw these fish they called Blue Parrot, and I fell in love. So there are no natural freshwater fish that look like that? I also love what the guy in the store said he thought was a jeweled cichlid. It reminded me of a Goliath Grouper only micro sized and had deep blue spots. I would like to know what fish have brilliant neon colors and can live together. I wish to make my freshwater aquarium look like a coral reef or wreck scene with a focus on blue fish and some other bright colors like pink and yellow green. Thanks for your help
well, if you want bright colors, tetras are the way to go. I would have 2 schools of 5, (there are lots of different kinds. Neon, rummynose, lemon... google a few and choose 2 species of the smaller kinds 1" ) plus perhaps a dwarf gourami for a centerpiece. Thyra had a really good reccomendation with the book, so your daughter gets some ideas. Be sure to do some googling before you make any final decisions! lol.
You seem fairly knowledgeable so I won't give you the big long newbie speech. Make sure your water parameters are good and buy healthy fish!
You seem fairly knowledgeable so I won't give you the big long newbie speech. Make sure your water parameters are good and buy healthy fish!
I would like to mention that fish can lose color when stressed, then when they get acclimated they can really "brighten up". I happen to like Serpeas (High Fin Tetra Minors) In the store they looked a very pale orange, but after a day or so at home, they became a vivid orange and with the black & deep orange fins (some have a little white fringe on the fins) they are very pretty. The same with some strawberry platies I have which turned out to be a kind of iridescent blue gray with bright burnt orange tails ( don't know where the strawberry came from lol)
i would suggest white clouds. ive been through my fair share of fish, but the white clouds i have seem to stick around for quite a long time. OR, you could over stock your tank sooo much with one type of fish that she wouldnt notice if any were missing? =) and in that sense, she wouldnt become attached to any individual fish? of course im speaking from the point of view of not knowing your daughter, so i could be totally wrong.
