New here

[Kimm87]

Hi im new to this forum but not to fish.
I have had fish threw out my life but currently only have 1 basic 5g tank with 2 4-5 year old african dwarf frogs. I joined this forum because i have an almost 3 yo son who has been asking me for fish every day for the last month and i havnt had fish since i was pregnant so about 3 1/2 years now.
My current working plan is to buy 1 of the 10g starter kits with the filter and heater from petsmart, cut the sponge filter from my frog tank in half leave half in the frog tank with a new sponge and add the other half into the hob filter to cycle the new tank. The stock will probably be 5 or so male guppies and 3 cories for the tank. He wants a whale shark but hes little so i can convince him they are sharks. He also thinks whale sharks are only like 4" long because he has a whale shark toy. The tank will also have several small anubius plants I have about 8 right now that range from 6-10 large leaves to 15+ small leave that im going to cut up and split between the 2 tanks.

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

 

[IHaveADogToo]

Greetings!

If you don't want to mess with cutting up a sponge filter, just buy another sponge filter and run it as a secondary filter in your frog tank for a week or so. Then move it to the new tank.

In a 10 gallon tank, corys may not be such a great idea. Corys are a shoaling fish and need to be kept in groups of 6 or more. On top of that, most species of corydora like a little bit cooler water and guppies like warm, tropical water. If you can get some pygmy corys, that might work, as they are smaller than other corydoras, and they are temperature compatible with guppies. But they can be more difficult to find. Big chain pet stores don't typically sell them. Also, no matter what kind of cory you get, make sure you use sand instead of gravel as the substrate. Gravel can be real sharp and jagged and irritate or cut the belly of a cory. If you use sand, it's much safer for their skin, and they also like to sift the sand through their gills looking for little bits of food. If you have sand, your corys will spend the majority of their time pumping sand through their gills. It's really an interesting behavior to watch. Corys are really cool, but if you can, I suggest you go bigger than 10 gallons. 10 gallons is the bare minimum size listed for corys on paper. The larger the tank, though, the happier the fish are, and the more natural behavior you will get to observe.

Oh to be 3 years old agin! He has no idea whale sharks are the size of your house. You should take him to a big aquarium, like Sea World or that giant aquarium in the Dubai Mall, and let him see the whale sharks. I bet he'd love that!

 

[Kimm87]

Im probably going to drive the hour to the fish store they have all kinds of corys and a much better selection of guppies then petsmart
Is there another bottom dwelling fish that would be better in a 10 g with guppies? I dont really have room for anything larger because the tank has to fit on a side table and i want somthing on the bottom little man can get face to face with. We have pretty basic water its about 7.1
We took him to the tennessee aquarium last month they dont have whale sharks but he loved all the big fish and reef sharks

 

[IHaveADogToo]

The problem is, there's so many bottom dwellers that need to be in groups, and the ones who don't need to be in groups are super territorial or grow too large for a 10 gallon tank. That's why I suggest pygmy corys. They still need to be kept in a group, but they're much smaller than other, more common corys, so keeping a group of 6 of them in a 10 gallon tank is more doable than, say, a group of panda corys. I'm probably forgetting about a fish that would be a good fit for you. I feel like I am.

 

[seangee]

Nobody has mentioned water hardness. Guppies like hard water, corys like soft.
Have you considered shrimp? I had never really considered them until I got a small tank (15G) and now I often spend hours watching their antics.

 

[Kimm87]

Im not sure how hard the water is but I have heard that water hardness matters very little when talking about captive breed and raised fish because they are already living in similar water so are used to it and that it really only matters when talking about wild caught fish. In any case would the guppies go after the shrimp? I have thought about shrimp before but they seem to breed like rabbits will i end up with 2000 shrimp? And are pygmy corys the type of corys or a group. Like are the salt and pepper normal corys or pygmy.We had 2 salt and pepper corys before they were only like 2 inchs long. Well all i had to do was watch a video they are both dwarf corys answered my own question

 

[Colin_T]

There are several species of Pygmy Corydoras. They grow to about 1/2-1 inch long and live in groups. They do well in 10 gallon tanks. Otocinclus catfish are another bottom dwelling catfish that would fit.

Water hardness is less of an issue for most captive fishes but some fish still require hard water.
eg: Mollies will not survive in water with a hardness of less than 250ppm, and Platies, Guppies & Swordtails do best when the water hardness is above 200ppm.
Most captive bred soft water fishes will be fine in water with a general hardness (GH) between 50-300ppm, but prefer water with a GH below 200ppm.

Shrimp don't always breed out of control and you can always sell surplus shrimp to a pet shop and use the money/ store credit to purchase fish food or plants or whatever.

Guppies don't normally bother shrimp.

If space is an issue, perhaps look at getting a slightly wider & taller tank. It will be the same length but a few inches wider and higher will give more water volume.

 

[Kimm87]

I will have to look around and see if maybe i can find a 15 g that will fit on this side table,then weight may be an issue a gallon of water is like 8 lbs and this is just a cheep walmart table. I have really random second hand furniture my bed side table is the top half of a broken dresser that we cut to fit next to my bed.
I will sort it out I have a month, since my son refuses to potty train using every other potty training method i can think of because hes extreamly stuborn i told him if he used the potty for a month he could have his fish. Now he's begging to go potty.

 

[Kimm87]

I have another question! Tank heating? my room has an ambient temp of around 76 so i dont heat my frog tank. I used to keep a heater in there but since the tank stays around 76-78 durring the day and 74-76 at night the heater rarely even came on so i took it out. So will I need to heat the new tank? it will be about 3 feet closer to the floor and about 4 feet from an air vent but not in direct flow of the vent . The air in that area is slightly cooler probably around 72-74 but guppies need somthing closer to 80 dont they?

 

[Colin_T]

If the table is not suitable for a bigger tank then either get a proper stand or use a smaller tank, preferably a stronger stand.

Most pet shops can get custom made tanks and they don't cost much more. You might find a place that can make a tank that is 2ft long x 18inches wide x 18inches high, or something around the sizes of your table.

Most common aquarium fish are fine in water with a temperature between 20-30C (68-86F), altho the preferred temp varies between fish. But 76-78F is fine for guppies and 99% of tropical aquarium fishes. So if the tank water temperature is 76-78F then you will not need a heater.

 

[Kimm87]

Lol ideally id have a real stand and bigger tank but its not likely unless i rearrange the whole room

 

[Colin_T]

so, rearrange the room. Fish First, then children and family

 

[Kimm87]

Lol

 

[Kimm87]

Ok so instead of guppies and corys what about killifish and corys? And if so what kind and whats best raising from eggs or buying adults ?