New here

[Deborah Martin]

Hi, I am relatively new to fish keeping, completely new to tropical fish keeping and I went ahead and bought a Betta.

I spent far too much money, £100, on an attractive 9 gallon/35 litre nano tank with all the bells and whistles. It is a palace for my fish and he now shares it with some other suitable tank mates.

Doing it all again I would absolutely get a Betta again. In fact I would get loads of them. Either in a larger 10 or 20 gallon with dividers or in individual 5 gallon tanks. Here in the UK a 5 gallon tank with filter and light will go as cheaply as £30, then all that is needed is a heater approx £10. So it's an affordable hobby to get into.

I cheat cycled my tank by using bottled bacteria. The brand was Microbe-lift but I'm unsure if it is available everywhere. Tetra Safe Start is a popular, go to brand for a beneficial bacteria kick start.

What I did notice, with using bottled bacteria is that you still go through the same processes as a normally cycled tank but it is safe to introduce fish early.

I had a diatom (brown algae) outbreak after the first week. Then I had a bacterial bloom all over my wood, now I have noticed some sort of plankton creatures floating everywhere in the tank (apparently this is a good thing). It all absolutely freaked me out as I had put a significant amount of money into setting up a tank for a fish that cost me less than £10.

I would recommend cycling an empty tank in future, first because it is less expensive than buying bottled bacteria, secondly because you will still have to deal with the same algae and bacteria mini outbreaks anyway. But I had to deal with them in a live tank with a significant amount of bog wood and live plants.

Betta are a brilliant introduction to tropical fish keeping. They are inexpensive, can do well in a small inexpensive tank. They have loads of character, mine will feed from my finger tip now, and they love to see what is going on around them. They are a tough fish and can usually survive some rookie mistakes like missing a water change or not having a properly cycled tank. They also look stunning.

I keep going back and forth between Betta and tropical type fish. I really like the black molly's that I saw today. Decisions decisions.

 

[TallPaul]

If you bought the 10 gallon then it's probably a bit more than you would need for a single Betta.

You did right by buying the biggest tank you can fit.

Mollys, Platys and Guppys are live bearers. That means they don't lay eggs, they give birth to live babies. If you buy mixed sex fish you WILL get babies.

They are all good choices though as they are considered hardy fish.

I recommend live plants though. I have a lot of plants and it has made it so much easier to manage the water quality. Live plants consume some of the ammonia and nitrates, both toxic to fish. It also just "feels" more natural. They dont cost all that much and some plants can be cut at the stem and replanted elsewhere. Free plants forever.

 

[TallPaul]

In terms of stocking a 10 gallon. Mollys are a bit bigger than Platys and Guppys. You would probably only be able to squeeze 4 or 5 into a 10 gallon. I prefer to understock and overplant a tank.

Platys, guppys and swordtails are smaller and if you are looking for a busier tank then would be a better option. Platys look similar to Mollys anyway, just a tad smaller.

I would consider Rasbora and Tetra for a 10 gallon myself. They are quite a bit smaller than Molly's and you can have more of them. It's nice to their schooling behaviour.

Decisions, decisions.

 

[Colin_T]

Livebearers (mollies, platies, swordtails & guppies) come from hard alkaline water. Mollies in particular need harder water than what you have (minimum GH for mollies is 250ppm). You can increase the GH by adding Rift Lake water conditioner or Livebearer water conditioner. The Livebearer one has more salt (sodium chloride) in and that isn't as good for other types of fish.

Platies would be a better choice for the tank because they don't get as big as mollies and will tolerate softer water. Your water being about 180ppm GH and platies normally require 200ppm+. However, 180-200ppm is not likely to affect the fish that much.

Female livebearers can carry up to 6 sperm packets from mating with males. They use 1 sperm packet to fertilise each batch of eggs and then carry the developing eggs and fry (baby fish) around in their body for about 1 month. After this they give birth to little fish that will hide among the plants. The fry should be carefully scooped out in a small container of water put into a breeding net or another tank/ container until they are big enough to go in with the adults.

Because female livebearers can carry sperm packets around, they don't require a male to be in the tank for most of the time. Male livebearers can pester and harass the females by constantly trying to breed with them even if the they are pregnant. Because of this I recommend keeping them in male only and female only tanks. Basically if you keep livebearers, try to get a group of females and no males, or males with no females. If you buy males only, get 4 or 5 at the same time and put them in together. Make sure they are similar sized so the smaller ones don't get bullied by the bigger ones.