10 gallon New*bee

[ks2012ks]

Hi I am Kyle, I purchased a 10 gallon tank a month back, equipped with everything I need to start a freshwater aquarium. Slowly but surely I have been adding fish and cleaning 35-45 % of the water, weekly, falling on Sunday. My fish are happy and respond well to my activity outside of the tank. They are very hungry and I only feed them once a day in the morning. Right now I just cleaned 40% of the water and they seem to respond well to the fresh water that I have brewed for them. All my fish are freshwater tropical fish who don't grow bigger than 3.5 inch. So far I have 4 small fish who are best paired in a group of 5; 2 medium size guppies both male; and 2 black large fish in which I forgot there scientific name but one is a male and one is a female the female has been producing eggs but since I clean a maximum of 45% of the water weekly I highly doubt I will get any offspring.(I really no nothing about reproducing fish). Very soon in the future I will be adding 3 medium size snails to the bottom of the tank. In response to cleaning a maximum of 45% of the water weekly lately the water has been cloudier then usual nearing the weekly cleaning cycle. Any ways Does any one have any advice for this future 10gallon ecosystem that I am supporting...


-kyle

 

[DutchMuch]

fish sound way to big for a ten gallon.
Do you know the name of the fish?
picture?
water parameters?

 

[Essjay]

I agree with DutchMuch; that does sound a lot of fish for 10 galls.


It would be helpful if we knew what the 'black large fish' are, could you post a photo please?

 

[ks2012ks]

 

[ks2012ks]

I guess I used the wrong words describing the size of the fish! never-the-less ...

 

[DutchMuch]

lol its ok, yea your stocking seems fine. Next time I would replace the gravel with a finer substrate such as sand, gravel collects a lot more "gunk and junk" rather than sand or finer substrates, this also effects good bacteria growth within the substrate. also an aerator in a tank isn't required or needed.

 

[Essjay]

The black fish look like mollies, in which case I am going to disagree with Dutch and say that mollies need a tank bigger than 10 gallons. However, guppies are fine in 10 galls. Personally I would rehome the mollies and get more guppies. You could ask a shop if they would take the mollies in part exchange.

 

[ks2012ks]

yes they are black mollies so if I switched these two black mollies out and in there place one more male guppy and one female guppy totaling 4 guppies; 3 Male and one female and then the 4 neon tetras ... I do like the rocks on the bottom and I do need to get something for the fish to hide in... but the bubble stone I have the in the tank I like! as ambience and extra air for everyone!

 

[Essjay]

Unfortunately that ratio of guppies is a recipe for disaster. Male guppies constantly chase females so you need at least 2 females for every male, preferably more, so that each female gets some time off while the males chase other females. With 3 male and 1 female, you would have an extremely stressed female.
I would also not have any females in the tank because guppies breed worse than rabbits, each female having a batch of fry every month. Even if a lot were eaten, there would soon be more fry than a 10 gall tank can cope with.


Neons and guppies are not really a good mix. Neons need bigger than 10 galls and they need different water from guppies. Guppies are hard water fish while neons are soft water fish.
In a 10 gall tank, assuming you have hard water, I would keep just male guppies, or perhaps male guppies and male endlers. Endlers and guppies are closely related (at one time they were thought to be the same species) and both like the same type of water. Both come in many different colours so you could add interest by looking for as many different colours as you can find.
In 10 galls, I would look at having about 8 fish, either all male guppies or a mix of male guppies and male endlers.

 

[DutchMuch]

4 neon tetras

tetras are a schooling fish and need to be in groups of six plus, wouldn't do to good in a 10

 

[Baker]

Seeing as you're asking for opinions I'll give mine without trying to sound too pushy:

first of all I'd like to address the starting point to any aquarium, the nitrogen cycle, which you may or may not have skipped over. Regardless, it's an extensive topic that I won't delve into here but if you aren't familiar with it, I recommend googling something along the lines of "how to cycle an aquarium." If you're already familiar go ahead and ignore that part.

Okay now to your point about your current stock:
You need to determine whether your primary concern is the comfort of your inhabitants or something else. If your pets comfort is your primary concern then I do have to agree that you should exchange the mollies for more guppies.
Essentially what you have right now is a live-bearer community tank, getting rid of the mollies and adding more guppies would effectively turn your tank into a species tank, which has its benefits when it comes to the comfort of your fish.
Mollies are a lot bigger than guppies and they're also very boisterous, this may affect your guppies negatively as they can be pushed around a lot more than they would be by other guppies. I also believe that each Molly should have a minimum of 10 gallons per individual. (You can get away with a lot less for guppies)
Ideally you would choose to go with a guppy only tank as opposed to a Molly tank basked on your tank size but ultimately that's your call.

Regardless of which you choose to go with, the behaviors of both are very similar. Males should be disproportionate to females as they naturally tend to harass the females, providing 2-3 females per male ensures that no individual female is being harassed so much to the point of stress and often times death.
i would personally go with 2 males and 6 female guppies. This will allow you to also add the 3 snails you were talking about. You might also try experimenting with some easy to grow, low light stem plants such as Anacharis. This will both help manage your water quality as well as give your fish moments of solitude to hide from others. (Even social fish like to be able to escape to themselves periodically.

I would have to disagree about guppies being "technical schooling fish" but they are social enough to the point that it really doesn't matter.

When it comes to the murky water issue, you could try changing your cleaning routine a little bit, break it into 2 water changed weekly, half the normal amount per cleaning and only gravel vac once a month to avoid stirring up the water too often.

Hope this helps

 

[Essjay]

I would go with all male guppies rather than males and females simply because a 10 gall tank won't be able to support many fry - and with 6 females there will be over 100 new fry a month and they won't all get eaten.
I think DutchMuch may have mis-typed guppies instead of neon tetras as he quoted the tetras from a previous post.

There are also 4 glowlight tetras in this tank, not neons as mentioned earlier. These are shoaling fish like neons, need to be in a bigger group in a bigger tank, and need soft water unlike guppies and mollies which need hard water.

The hardness of the water can be found from the water supplier's website. Once the hardness is known, it will be easier to decide if the mollies and tetras should be rehomed, and just guppies kept (hard water); or whether all the fish should be rehomed and another, smaller soft water fish kept instead.

 

[DutchMuch]

I think DutchMuch may have mis-typed guppies instead of neon tetras

lol yea I did sorry idk how the two words are completely different... stayed up to late

 

[ks2012ks]

the first Molly died I am guessing this was the female .. I noticed she was hiding more and more under the heater ... you guys were right the selection of fish wasn't best for a well balanced ecosystem. any ways I just flushed her... I am going ride out the selection of fish and see how long they last and then, when I am ready I will restock it... I am definitely going with 8 male guppies so far I have 2 I am just going to see how these do considering this is my first time around... #trialanderror

-kyle