getting that moss ball rolling once more

[Frittercrittern]

hello everyone, fins and tails alike! nice to meet you! I am finally diving back into the world of aquariums after spending so much time in the pet trade as someone who educates others about them. I had to stop keeping tanks a couple years back due to chronic pain and mental health reasons. The chronic pain hasn't gone away, but I think I've found a few work around for it to make things easier, so I've decided to use my job perks to get a nice 10 gallon tank started cycling.

I'll be making a post on it and what I plan on adding to it soon, as I have a lot of questions and clarifications I'd love advice with, but first! I thought I would use this post to show some pictures of my other pets, as well as get a few fun details down about me so you all might be able to recognize me when I start posting more often.

Name(s):   Fritter or Critter are both good!
Age: 21 yo.
Pronouns: they/them or xe/xem
Current fish interests:
- freshwater eels
- knife fish
- freshwater snails
- freshwater shrimp (especially amano and fairy shrimp!)
- fresh + brackish water crabs
- bottom feeders of all sorts
- gourami
- loaches

Glad to be here and excited to learn more as I go along this journey. く⁠コ⁠:⁠彡

 

[Fishmanic]

Welcome to TFF. I See you have a snake. You might want to enter it in our Pet of the Month contest which starts in in mid May.

 

[Frittercrittern]

Welcome to TFF. I See you have a snake. You might want to enter it in our Pet of the Month contest which starts in in mid May.

Oho, that sounds very fun! I will definitely have to break out the camera and get some good pictures of Hebi (the kenyan sand boa in the photo) then. Thank you for the warm welcome, and I hope you're having a lovely day!

 

[Fishmanic]

Our June Tank of the Month contest will feature tanks sized at 16 gallons and smaller. You might consider entering your tank after you cycle it.

 

[Frittercrittern]

Out June Tank of the Month contest will feature tanks sized at 16 gallons and smaller. You might consider entering your tank after you cycle it.

I might! Right now it doesn't look all that pretty, just black sand, a plastic cave hide and a zebra striped rock from an old tank. But I'm on the fence on what all I'll be putting in it.

I know for sure I want a nerite snail or two, and my partner would really like some otocinclus catfish. I was hoping to check in here to see how people have done with them in ten gallons. Most sources online say a ten gallon is big enough for a school of them, but I wouldn't be super comfortable putting a school larger than...four, maybe five in there at a time. They're cute little suckers, but I want to make sure they'd be comfortable in this sort of home.

As far as other animals, I also love shrimp, but I don't want the tank floor to be too crowded with the snails and otos already, so I may hold off on them. And then...I usually just go with a Betta. My work has a lot of them that get sick that I could get for free and nurse back to health, usually from very preventable issues like bloating. But since this is a sort of new beginning, it might be nice to try something else. I could probably put another small schooling fish like zebra danios in or go with a platy of some kind? But I'm a bit unsure. Schooling fish have never been my forte, and I'd feel more comfortable putting them in a 20g or larger. I'm just not sure what other non-schoolers I could experiment with in a ten gallon. Do you have any suggestions?

 

[The603]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[emeraldking]

Welcome aboard and welcome back to fish keeping...
Love those critters you've shown...