Hello Everyone, I'm New! :d About Me, And Looking For Advice&#

[Maddy]

I am VERY new to fish keeping besides a whole lot of betta fish when I was in elementary school that I kept in an awful 1 gallon bowl with bright neon gravel. (Not at the same time of course haha.) I hadn't had a fish in a while until one of my friends happened to rescue 2 common goldfish from a school science experiment. She couldn't keep them because she didn't have a tank, and so I stepped in and offered to take them. After researching a bit, I went out and bought a 10 gallon tank with a filter and some live plants and such to keep them happy.

After about a month or so, I figured that it was best to move them outside to a pond so that they would have more room to grow, since I learned how large goldfish can get. After that, I was left with an empty 10 gallon tank. I cleaned out all of the water and rinsed the sand which I realized was not a very good idea since I could have let my tank cycle with all of that ammonia that they probably produced… At this time, I did not know about the Nitrogen Cycle at ALL. I read in about 3 places where it said my tank only needed to be cycling for around 3-4 days so I thought I was doing good by letting it cycle for 8. BIG mistake little did I know!!)

After, I bought a balloon molly, a lyretail molly, a golden dojo loach, and a ghost shrimp. A few days after they had been in the tank, the female molly dropped some fry!! I was freaking out because I was NOT expecting this to happen at all!! A week and a half later, both of my mollies are dead, the lyretail passing away just this morning However, of all of the molly fry I captured, I’ve only had one casualty. Thank god for this, I feel like all hope is not lost just yet :’D My ghost shrimp, dojo loach, and 13 or so fry are still alive and well, and I really hope that I can prevent any more sudden deaths.

I am currently looking to find a new home for all of my new baby mollies, despite how cute they are. I intend to raise them through the summer until they get big enough, and then I will give them away. Unfortunately, I am not too interested in mollies after my experience with the first two
Despite all of my horrible failures, I really am passionate about fish. I love to lie there and watch them for hours if I can. I know a 10 gallon isn’t much, but as soon as I can, I will definitely upgrade because I don’t want my dojo to be cramped up once he gets larger. I am still learning new things each day and spend a LOT of time researching different types of fish and how to better take care of them.

If anyone has any advice for a beginner like me, by all means share as much as you can!! I love learning new things and really want to improve and be the best friend I can to my fish :]

 

[fishies101]

Well i was just looking and it says that a golden dojo is ten gal. per fish but i don't trust that. Maybe you should someday upgrade to a fifteen or twenty gal. when he gets around 8 inches. as you should be away of they are a cold water species (as my knowledge says to me from the sign at petsmart) so i am not to sure about keeping him in a tropical tank i may be wrong but you may want to ask someone other than me about this fish. if you know a good bit about this fish let me know if i am wrong cuz i like those fish and want to know more about them all you need to know really for fish keeping is the temp. the size of the fish the size of tank( i think) and the food and the etc.... good luck!

 

[Maddy]

Well i was just looking and it says that a golden dojo is ten gal. per fish but i don't trust that. Maybe you should someday upgrade to a fifteen or twenty gal. when he gets around 8 inches. as you should be away of they are a cold water species (as my knowledge says to me from the sign at petsmart) so i am not to sure about keeping him in a tropical tank i may be wrong but you may want to ask someone other than me about this fish. if you know a good bit about this fish let me know if i am wrong cuz i like those fish and want to know more about them all you need to know really for fish keeping is the temp. the size of the fish the size of tank( i think) and the food and the etc.... good luck!

Yeah I know, my 10 gallon certainly won't hold him when he gets bigger! I think I will probably have a year or so until I have to worry about him hopefully :] However, I've heard that dojos in an aquarium setting only get to be around 5" so I'm crossing my fingers that he won't grow TOO big.

Also, yes I am definitely aware that he doesn't like warm temperatures, so I suppose it's good that I don't have a heater! Unfortunately I have to find that balance between temperatures because I have the molly fry :'( Hopefully I can find a new home for them though!

 

[fishies101]

Well i was just looking and it says that a golden dojo is ten gal. per fish but i don't trust that. Maybe you should someday upgrade to a fifteen or twenty gal. when he gets around 8 inches. as you should be away of they are a cold water species (as my knowledge says to me from the sign at petsmart) so i am not to sure about keeping him in a tropical tank i may be wrong but you may want to ask someone other than me about this fish. if you know a good bit about this fish let me know if i am wrong cuz i like those fish and want to know more about them all you need to know really for fish keeping is the temp. the size of the fish the size of tank( i think) and the food and the etc.... good luck!

Yeah I know, my 10 gallon certainly won't hold him when he gets bigger! I think I will probably have a year or so until I have to worry about him hopefully :] However, I've heard that dojos in an aquarium setting only get to be around 5" so I'm crossing my fingers that he won't grow TOO big.

Also, yes I am definitely aware that he doesn't like warm temperatures, so I suppose it's good that I don't have a heater! Unfortunately I have to find that balance between temperatures because I have the molly fry :'( Hopefully I can find a new home for them though!

well for the mollies you could go to your local PET store and get a five gallon or smaller acrylic and set them up a mini growing tank but if you want to just go ahead (not that i am making you do it or anything like that) and get the dojo a bigger tank and maybe he'll grow faster and then the babies will have a ten to themselves or you can get another glass tank and put them in that. those are just a few suggestions if you want to do one go ahead you don't have to though it was only suggestion.so do what you want and good luck with those fry!