Help Direct My Fish Research While My Tank Cycles.

[Deus Machina]

This is my 10-gallon tank, at current.

This spirited little guy will be going in there.

I haven't had a tank bigger than 3 gallons in a decade.

Should I put in real plants? These will be replaced with silk if it bothers the betta's fins.

Should I replace the hand-me-down 'rock' with a longer tubular 'log', or is that ledge enough for general purpose?

Looking to cover all levels of the tank, want a school of tiny fish and one or two solitary/pair-happy fish or a couple little schools.

Already ran through the '10 galllon suggestions' sticky, but would like to hear some personal opinions and caveats for my research.

 

[minxfishy]

Silk or live plants are good for Betta's, plastic not so good as they can tear their fins on them.

The log looks fine to me.

For a shoal of fish with a betta, go with harlequin rasboras, bettas seem to be uninterested in them and the rasboras are not fin nippers so will leave the betta alone. I have 13 in with my bettas and no problems at all. (Also a 10g btw).

For bottom of the tank, corydoras are good, again no problem with them and the bettas. I have 3 Albino cory's in with my guy too

 

[Deus Machina]

Everyone suggests cories, so they're at the top of my list.

How big do these two types get, anyway? Probably something like three or four cories, and the rest of my 'allowance' of rasbora?

I like tetras, but heard they can get nippy.

 

[minxfishy]

Rasboras dont get big about 1 1/2" (5cm). So a nice 10ish shoal would be good, they occupy mainly the top of the tank, but they do rush around like loonies as soon as the food hits the surface, chasing it everywhere.

Corydoras depends on the species, the pygmy species doesnt reach much over 1-2" I believe, the larger species no more than 3-4". So maybe 4 tops in a 10g.

Also no on the tetras Im afraid, they are nippy, no matter which ones you get, even neons, which the betta would not appreciate.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

in a small tank the best way to get it to look livley active and larger is to put the smallest fish you can in there, so I'd go with one of the pgymy corydoras species, a group of 6 would be make them lovely and playful. they can be a touch delicate though so best to wait for a few months before adding them..... however this all fits into my cunning plan as will be explained later.

then for your shoal the harlequins would be fine, you need to be careful with some of the average shoalers like danio's as they're actually very active so despite their small size need a larger tank than you have so that they have plenty of swimming room.

so when you've cycled you could get a group of 6 harlequins.... that and your betta would take you up to 10" of stocking, we advise newbies to start out with 1" of fish per gallon of water because it's a nice manageable stocking level, however after 6 months or so when the filter is a little more robust and you've honed your skills with the maintenance etc that a community tank requires you can push this up to 1.5/2" per gallon. Now in a 10 gal I'd be v wary about going as high as 2, but 1.5 should be ok. If you added a group of 6 pgymy cories at this point it'd be just about perfect, and the tank would be mature enough to not have any problems with the cories.

 

[Deus Machina]

Hmmm... Alright, I'll have to start doing some looking around the local shops to find fish in good health and in better selection. I haven't actually seen a cory around here yet.

Solid no on the tetras, then. I remember having a couple bettas that were fine with them way back, but I didn't trust them when the betta doesn't have a 30-gallon tank to claim a corner in and chase them out of.

My plan was to stick to the 1" or slightly less for a while. So if they'll get on well in groups of 4 or 5 instead of needing at least 6, I can either give them a little room to grow or add more later.

 

[OldMan47]

You will have good results with only 5 rasboras. They are not a tight schooling fish but provide lots of movement. I have a hard time believing no corydoras at a LFS. I have never been in one that didn't have a few different types in stock. Quite common in most fish shops are the paleatus, called peppered, and the aeneus, often called bronze. It might be quite hard to find a local supplier of the pygmaeus, hastatus or habrosus corydoras since they are not as popular as they should be. These guys only get to about 3 cm in length so they don't display well in a large tank unless they are present in large numbers. They are small enough to be a bit hard to find in a bustling larger tank because they will hide from the larger fish they are often put in with.

 

[Deus Machina]

Oh, and for the cories and rasboras, how do they fare with salt in the water?

Since I've started adding salt (1/2 tsp, as suggested on the box), none of my goldfish or bettas have every come down with an illness--in fact, it saved my first betta from fin rot that crept in during the move stress.

Just want to make sure I won't be putting in anything that can't get on with the conditions.

 

[minxfishy]

You should only use salt as medication for any of those species.

I wouldnt add salt for any of them, except for medication. Unless anyone knows different?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

cories will not tolerate salt.

 

[OldMan47]

I must agree with minxfishy. There is no reason to use salt with any of the fish you have. I have been keeping my present setups of 7 tanks for about 4 years now also with no illness. All my fish ever get from me is water. I do give them fresh water quite often to prevent buildups of poisons in the water but the only time I have used salt, it was table salt, was for some ich that showed up in a newly aquired betta. That salt was removed as soon as the betta's ich treatment was complete. As MW said, the corydoras will not tolerate salt as well as what you presently have although many freshwater fish are harmed by the salt levels that are suggested by some LFS and of course all salt salesmen.

 

[Deus Machina]

Hmmm. Alright. I've gotten attached to my salt to keep the illnesses away, but considering it's hardly much compared to what I've seen elsewhere...

Just more research for me. I assume a 75% water change at the end of my tank cycling will remove enough to make it comfortable for the cories?