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mountainspriggs

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Apr 18, 2016
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Hi, me and the girlfriend just got our first 10 gallon tank. We have 3 guppys, 3 tetras and a spotted pleco. They all seem very happy and the guppys seem to love to ride the currant of the pump. We also got 3 live plants 2 free snails somehow..... Not sure if that's good or bad.


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your tank sounds a bit overstocked, i would suggest getting a 20Gal tank for your pleco alone. the guppies and tetras should be fine in the 10Gal, and as for the 2 snails, could you take some pictures of the snails. If they are ones i think they are, they are pond snails(could be invasive if they get out of control(population burst))
 
Welcome.
 
There are potentially a few issues here.
 
- did you cycle the tank before adding fish, or use an established filter? If you did not, you are now in a fish-in-cycle which is very hard on the fish.
 
- what are your water parameters (that is, pH and hardness)? Guppies prefer hard water while most tetras prefer soft water. You risk one group not thriving in your parameters. Different fish can also have different temperature needs depending on species.
 
- if you have both male and female guppies, who are livebearers, you risk being overrun with fry in that size tank. Similarly if they are all females there is a chance they could be pregnant from before in which case you also risk being overrun with fry. If all guppies are males you might see aggression between them (torn fins) as three might be too few to properly disperse aggression.
 
- what tetra species is it you have? Depending on the type of tetra, they might nip at your guppies. They might also need a bigger size tank to move about. Tetras are shoaling fish and need to be in numbers bigger than three.
 
- there are many species of pleco, and many grow far too big for a small tank. If your "spotted pleco" is a common pleco, it can in fact grow as large as 60 cm. If you are unsure which species yours is I am sure someone here will identify it from a picture.
 
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Well that was not a very warm welcome. My water has been tested by the place that sells the fish, also I know my pleco will get big... That's why I got him and he is not ready for a bigger tank yet. Now I'm going to remove myself from this forum as it does not sound friendly at all.


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mountainspriggs said:
Well that was not a very warm welcome. My water has been tested by the place that sells the fish, also I know my pleco will get big... That's why I got him and he is not ready for a bigger tank yet. Now I'm going to remove myself from this forum as it does not sound friendly at all.


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By all means do not let me deter you from enjoying the place. Everyone is a friendly bunch.
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I am sure that as fishkeepers we all have a common goal of maintaining proper fish welfare, and my initial comments were based on that and not aimed as criticism. It was unclear from your post how experienced you are, and I would hate to see a new fishkeeper caught out by a bad start leading to the loss of fish further down the road when it is all so avoidable. Therefore I thought it better to point out a few things now, before problems are encountered. Mayhap should the advice have been offered outside of the welcome forum, but this was the post I saw.
 
My initial points do still stand and might be worth looking into if you have not.
smile.png
 
mountainspriggs said:
Well that was not a very warm welcome. My water has been tested by the place that sells the fish, also I know my pleco will get big... That's why I got him and he is not ready for a bigger tank yet. Now I'm going to remove myself from this forum as it does not sound friendly at all.
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Scuse me, if I may interject. First of all, welcome. Second of all, my first post on this forum was just saying "hi, I need some help." At first, I thought nobody was very friendly, then I figured out that they were, it's just hard to convey what "tone of voice" will with only words on a page. Smileys help :) ;)
 
mountainspriggs said:
Well that was not a very warm welcome. My water has been tested by the place that sells the fish, also I know my pleco will get big... That's why I got him and he is not ready for a bigger tank yet. Now I'm going to remove myself from this forum as it does not sound friendly at all.


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Folks are very friendly here, they will give you all the possibilities that could happen with your tank. The suggestion to get a larger tank is so your fish will grow into it and you are not dealing with issue of getting them use to a new one.

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