New member - former fish hobbyist (loooong time ago)

[JCinPA]

Hi from the west suburbs of Philadelphia.

As a teenager, I kept a 10 gallon freshwater tank with great success until I joined the Air Force at about age 25, and I have not kept fish since. My reason for renewed interest is my grandkids. The oldest of three is almost 4, the middle one is almost 2 and I think they would love watching fish. The youngest now is 6 months, and he'll come along in time.

I'm looking to set up a 10 gallon (thought about a 5 gal nano, but it seemed too small) community tank with plastic plants at least at first. Hoping to get it running and cycling soon with a couple small fish. Eventually I will likely have a group of zebra danios and some corydoras catfish for the kids to watch. If the tank is stable I may add another species, but I don't want a heavy bioload on this tank. I'm going for ease of maintenance and health of the fish.

I'm looking forward to learning a lot here. There were no online forums back when I kept fish, only magazines.

Cheers,
John

 

[bgarthe33 50]

First……thank you for service and welcome to TFF.

A 10g tank is a much better size for what you want . If I may make a suggestion……do the Corycats as they’re great fish. I have them in all my tanks. Putting true nano fish like Chili, Espei, Rummynose, or Blue Neon Rasboras would be fine as would the smaller tetras like Green Neon and Ember, among others. Do check your water pH, GH, and KH so you can best match the fish to your water. I only mention all this so you and your grandkids can experience this wo issues popping up. Others may disagree, but Zebra Danios are very active and might find a 10g a bit on small side.

Good luck and do post pics.

 

[Essjay32 147]

I agree about the zebra danios, they really need more swimming length than a 10 gallon would provide. And for corydoras, look at the dwarf species - pygmaeus (pygmy cories) or habrosus (salt & pepper cories) or hastatus (don't know a common name)

with plastic plants at least at first. Hoping to get it running and cycling soon with a couple small fish.

As you intend plastic plants I suggest you do a fishless cycle rather than a fish in cycle.

Cycling Your New Fresh Water Tank: Read This First!

Cycling Your First Fresh Water Tank What is Cycling and Why is it Important? Fish waste, and especially fish breathing, plus uneaten food and other organic matter breaking down in a tank all produce Ammonia. This can quickly become toxic to fish if it is allowed to build up to any measurable...

www.fishforums.net

Most fish small enough for a 10 gallon are shoaling fish which need at least 10 of the same species. Just a couple would be stressed with so few.

 

[JCinPA]

Thanks for the replies! Good advice. I do remember zebra danios were pretty active. The word frenetic comes to mind. I don't think the size of the fish matters much to these kids. Maybe just neon tetras to start and one other species.

For those of you with smaller tanks, given this is for my grandkids' entertainment rather than a new hobby, after the dwarf corys, what are your best two recommendations that won't overload a 10 gallon tank?

Who knows, I may get into the hobby, you never know. Maybe plants and other fish are in my future. But I want this grandkid project to go smoothly first. Thank you all!

 

[bgarthe33 50]

Again…..(including the Corycats…..dwarf ones being a good idea) depending on your water parameters,
12-15 Chili Rasboras
or
8-10 Espei Rasboras
or
8 Rummynose Rasboras
or
10-12 Green Neon Tetras…….these are not the regular Neon Tets
or ……( if you want two species together )
6-7 Green Neon Tets w 8 Chili Rasboras
or
6 Green Neon Tets w 6 Espei Rasboras or 6 Ember Tetras
And, of course if you want a bit larger…..
A Honey Gourami or a Betta might do the trick

If your water GH is higher, you could do
3-5 male guppies
or
3-5 male platies
******note, the reference to male only is to prevent a population boom in a small tank which would create issues imho. ***Knowing your water will enable you to make a better decision.

I am assuming your tank will have filtration and undergo water changes.

Putting a bunch of tiny gorgeous fish like Chili Rasboras makes the tank look bigger and creates more general activity. The bioload of such fish is also very light which keeps the water a bit cleaner between water changes……assuming one doesn’t over feed. Sorry abt the multiple options, but there are SO many.

 

[anewbie]

Hi from the west suburbs of Philadelphia.

As a teenager, I kept a 10 gallon freshwater tank with great success until I joined the Air Force at about age 25, and I have not kept fish since. My reason for renewed interest is my grandkids. The oldest of three is almost 4, the middle one is almost 2 and I think they would love watching fish. The youngest now is 6 months, and he'll come along in time.

I'm looking to set up a 10 gallon (thought about a 5 gal nano, but it seemed too small) community tank with plastic plants at least at first. Hoping to get it running and cycling soon with a couple small fish. Eventually I will likely have a group of zebra danios and some corydoras catfish for the kids to watch. If the tank is stable I may add another species, but I don't want a heavy bioload on this tank. I'm going for ease of maintenance and health of the fish.

I'm looking forward to learning a lot here. There were no online forums back when I kept fish, only magazines.

Cheers,
John

Didn't they have news group back then? I remember learning a bit from news feed - while not interactive like a forum the information/noise was much higher.

Just remember on a forum if someone sez it is true it probably isn't.

 

[JCinPA]

Didn't they have news group back then? I remember learning a bit from news feed - while not interactive like a forum the information/noise was much higher.

Just remember on a forum if someone sez it is true it probably isn't.

Hahaha! There wasn't even an Internet back then. Well, there was, but it wasn't well-known. My first computer was a Tandy 1000 as a young lieutenant in the Air Force. I was actually doing exercise message traffic on the DARPANET using acoustic phone couplers and dot-matrix printers, but didn't recognize it as the Internet until a year or two later. My computer experience as a teen ran to this...

And this

lol. Anyway, I kept a 10 gallon tank for years with no water test kit, using an undergravel filter coupled with a small HOB with filter floss, doing water changes every couple weeks. Might sound like flying blind, but I never overloaded the tank and guarded against over feeding, at least I was smart enough to do that.

Thanks for the fish choices! They look good! As long as the kiddos are entertained I should be all set. Unless I get the bug.

 

[JCinPA]

How we would get exercise message traffic back in the day.

 

[anewbie]

How we would get exercise message traffic back in the day.

View attachment 380667

So my first modem was 300 buad as i presume the pictured one is - my physics prof paid me a pretty penny to convert his dot matrix printer into a graph printer. One of the really enjoyable projects i had though it was pretty long given i had to use assembly language. I spent economics drawing out character vectors i could then rotate as needed and history class working out some of the logic. When it came to anthropology i was eager for it to finish so i could code things.

Good ol days. Later on a few years later he go this first 8088 pc a victor 9000 (look it up - it never sold well but was an eng marvel for the time it came out) and i wrote a clumsy tecktronic emulator so he could use the display to graph images before printing. I learned then that year never believe a thing ms tells you and all their products was pure crap.

 

[JCinPA]

Oh, I'm likely to try my hand at getting a tank up and going using Seachem Prime and Stability, and going very slowly. I ordered an undergravel fliter and a HOB, like I used to have. Since I survived without it back in the day and kept healthy fish for years with just good habits, I did not order a water test kit.

I'm sure you'd all advise I should get one. Recommendation for a good kit? I'm sure I'll find a YooToobz on how to use it. Not sure I'll really need one, but I'd like to have a kit recommendation handy just in case.

 

[bgarthe33 50]

I think you and I are from the same era

 

[Sgooosh]

Oh, I'm likely to try my hand at getting a tank up and going using Seachem Prime and Stability, and going very slowly. I ordered an undergravel fliter and a HOB, like I used to have. Since I survived without it back in the day and kept healthy fish for years with just good habits, I did not order a water test kit.

I'm sure you'd all advise I should get one. Recommendation for a good kit? I'm sure I'll find a YooToobz on how to use it. Not sure I'll really need one, but I'd like to have a kit recommendation handy just in case.

I’ve never used a kit since I can go to the local fish store to get free water tests during cycling, but API master freshwater testing is the best, I even used it in a livebearers lab I was in

 

[JCinPA]

Thanks! Found this

Amazon.com

An a video by Kave Man Aquatics. I like his style. I'll try to get going with disciplined best practices and the Prime and Stability, but I'll invest in the kit later, so I can monitor my tank health.

 

[bgarthe33 50]

That Kave Man video method does work. I just did it with three 33g long tanks this spring. Do, however, have the means to check ammonia. The Seachem Alert Tags work well for NH3, especially if you do not plan on doing the test kit thing.

 

[JCinPA]

@bgarthe Excellent! Some recent experience! Just went to the local PetSmart and probably the best thing they have for starting out is the Harlequin Rasbora (Trigonostigma heteromorpha). The ones at the store are very small, probably 1/2 to 3/4 inch. They have a buy 4 get one free deal and these like to school so I was going to get about 6 as my starter fish.

But I have no idea how much those Prime and Stability chemicals will help them. Is that too many in your opinion? What did you start your tanks with (admittedly larger tanks)? The store clerk suggested go with 3 for a week. Then add 3, then wait a few weeks for it to stabilize. Slower is safer, but using that Kave Man Aquatics method and the chems, what do you think about starting with 6?

My plan is to let the tank go a month with the six (just deciding if I go with 6 or two batches of 3 each), then put in a few Corydoras and let that go for a month. Then add some neon tetras and let them be.