New Tank Mates

[nemesis187]

Hi guys!

This is my first official post here on tff so I hope I'm doing this right.

Basically I got a 10L tank from a friend last week sunday and decided to throw in a betta but I want to add in a few friends for him. I was thinking about adding in a red fin black shark but I'm a little scared on how they will react to each other. I have yet to add in filters or anything but I will be doing this some time next week. I'll be adding in a gravle filter for the time being till I can get a bigger tank but will the betta and the red fin be ok in the same tank? and what other fish can I add to my tank? Right now I would love to show you guys my tank and betta but he isnt responding well to the camera( he puffs out his fins and gills and I'm worried I'm stressing him out.)

Thanks in advance guys!

 

[the_lock_man]

Oh. Dear. Lord.

You've clearly not researched the basics (either that or this is a deliberate wind-up), so here's the precis version.

Fish produce a waste product that you may have heard of, it's called ammonia. It is highly poisonous. In order to combat this, you need to grow a colony of bacteria which will convert this ammonia into nitrite. Unfortunately, nitrite is also poisonous, so you need to grow another colony of bacteria to convert the nitrite into nitrate. This isn't harmful unless it's at a highly concentrated level. The place you grow these bacteria is the filter. Therefore, to stop your fish from poisoning himself, he needs you to get him a filter. Very soon. Otherwise he will poison himself.

These bacteria do not grow overnight, so you need to keep refreshing the water in your 10l tank, so that the ammonia and nitrite don't poison your fish. Have a read of the link in my signature area, to give you full details on what you need to do. You will also need to buy a testing kit, the liquid ones are lightyears better than the paper ones.

No, the shark will not be ok in the same tank as the betta. Two reasons, the first is that they won't get on with each other, the second is that there is barely enough room in the 10l for the betta, let alone anything else.

Priorty 1 - get a filter.
Priority 2 - get a bigger tank
Priority 3 - research everything first

 

[nemesis187]

thanks for the quick response. So I should quickly get a filter but should just do a wc in the mean time? sorry as I said I'm very new to this and this is my first tank. What size tank should I try and go for as a beginner? and will the gravel filter with a charcoal cartridge work till I get a bigger tank?

 

[the_lock_man]

Don't worry, we've all been beginners once.

I personally hate undergravel filters - I'd suggest you pop out to a decent fish shop and get something between 30-50 litres in capacity. I started off with AquaOne tanks, I found them very easy to set up, and the filters are dead easy to maintain. Read that link that I mentioned. Once you've got to a stage where your filter is keeping the ammonia and nitrite levels at 0ppm for a week without water changes, then we can start talking about additional fish.

In the meantime, you need to be changing the existing water at least daily. Take out virtually all the water, just leave the fish enough to swim upright in, make sure that what you put back in is roughly the same temperature as the old water, and that you have used a dechlorinator. That should stop too much damage from the ammonia.

 

[KuronoEnyo]

Btw I've found getting a 10-20g is something a beginner would be great to do since a lot of beginners like to get a lot of fish. Smaller aquariums are very constraining on amount of the fish you can put into it. I mean when I started I first bought a 10g then found myself wanting more fish so I upgraded to a 20g long and am very happy now with my betta school of corydora and my few frogs

That and its a lot less work! Like once a week depending on the filter you use could just swap out 2-4 gallons, I take out four gallons every Friday and its very easy work now that my aquarium is well established.