Newbie!

[Piiglet]

hi all!

well, I was just given a ten gallon set up for my birthday! woop!!! I have been asking for a tank for a while and have finally been given one! 10 gallons is all I am allowed, so help me make it good!


I have been reading up on cycling, and am considering either going completely "fish"-less ( well creature-less) or borrowing matured media from my neighbor who has had a tank up and running and is the one who told me about cycling (thank god! don't want to kill anything!)



I don't want anything usual like a betta, goldfish (yes, i know the tank is WAY too small anyways, but that is usually they "typical" fish people recommend when they hear fish tank ) , guppies/platies/mollies, etc.

I liked the frog look, the ADFs seem interesting, but small - - I don't think they would stand out much.


what about those water salamanders? I think they are call axolotls?


ok, so hopefully this is where you guys come in!


can you guys either

a) teach me about axolotls - - tank size? water paramaters? how many can/should I keep together (i am not interested in breeding!), feeding requirements, tank setup...

b) recommend me some stocking ideas?


sorry to put you guys to work haha....I'm new to the forum-thing...


- - - The Piig

 

[FiSh123FiSh]

If your interested about those sort of fish/amphibians take a look on the oddball section of the forum

"a) teach me about axolotls - - tank size? water paramaters? how many can/should I keep together (i am not interested in breeding!), feeding requirements, tank setup..."

10 gallons is a small tank but a good starting size. You will need to get yourself a test kit testing Nitrate, Nirtite, Ammonia and pH. The pH less important.

A rough guide for how many fish you should have is 1" per gallon of water, e.g: you could have 10 1" neon tetras.
Keep stocking slow as a new tank is very unstable. A fishless cycle does work you should also check the 'pinned' topics out.

Stocking would have to be a small amount. I'm not that clued up on oddballs so your better off offering this question in the oddball section they will be able to help a lot more than me

Good luck!

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Piiglet.
If you want something unusual that just looks cool, I am not much help. If you want something that nobody nearby has and you just won't find in a typical fish shop, I can help. These are not extreme looking fish but are easy care fish that you will almost never see in a fish shop. One that comes to mind is golden teddies, Zenophallus umbratilis. I keep a breeding colony of them in a 10 gallon tank.
One of my male Teddies

One of his mates

Another possibility, because they are so small people just don't believe it, is Heterandria formosa, least killies. The males grow to almost 3/4 inch long as adults with the females slightly larger.
One of the males in my 10 gallon breeding colony.

One of my females

Another possibility is Girardinus metallicus, black chins. This is a picture of my breeding colony, again in a tiny tank. The plastic device to the left has a grid that is almost a whole inch across. The fish are gathered around it eating newly hatched brine shrimp. The fish at bottom left and bottom right are males and it is obvious how they got the name black chin. Most of the other fish in the picture are females.