Starting A New Tank

[dnn3]

a friend of mine is wanting to get her 6 year old a 5 or 10 gallon tank.i was spoiled ,i was given a 30 gallon well established tank to start with so i was wondering after it has cycled what would you guy's put in a 5 or 10 gallon tank?remember,easy to take care of yet cool to watch.

 

[pablothebetta]

If it's a 5 gallon, you're just looking at a betta, maybe some shrimp/snails with it too. They're farily hardy (easy to take care of) and have their own little personalities - mine, for example, swims up to the tank when I go up to it and seems to become excited when I shake his food packet near the front of the tank (definitely fun to watch).

If it's a 10 gallon, you have more options. A large group of microrasbora might look nice and colourful, though they won't have the same personality factor as the betta has. If you go down this route, I'd suggest looking into Chilli Rasbora and Ember tetras. They are my two personal favourites, though there are othre types out there. Alternatively, you could stay with the betta in the 10 gallon and get some other tankmates for it, like some pygmy cories. They won't grow much bigger than 2cm and like to play around in the sand - quite cheery little guys, I've always thought
Other fish you may want to look into are honey gourami, normans lampeyes, dwarf puffer fish, pygmy hatchetfish and also some types of killifish.

 

[KittyKat]

What are the dimensions of the tanks your friend is looking at? Most fish need the length at those volumes.

I would encourage your friend to go for a 60*30*30 cm tank because it gives more possibilities in the long term. Maybe start with 1 Betta splendens male and Amano shrimp; once the Betta dies, move on to 6-10 male guppies and cherry shrimp (first taste of breeding); once the guppies die off, encourage them to go for an Asian or South American biotope. This way, the aquarium can evolve as the child grows and learns: by the time I was 8, I knew more about keeping and breeding fish than most people I had met.

A 30*30*30 cm aquarium kinda limits to pretty much Betta and shrimp. Having started out with small tanks when I was young, I was forever having to decide that I would not try this or that species because it would suffer in a small tank or the tank was less than an ideal place for it.

 

[soybean]

I'm gonna be a bore here and say if it's for a 6 yr old kid, get a 10 gall and add 5-6 brightly coloured male guppies and a load of cherry shrimp. A bunch of silk plants, maybe a clump of java moss for the shrimp. Easy, inexpensive, fun to watch them display to each other. No special substrate needed, not particularly shy, easy to give names to, can choose individuals in the shop.

Are you going to be donating filter media to give it a kick start?

 

[Akasha72]

I was about to say the same as Soybean. Guppies are fun and you can get them in lots of different colours and they are really easy to take care of. Platies are also a good option as again, they're fairly hardy and easy. I find mine are a lot more laid back than the guppies though so a child may find them a bit boring