[treasuresandstuff]

Hi! I'm Katherine, I have had aquariums of freshwater tropical fish off and on all my life. We haven't had one in over a year but are looking into one. A friend may be giving us their old 10 gallon setup to get started. That will be nice. I've joined Aquabid so we can get nicer fish than are offered at petco, petsmart and walmart. Also so we can get some Java moss we love that stuff. Especially when we have swords or guppies.

We ultimately want a 55 but figure we need some practice before jumping into that so we'll start small and get the 55 later.

Not sure what fish we'll get just yet, I really love bettas, but I don't want to dedicate a ten to just one betta and don't want to breed. Can females be kept with a male and not breed? Maybe if there is too much surface aggitation for bubble nests but not so much as to cause issues with their surface breathing? I dunno.

Oh I should mention I'm married, 8 years in April, mom to three lovely kids 7,4, and 15 months. We have 3 cats and 7 snakes-6 corn snakes and 1 jungle corn.

Katherine

 

[gypsyfla]

Hello and welcome to the site

 

[ladyonyx]

Welcome the the forum Katherine!

Bettas are great, but can be tricky because of their aggressiveness. A male and a female would fight when they weren't breeding, so that probably wouldn't work. Males cannot live together, but you could put a few females in together in a tank. No guarantee there, but it can work.

Another good website for buying fish (very reliable) is Drs. Foster and Smith, LiveAquaria: Aquarium Fish: Tropical Freshwater Fish and Saltwater Fish for Home Aquariums

 

[treasuresandstuff]

Thank you for the site! Always glad to be told of a great place to get fish and supplies. I decided to not get a betta right now. We are going to do a livebearer tank to start. Deffinitely getting a trio of mollies. My mother used to raise Mollies never short on those, in fact we used to give them away free!

 

[petlover516]

Welcome to the site! believe it or not, its actually better to have a bigger tank for a starter and take smaller tanks as a challenge. a 55 gallon is 5x easier to have then a 10gal. Water is much more stable in a larger volume of water.
For bettas, the male could get very aggressive to the female unless you have 3 or 4 females with 1 male.
Mollies will gladly overpopulate the tank unless u have a 1-gender group, and a 10gal is a little small for 3 mollies.

 

[treasuresandstuff]

How is a ten too small for 3 mollies? They are tiny. I grew up with nothing but ten gallon tanks and usually had 6 mollies in each or at least TRIED to. I don't get it. Can you explain it to me? Obviously past experience here is the wrong experience for me. I was also told growing up that bigger tanks were the challenge not smaller. I never had any issues with ammonia or anything other than right before a scheduled water change. Was that luck? My mother would check peramiters once a week. I have read over and over that its one inch per gallon, if mollies get 2 inches full grown (biggest I have seen) how is 3 (3x2=6) 2 inch fish to much for a ten?

Ok sorry about that, what would YOU put into a ten gallon? a single betta? I am just way confused here.

 

[Zolbaxil]

I like to use the AqAdvisor stocking calculator for figuring out what the limits are on my tanks....there is a link here at the forum or you can click here...AqAdvisor - Intelligent Freshwater Tropical Fish Aquarium Stocking Calculator and Aquarium Tank/Filter Advisor

It's easy to use and has a ton of species.

Oh yeah...according to the calculator...3 mollies are about 76% stocked for a 10 gal...BUT as it says in the fine print at the bottom, you should research the species that you intend to stock and be aware of their specific needs...

I have a 10 gal and have to be right on top of my water quality....I still havent gotten it balanced yet...Bigger tanks are Certainly easier.

 

[treasuresandstuff]

Gosh. I'll certainly bump up my priority on saving for that 55 then. I don't know why I had been misinformed like that. If I had only a single male betta with some nice plants do you think I would have better luck? Or maybe a small shoal of neon tetras? Thanks to everyone for helping.

 

[ladyonyx]

Those both sounds like great options for a 10g

 

[treasuresandstuff]

I played with the calculator and if I put a 30 filtration system on it I can have 13 neon tetras and 6 ghost shrimp. Hubby loves ghost shrimp. We are also looking at some different kinds of plants for the tank on aquabid: Taiwan Moss, Christmas Moss, Round Pellia, Java Moss and Flame Moss. What do you think of these? If we end up with too much for the ten I have a couple critter keepers I could put the excess in until I get my 55. Shouldn't take too long to get that if I push for it.

 

[ladyonyx]

Java moss is great and grows like a weed; you can't kill it if you try. Cherry shrimp are really cool too and are a lot more colorful than ghost shrimp. Just a thought....sounds like a good plan for the tank

 

[phil_pl]

welcome to the site glad to have you with us!

 

[Zolbaxil]

Heh, I have an Aqueon 20, and an Aquaclear 20 on my 10 gal, I keep the aquaclear on very low to not blow about my butterfly fish....He gets visibly agitated when that filter is turned up.