# new tank stocking question



## musikgrrl (Jul 18, 2009)

hey all

ive just completed my fishless cycling - all my levels have been optimal and steady for about 3-4 days now. Ive got a mixture or artificial and real plants, and everything seems dandy so far. The tank is 10 gallons. I wanted to see what yall thought about my stocking thoughts.
I wanted something a little hardy, but still pretty and interesting to look at.

6 guppys
3 mollys
1 chinese algae eater
1 *baby* angel (this will become bigger im sure?)

i know these are all community fish...but will they be too much for the tank?

any imput you could give me would be great.

thanks!


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## Guest (Jul 26, 2009)

Hey Muski,

i would say apart from the angels u are good to go. am not sure about the CAE as well. never kept them to comment.

if you get a baby angel and keep him in the ten, he might get stunted while growing. they like tall tanks while growin.

thats just my opinion though. the final decision is yours to make.

Cheers!


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## musikgrrl (Jul 18, 2009)

thanks! 

do you have a recommendation for something else instead of the angel? we wanted something that would *pop* against the smaller guys?
or will i just have to wait until i get a bigger tank?


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## Guest (Jul 26, 2009)

well with that list you are pretty much pushing the stocking. 

i suggest that you scrap the molly and get a nice betta instead of the angel. the molly are boring fish any way, IMO atleast.


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## musikgrrl (Jul 18, 2009)

a betta? i thought they had to be kept by themselves due to aggression?
i would love to have a betta in there, i think they are great. i just didnt know they could be mixed with other fish.


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## Guest (Jul 26, 2009)

i have kept bettas in the past and i havent had a problem with them and my guppys. my older 75gl stock list consisted of 1 betta, 12 danios, 15 guppy, 10 moly and 2 bronze carps. though i must say he was a puss and would get scared by the danios.

Options:

1: scarp the betta....go for a nice dwarf gourami but hope he is a nice healthy one.....i;ve seen dwarfs die out for no apparent reason or cure.

2: if you are willin to forgo the guppys, get some platys and the betta with the CAE.

not all bettas are aggressive, though 2 of them in a 10 will have some serious fighting!


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## EdDiE (Jul 25, 2009)

i the same with Zakk i think the tank is to small for a Angel but everything else is good


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## Superfly724 (Sep 16, 2007)

I've kept a Betta in a community tank and he did just fine. Betta's are only really aggressive with other bettas and other aggressive fish. If you keep passive fish, the Betta should keep to himself and be fine. Just make sure you keep him away from Tetras. They'll nip his fins and he won't look nearly as good.


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## musikgrrl (Jul 18, 2009)

this is sort of embarrasing to ask...but how can i check the size of my tank? i thought it was ten...but my boyfriend (who had the tank originally and didnt use it for years) says he is "pretty sure" its a 20gal.


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## Guest (Jul 26, 2009)

nothing to be embarrassed about! 

here you go. scroll down to the bottom of the page, put in the lenght, height and width and you get ur gallonage

http://www.fishlore.com/ConversionCalculator.htm 

oh quick update: instead of all that hassle, keep the molly, add ore more the original 3 brining it up to 4, scrap the guppys, add the betta and keep the CAE. u'll be good if its a 10. 

if its a 20, and has 18inch in height, you can go with your original choice.

sorry for the delay.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

CAEs are a lie. They're not from China, and they don't eat algae.


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## Tallonebball (Apr 6, 2009)

CAE's are horrible fish that will do nothing but terrorize your other fish and grow to around 10 inches long, flying foxes (1) or oto cats (3-6) are a better choice
If your getting guppies and mollies then be aware that both are livebearers so if you get males and females you'll be up to your eyes in babies in no time lol
Bettas are fine with most other fish besides other bettas lol if you put a betta in stay away from barbs (except gold and cherry), bigger gouramis (dwarfs are better as stated), and serape tetras as they will nip at the betta
try to figure out what size your tank is because it will determine the amount and size of fish your allowed to have


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## Tallonebball (Apr 6, 2009)

whoops double post lol


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## betta0fish (Feb 16, 2009)

chinese algae eaters are aggressive and grow huge, i dont recommend them


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## musikgrrl (Jul 18, 2009)

ok. so it turns out i DO have a 20 gallon tank. (19.95gal).

so my original choices would be better?

instead of a chinese algae eater, what about a small pleco? i originally chose the cae because it looks so small that i thought it would be just enough food natrually, but if they grow to be massive obviously thats not good...


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## Tallonebball (Apr 6, 2009)

Most plecos get rather large as well, rubbernose, bristlenose, angel, and a few others stay small, just make sure you stay away from the common pleco!


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## musikgrrl (Jul 18, 2009)

okay so i went out today and got 6 guppys. 3 electric blue tailed and 3 red finned. they were cute. i have NO idea if they are male/female. i got them from a fish only place and told the guy i dont want babies...so hopefully he knew what he was doing.

i figure ill pick up the mollys and maybe the angel in a week once the filtration system has balanced out some more?


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## Tallonebball (Apr 6, 2009)

Any guppy with a very pretty and long tail it a male, most female guppies are very plain colored with very short tails.


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## musikgrrl (Jul 18, 2009)

hmmm well they all appear to be very brightly coloured and long tailed. and i went back to the fish store and looked around and it appears they tank their females seperately.


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## Guest (Jul 28, 2009)

sexing a guppy is easy. look at the anal fin. if its rounded, it a female, if you see a staightfin, its a male.

this is a female









this is a male


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## Toshogu (Apr 24, 2009)

Chinese Algae Eaters are great if you are lucky enough to actually get a real one. Most people get dupped cause they don't do enough research. CAE stay small 2" max. and eat algae all thier lifes. The fake ones people get are a completly different fish, kinda looks like it, but grows huge and bullies the crap out of other fish and doesn't eat algae. if you go for CAE do alot of research, bring a photo along to help ID the fish and make sure you're getting a CAE.


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## ron v (Feb 24, 2005)

Tos, I always thought that the CAE is in fact the bad one. There is a siamese algae eater that looks similar and is suppose to be much better. I think it's in a completely different family. I'm not sure Tos... you may be right.


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## Tallonebball (Apr 6, 2009)

CAE is the bad one, the Siamese algae eater, or flying fox, is the good one. I regular colored CAE and a flying fox are both very similar in looks with the CAE having vertical stripes along with the horizontal one going the length of its body. Flying foxes only have the horizontal stripe and also have a downward facing mouth as opposed to a sucker. CAE's get anywhere from 6'' to 10'' and only eat algae for a little while if ever at all, Flying foxes stay around 6'' and are great string algae eaters as well as other algae.


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## Toshogu (Apr 24, 2009)

ron v said:


> Tos, I always thought that the CAE is in fact the bad one. There is a siamese algae eater that looks similar and is suppose to be much better. I think it's in a completely different family. I'm not sure Tos... you may be right.


it's this one


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## ron v (Feb 24, 2005)

I think that is the siamese, Tos. I'm really not sure. My understanding is that the CAE has a sucker mouth and the siamese does not.....


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## Tallonebball (Apr 6, 2009)

The picture you have up is the Siamese algae eater aka the flying fox toshogu not the CAE. The CAE as I already said has vertical stripes and a sucker mouth


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## musikgrrl (Jul 18, 2009)

ok. so by the images i think i have all males.

the CAE thing confuses me, so ill just go with a smaller algae eater. lol


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## Dragonbeards (Dec 14, 2008)

Going smaller, you can't beat a couple of oto's. Great little fish, and extremely cute.


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## musikgrrl (Jul 18, 2009)

quick question just to clarify.
the mollys will be okay with an angel right? i read that they can be quite nippy....will the angel be okay?


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

how to calculate the volume of a square or rectangular container....(aquarium)......

L x W x H = ?.....divide by 231 = volume....


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## ron v (Feb 24, 2005)

LxWxH (in inches). Thanks loha


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