# First, New 10 Gallon Tank



## dumBo (Apr 17, 2005)

Hi, this is my first real tank. All i have is a betta in it. Im looking for other fish to put in this tank. What kind of fish will be good? i dont want the betta to fight with the other fish. im also going to add live plants to the tank, what kind of plants should i add? please tell me, sorry im still new to this aquarium hobby :]


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## ALFA WOLF (May 24, 2005)

Dont be sry your always new at somthigne everyday. i would suggest neon tetras like i have for my set up plants i really dont know shoudl ask someone else on here they would know. and u really have a nice little set up quiet nice. ill show u my set up if u woudl like.


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## Osiris (Jan 18, 2005)

needs more decor, and that water level needs to be raised unless u want a cracked heater lol, but love the color rocks!


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## ALFA WOLF (May 24, 2005)

same here they go great with your betta. No cracked heater for u raise the level, but u know abotu the temp and stuff right just so you betta wont get shocked cause of changes.


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## dumBo (Apr 17, 2005)

should i hear the filter's water flowing down? or should it be silent? cuz i just added some more water and i cant hear the filter's water flowing down..is it too high?
on the heater it has a red thing that says "water line" but thats too high imo


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## Osiris (Jan 18, 2005)

They put that up there for a reason lol, that line. ur water level is too low, creating too much flow prolly for the betta, i would raise it so can't hear it at all, since they are labyrenth breathers anyway.


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## Ownager2004 (Apr 4, 2005)

yeah i keep mine raised high enough so i cant hear the water... it gets annoying after awhile.

That much gravel is really going to be a chore to clean once u get that tank stocked. Id consider taking half or more out.

If you want to try some cheap plants that will grow well... Go to wal-mart and look for aponogeton bulbs in the fish section.


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## MyraVan (Jan 19, 2005)

Cherry barbs might be nice companions for your betta. Neon tetras have a habit of dying; they are not very tough fish at all! Cherry barbs are (supposedly, I don't have any) very friendly fish and get along very well with most fish, and they are much less likely to go belly up!


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## Imbrium (Feb 7, 2005)

I second the cherry barb suggestion. I have some and they are great. They have nice color, and are very active. They also won't bother your betta, and he probably won't bother them. They're also pretty hardy.


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## fishboy (Feb 26, 2005)

there is so much you can do but the betta will hold you back because of its temper. I'd say provide a small cave (half a flower pot) and add some ghost shrimp bettas seem to like them


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## dumBo (Apr 17, 2005)

the rock u see in the middle already has a small cave..is that fine?


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## dumBo (Apr 17, 2005)

so here is gonna be my setup i think.

1 male betta
5? cherry barbs
2 ghost shrimp
and some live plants

is this good?


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## Lydia (Feb 6, 2005)

i would personally put more ghost shrimp....like maybe 10....as far as i know they dont affect the bioload much if at all....thats just my opinion though


beautiful betta by the way!!! i wish i could find one that color!!!!


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## Imbrium (Feb 7, 2005)

That sounds good. 
With the cherry barbs, the males are bright red, and the females are brownish. Most people like to get all males because of the color, but if you decide to get a mix make sure to get more females than males so they don't get picked on too much. 
I don't really know anything about live plants, so I don't know what to suggest for you there.


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## dumBo (Apr 17, 2005)

do red tailed sharks or rainbow sharks get along with the betta?

i also want to add some catfish..if it can fit of course.


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## shev (Jan 18, 2005)

doubt it. wont fit in a 10 gallon anyway.

bettas fins will get torn up.


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

catfish such as pigmy cories would do fine if you can find them, a group of 5 would be great for the tank.


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## MyraVan (Jan 19, 2005)

dumBo said:


> so here is gonna be my setup i think.
> 
> 1 male betta
> 5? cherry barbs
> ...


This sounds super, although I second the suggestion that a few more ghost shrimp would be nice. 

As far as live plants goes, what kind of lighting do you have (incandescent vs flourescent, how many watts) and what kind of substrate? That will dictate what kind of plants you can have without major changes to your setup.

You're going to have a super-looking, healthy, happy tank!


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## dumBo (Apr 17, 2005)

its flourescent, dont know how many watts..and what is substrate?


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## Osiris (Jan 18, 2005)

it's ur rocks, u should have some fertilizer in there, like eco complete or florite or something


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## MyraVan (Jan 19, 2005)

MalawianPro said:


> it's ur rocks, u should have some fertilizer in there, like eco complete or florite or something


Not necessarily. Some plants grow well attached to rocks or wood, like java fern, java moss, or anubias. All of these are low-light plants and would grow (tho slowly) with very little light.

If you've got a bit more light (like say you've got a 15W bulb over your tank) you can grow more stuff. 

If you put in a proper planted substrate you can grow even more plants, but you can simply buy plants in pots and leave them in the pots, just stick the pots straight into your gravel. This is not the ideal way to grow plants, but for most plants it's better than trying to grow them in plain gravel.

If you have a decent amount of light but plain gravel, there are some plants that grow fine in plain gravel, like anacharis and hornwort. (These plants don't have much in the way of roots, so just sticking the bottom of the plant in the gravel works fine.)

Let us know exactly how many watts your bulb is (take it out to look at it, it should be written on the bulb) and what your substrate is (probably, it's plain gravel, or even worse epoxy-coated gravel) and we'll advise!


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## dumBo (Apr 17, 2005)

ok i have a 17W bulb over my tank, and i think my gravel is just plain gravel.


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## dumBo (Apr 17, 2005)

do i need to use the 1'' per gallon rule?
here is gonna be my setup
1 male betta
3 cherry barbs
5 pigmy cories
6-7 ghost shrimp? or any kind of algae eater.
also i read when ghost shrimp are pregnet u have to move it into another aquarium and stuff..
can i just let the fry's die?


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## MyraVan (Jan 19, 2005)

OK, with 17W, you actually have a halfway decent amount of light. You will still have a low-light tank, by planted tank standards, but 1.7 wpg (watts per gallon) is vastly better than some people have on their equipment (like someone trying to grow plants in a 30 gallon tank with the 15W bulb!)

With this you can definitely grow the typical tie-on-wood-or-rock plants, like anubias, java fern, and java moss. If you put the plants into pots, you can grow a good assortment of cyptocornes. Crypts may survive outside pots... I have one tank with gravel substrate and plants growing in pots, and some of my Cryptocorne wendtii have started spreading into the gravel outside the pots.

(I have Flourite in the pots, but this is expensive stuff. If I were doing the pots thing over again I would use cut down plastic plant pots with potting soil covered with a layer of gravel: it's cheap and works very well to grow plants.)

In that tank (which has 1.5 wpg) I've got some anacharis (aka elodea aka egeria) growing just stuck in the gravel. Oh, I forgot to ask you - do you know if your water is hard or soft? You'll have an easier time growing anacharis if your water is hard. It comes from hardwater areas and does much better with the minerals in hard water.

Also, if you have hard water, vallis will grow very well, in pots at least. 

I also have sagittaria (natans, which is slightly smaller than sublata) growing well in pots. I'm not sure whether sag is a soft or hard water plant...

There are probably loads of other plants you could grow successfully, but I'm just mentioning the ones that have worked well for me.

Now onto other matters. No, you don't have to follow the inch per gallon rule. But unless you're an expert, you must stock your tank very slowly. Like, after you've added the betta, wait at least a month before adding anything else. Then say add the cherry barbs (they are tough and can come next). Wait at least another month, then add the shrimp or the cories. One month later, add the last group (shrimp or cories, whatever you didn't add last time). And make sure you keep up the maintanance (weekly or twice-monthly water changes + gravel vacuuming the unplanted area + rinsing the filer medium in the old tank water) as you go along. With that kind of gradual buildup and maintenance, your tank will be fine.

Plese note that the shrimp only eat green thread algae, or other kinds of loose, soft algae. You will most likely have to clean off the green algae from the glass still. And I don't think they will touch brown algae. This is why Takashi Amano uses the combination of Otocinclus and shrimps (Cardina japonica, whose common name is Amano shrimp in his honor), since between them they get most types of algae. But I don't think you will have space for the otos in your tank (although the shrimps would fit fine). If you were to leave out the cories you could have otos instead. Not as cute, certainly, but more functional...

I've never had pregnant shimp, but if you don't have the time or other resources to take care of them, sure you can just let the other animals eat the babies. They'll provide a nice snack for them!


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## osteoporoosi (Jan 27, 2005)

I wouldn't add the pygmy corys, they prefer much finer substrate than you have now. But the barbs and shrimp would make an excellent combo.
Ghost shrimp don't breed in frehwater, their fry can only survive in brackish water. So you don't have to worry about moving them anywhere.


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## Gracie6363 (Mar 13, 2005)

I cant say that I would do live plants for a first time tank and being only 10 gallons. Some nice silk plants look natural and the fish wont eat them. lol. 

As for the heater, just lower it in the tank some if the water line is too high on it for your water to reach it. I'd say the water flow out of the filter is preference. I like a high water line personally. I also keep a air filter in my tanks for additional oxygen and activity. 

My first 10 gallon tank fish were female beta, male guppy 2 danios. The female beta and male fancy guppy were not a good match... the beta had to be removed after she started picking on him... So imagine if it were a male beta!!!! AHH. So fancy guppies out of the question. 

If you want more variety in the tank, you could do 2-3 zebra danios (they come in several varieties, GloFish, zebra, longfin, leopard, gold, etc). They are energetic and pretty. If you like the idea of the cherry barbs, maybe 2-3 of them as well. Otherwise you could maybe choose some other type of tetra, like a black skirt tetra. I have seen them in the pet stores in with male betas. 

The cory idea is cool cuz then you'd have some bottom activity, but they are slightly large fish than the others mentioned and they are also skiddish and like groups, so not sure if you want that or not. 

Whatever you do, dont add any more fish till you have a chance to throw some plants and such in there for hiding so they aren't too stressed out. Also, only do one small group of fish at a time. Like the danios first, then the tetra or barbs. If you add too many at once you will have an amonia spike and your fish will suffer! 

Best of luck!


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## dumBo (Apr 17, 2005)

got 3 cherry barbs today (2 male 1 female it looks like) and a couple of fake plants


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## dumBo (Apr 17, 2005)

seems like the male cherry barbs are bullying the betta..what should i do?


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## Imbrium (Feb 7, 2005)

Maybe you should have gotten more cherry barbs. I would pick up a few more females. Maybe add more plants. If they don't leave him alone after awhile you may have to seperate them.


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## dumBo (Apr 17, 2005)

ok thanks..i just dont want any dead fish in the morning


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## Osiris (Jan 18, 2005)

MyraVan said:


> Not necessarily. Some plants grow well attached to rocks or wood, like java fern, java moss, or anubias. All of these are low-light plants and would grow (tho slowly) with very little light.
> 
> If you've got a bit more light (like say you've got a 15W bulb over your tank) you can grow more stuff.
> 
> ...


 
shoulda been more specific, there are plants that don't need fert. in the substrate but dont u still need to add some sort of fert. to the water to give the plant more then just light?


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## MyraVan (Jan 19, 2005)

MalawianPro said:


> shoulda been more specific, there are plants that don't need fert. in the substrate but dont u still need to add some sort of fert. to the water to give the plant more then just light?


I don't add ferts to the water, or to the substrate (but then I use good substrates, not plain gravel) and the plants I mentioned are growing without ferts. Perhaps there are some plants that would grow in those conditions with ferts but wouldn't without. I don't know.


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## osteoporoosi (Jan 27, 2005)

Java fern, java moss and some anubias grow without heavy lightning and fertilizers.


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## dumBo (Apr 17, 2005)

ok..i think the cherry barbs were biting on his tails because i saw some rips on his tails..i seperated them  put the betta in the 1/2 gallon.

so since i dont have the betta in the 10 gallon anymore, what kind of fish should i add


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## Osiris (Jan 18, 2005)

i could toss java fern and moss into a tank and only need some light, and no ferts?? if that's the case i am tracking down some fern!


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## MyraVan (Jan 19, 2005)

dumBo said:


> ok..i think the cherry barbs were biting on his tails because i saw some rips on his tails..i seperated them  put the betta in the 1/2 gallon.
> 
> so since i dont have the betta in the 10 gallon anymore, what kind of fish should i add


Er, I feel a bit guilty, as I recommended cherry barbs in with your betta, and it didn't work out. Everything I had read about them suggests that they are very peaceful, so I thought that they'd be OK with your betta. Maybe the lack of females is the problem: with barbs, it's usually recommended to have more females than males.

As for what to put in your 10 gallon, I'd start off with 2 more cherry barbs, both female!


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## Vivid-Dawn (Jan 18, 2005)

*betta advice*

About putting peaceful fish with Bettas:

I've heard people say that if you only have one betta, you can put any other kind of fish in, if it's relatively peaceful. This, apparently, is not true in any case...
For instance - I was told that a betta would nip at guppies, since they were "fancy and flowing" like a betta... well, this was after I had my betta in with my guppies. But it turned out to be the opposite, as my 5 guppies ganged up on my betta and nipped at him instead!

My conclusion, is that a male betta should be by himself, period. Unless breeding... and that's a whole other matter.


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## osteoporoosi (Jan 27, 2005)

I would try adding a lot more decor and plants and a couple of females. i have had cherrys with a male betta, and they went fine. Actually the betta sometimes bullied the barbs!


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

bettas can be in with community tanks, it just is a matter of the individual personalities of that betta and the individual personalities of the other fish. Its hit or miss, but it does happen and the fish can coexist.


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