Aquarium help / fish searching help.?

Question

Hi , I have a 10 gallon aquarium , it has cycled and has a perfect 7.0 ph it is an overfiltered tank (20-30 gallon filter) i have a bubble stone and a heater. i am seeking about 5 fish. buti dont know what to get

i dont want them to breed alot. are kissing gouramis good? i like those alot please tell me if i need to add some stuff like decorations becauseit is plain (it has gravel) and do you need decorations to keep a certain kind of fish i also like the knife fish and can you tell me what they do in that tunnel and why their always swimming in it. please correct me if i am making a beginners mistake (i have added stress coat and zyme) post please

Answer 1

Both kissing gouramis and knife fish are out of the question--they get way too big for your tank.  However, there are a number of fish that would work well:

Small tetras (11-12)

Platies (6-7)

Small corydors catfish (6-7)

Small gouramis (2)

White cloud mountain minnows (11-12, one of my personal faves)

Small killifish (2-6, depends on their size)

Small rainbowfish (6-7, threadfin rainbows are another fave)

Guppies (9-10)

Rasboras (11-12)

And yes, decorations will make your fish much happier, since most fish like to having hiding places.  You can try a few live plants, too--java moss, java fern and anubias are all good, hardy, low-light plants.

Answer 2

     Unless you have bacteria that is eating the ammonia by fish, your tank is not "cycled". You might have water that has been dechlorinated but not cycled.

     The kissing gouramis can get to be over 12 inches long and should be in groups of 3 or more so they are not a good fish for a 10 gallon tank. The knife fishes use electricity to find their way around like sonar. When they are in the clear tubes their sonar tells them that they are surrounded by something solid. They also get t be too large for a 10 gallon tank.I think that they get up to 18 inches for the black ghost knife fish. You might wish to check out dwarf cichlids like the rams  A pair would be good in a ten gallon aquarium with good filtration like you have. I would stay away from fish that get over 4 inches long unless you have a much larger tank that you can put them in when they get larger.

Answer 3

The fish that you mentioned get way too large for a 10 gallon aquarium -- the kissing gourami is very agressive as well. The main appeal of the kissing gourami is their "kissing" they share between each other, which is actually a fight for dominance.

The knifefish are shy fish, mainly nocturnal, so they usually look for places to hide. There are "ghost tubes" on the market which provide the knifefish the place to hide and feel safe, but since they're generally transparent you can still look at them, but again, way too large for your aquarium.

In a 10 gallon I really would just keep it with community fish, especially since its your first aquarium (or so it seems like). My favorite combination for a 10 gallon is:

A Betta or a Dwarf Gourami as the top-level fish

Neon or Cardinal Tetras as middle fish

Corydora Catfish as bottom level scavenger fish (pandas are my favorites)

If you ever have algae, you can try adding cherry or other similar small fish, snails (some snails reproduce like crazy, and since many are asexual you don't even need two of them to reproduce) or the lovely otocinclus catfish, which are the BEST at eating algae, but are very sensitive and require perfect water conditions.

Good luck!

EDIT: The shorter the ride the better, but there's generally no serious harm done. Just make sure to avoid any stops at all and make sure the fish have sufficient oxygen in their bags to stand the trip.

Buying fish online, if coming from a reputable source, is perfectly fine -- all the fish stores you see get their fish by mail, so there's really no way to avoid that unless you buy fish direcly from a breeder. But, like I said, I wouldn't recommend you investing so much on fish if it's the first shot you get at aquariums. You're doing great at buying necessary equipment and THANK YOU SO MUCH for researching prior to adding fish, but fish are delicate species so you need all the experience you can get.

Undergravel filters work fine, but considering you already have a 20-30 gallon filter for a 10 gallon aquarium, I don't think you need it. :)

Answer 4

well I wouldn't get kissing gourami since they are aggressive but maybe other types of gourami should be good and after you can add 6 tetras but I would prefer neon tetras