New to site and want to get first tank

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Go to Walmart, you can get a 10gal tank for $10...;). Or you could get their 55gal set up for $150 or so...comes with all the stuff you need. You can put it on layaway and everything, ya know, make payments on it and what not...works out for yaz perrrfectly!

Anywho, you could try white clouds...they are a small, relatively easy to breed fish. Stay small, are colorful, hardy, and readily available. OR you could try zebra danios. They are small, lively, pretty, HARDY (a lot of people use them to cycle their tankz, so they can take a beatin). Hope yaz get your feet under you and get things goin!! glad to see your interest in the hobby rekindled....cheers,
Peanut
 
Welcome to MFK!!!! You really need a bigger tank if you want any monsters, but I would put a betta in the 5 gallon. Of course, you will need awesome filtration not to have to clean it out almost every day. Also, keeping a small tank is a hassle because if you make one small mistake the whole tank is dead. Good luck though.
 
you might want to try a couple of tetras, or some interesting plecos, make sure you buy healthy fsh( stay away from wal-mart). as for the tank you might want to check out ( http://www.craigslist.org/) look around in your area . check the 'general' section, you can find some great deals on used tanks.:welcome:
 
The first thing I would do is get a bigger tank. As big as you can afford and your mom will allow:) . Then get it set up and cycling as you research more fish. It's good to ask questions. I stay away from the large retail/mega pet stores for fish as the quality usually sux and the sales people dont have much knowledge, but will buy tanks and equipment there when they have sales, so find a good fish store(lfs) that you can trust and has good clean tanks and healthy fish. When invstigating a lfs know the answer to the question you want to ask and see if they tell you what you know or blow smoke at you. As far as fish go there are a zillion different types to get it all depends on your preference. Just my .02. Welcome to MKF and much success.
 
Hiya Bethie, welcome to MFK.
I am glad you are planning on looking up the fish people suggest before trying one, especially in a small tank, otherwise you end up with a very unhappy oscar or pacu.

I am going to assume you have either room restrictions or other reasons to start with the 5 gallon so the only thing I will mention is that with small tanks you really need to keep up tank maintainance because if something gets neglected it can go wrong very quickly.

Most 5g tanks are only 8" wide and 16" long so you are restricted to an inactive fish not more than 4-6" long or a couple more active ones that are 3-4" long or maybe 3 pygmy cories and a half dozen small tetras and maybe the same number of glass shrimp.

If you want a small catfish and a couple of calm, pretty fish you could try a male and female pair of dwarf flame gourami (Colisa lalia) that get to about 3 1/2" (pic from ****************), and maybe a small cuckoo cat (Synodontis petricola) that gets about 4 1/4" long. (pic by Johnny Jensen).

Another amusing choice is a pair of freshwater pygmy puffers such as the dwarf red-eyed puffers (Carinotetraodon loreti) they only get about 2 1/2" long and look ery different between the sexes and are often known to breed in very small tanks. (These pics are both from Siamensis.org)

gourami_dwarf_male_002_w190.jpg

Sypet_j0.jpg

p1.jpg

p12.jpg
 
cichlid savage said:
The first thing I would do is get a bigger tank. As big as you can afford and your mom will allow:) . Then get it set up and cycling as you research more fish. It's good to ask questions. I stay away from the large retail/mega pet stores for fish as the quality usually sux and the sales people dont have much knowledge, but will buy tanks and equipment there when they have sales, so find a good fish store(lfs) that you can trust and has good clean tanks and healthy fish. When invstigating a lfs know the answer to the question you want to ask and see if they tell you what you know or blow smoke at you. As far as fish go there are a zillion different types to get it all depends on your preference. Just my .02. Welcome to MKF and much success.
Click to expand...
I won't to start one when I older so it would be the best but I've seen places like this and they don't look to nice.
 
OK here I have some tank stocking schemes for you that I got from and old TFH magazine of mine and I'll wright each one on a different post so I can take breaks in between.
Alright here's how it works these are designed for tanks that are either 29g or 55g in size (you can get both of the starter kits for these tanks at wal-mart). when you see this [3/5] it means 3 of that fish for the 29g and 5 of that fish for the 55g.
 
Making a Typical Starter Community Tank​
Alright first you cycle the tank with [3/5] platies Xiphorphorus sp. the color is your choice. Then after cycleing add [8/8] zebra dainos Danio rerio these come in silver, gold, and even florecent red thanks to a scientist that somehow added a corel gene to them. You could also get the pearl danio D. albolineatus. Then you can add in a school of lemon tetras [6/6] to add some highly colorful and very energetic fish to the tank. Next you will add some serpae tetras Hyphessobrycon serpae [0/6]. Last but not least you will add some cory cats Corydoras sp. for the clean up crew and these little guys can be fun to watch [4/6]. All right I'll post more later because I've got to go.
 
Welcome to MFK!!! As ever one else has said you need a bigger tank. But don't worry that time will come i started out with a ten gallon and with in a year i had two ten gallons 2 55 gallon and a 20 gallon so becareful its addicting.
 
OK Who Wants Anglefish!​
Alright almost all beginners want anglefish so here's your chance to get your hands on some and not mess up the tank with incompataple fish. OK first you'll need to cycle the tank with a few swardtails Xiphorphorus sp. [3/5]. It might be best if you get get only one male to minamize fighting and presure to the females. Also the female would provide plenty of snackes for the angelfish. After the tank is cycled with the swardtails you will put some cory cats in the tank Corydoras sp. [6/8]. Finally after al of that is done you can add the stars of the show the angelfish Pterophyllum sp. [2/4]. These guys can come in many many different colors and paterns you can even mix the colors if you want and if your luck they might even pair of and breed in the tank given the right conditions. OK that's it for that one I'll post another in just a minute.
 
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