Considering Getting Fish Again - Please Help

[Animalman]

Hey everyone,

My name is Mike and I am 16 years old. My parents and I are moving into an apartment type building and we had to give up our three cats since we aren't going to be allowed more than one animal of that size and we just couldn't choose one. I feel like I will be missing something since I have always had animals in my life. I have narrowed down the choices of pets that I might want to look into getting based upon ease of care, level of intelligence and interaction, and a few other various things. I think that fish are cool and I have kept many freshwater fish of all kinds and sizes in the past and have had from two and one-half to 29 gallon fish tanks. I enjoy watching them and seeing them come to me when I feed them. They are easy to care for, don't smell, and don't take up much space.

So, with this limited room I am not exactly sure of the tank size that I would have but I would imagine a ten-fifteen gallon would be the biggest. I was thinking about maybe doing either just a ten gallon, just a fifteen gallon or maybe just have one to two small five gallon tanks. I am sorry if I made that confusing. I was wondering what you all thought the best plan was based on what I told you and what kinds of fish you would recommend. I have kept many fish before and I still remember a lot of things but I do need a refresher. I was thinking that maybe I could get a small five gallon along withsay three mollies of the same type (one male and two females) and try to breed them maybe. I would just have the mollies and maybe a couple ghost shrimp in there. Then I would wait a while and get another five gallon since my parents definitely wouldn't want me to get these both at the same time if I was to get two tanks just to keep it simple. All of my ideas are up in the air as of now. I am even considering a five gallon and a two and one-half gallon.

Basically, tell me what you all think the best combo would be for me. An example would be either just a ten gallon tank or a five gallon and a two and one-half gallon, etc. Also, tell me what some of your favorite fish are that would be good in those tanks. Thanks in advance everyone.

 

[community begginer]

hay dude. umm maybe u could have a betta in a 5 gallon or maybe a betta in a 10 gallon divided so u can have 2 in teh one. or maybe guppies in a 15 gallon wioth say some corries or soimething. guppies dont take up much room and they look good. or maybe even a heap of neon tetras in a 15 gal tank. they look amazing when swimming together in a skool of heaps. just some thaughts for you to sit on.
community.

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

Only problem with guppies is they breed like rabbits if you have males and females mixed. The problem with smaller tanks (even 10 gal) is they really aren't big enough for active swimming fish.

I really do like the multiple betta idea.

 

[mark.w.jones]

In my sig. is a link for ideal fish for a 10 gallon tank. I have a 10 gallon tank and have managed fine, you are just limited to quite specific species that's all. In my opinion try and get the 15 gallon as it opens up a few more options. Good fish IMO for a small 10 gallon tank are:

Cherry Barbs
Harlequin Rasboras
Endlers livebearers
Pygmy Cories
Amano Shrimp
Guppies (But be aware they can breed like crazy, consider getting all males)

If you go for the 15 gal you can then begin to head into tetra territory although again you would have to stick to smaller less active species.

 

[MattD]

I'd say that, in order to maximize your limited selection, you get the most entertainment from doing a 10 gallon puffer tank. Dwarf puffers only need about 3 - 5 gallons to be happy, and if you have a 15 it's even better. They're somewhat challenging at first, since they're kind of picky with food, but they're full of personality and actually make you feel appreciated.

But in the end it's up to you.

 

[MoonstruckMuse]

If you love colors and personality, a sorority of female bettas might be fun. I never could just settle on one color, and a 15g could house... 8, perhaps. Not entirely sure on stocking numbers, sorry. ^^"

If you haven't seen THIS LINK yet... check it out. It's got some nice suggestions that are a bit more uncommon, in my opinion.
I think the marbled hatchetfish and some pygmy cories would be really interesting.

Don't forget that there's other types of aquatic creatures that aren't fish. African Dwarf Frogs are really cute, snails are always fun to watch and come in all sorts of colors, shapes, and sizes, and shrimp can be fascinating.

Don't forget your good ol' platies, guppies, mollies (prefer brackish water though), and swordtails. They've all got a million different color varieties, haha. They do breed ridiculously though, haha.

 

[mark.w.jones]

I would say that a 10 gallon tank is not really big enough for mollies or swordtails. Sorry

 

[Animalman]

Thank you all for the advice. I am thinking that even a 10 gallon won't be quite big enough for me to have a tank that I like with varying species of fish so I have decided to do something a little different. It is something that I always wanted to do. I plan to start out small and probably stay small.

What I want to do is get two 5 gallon tanks. Then in one I want to buy a dual breeder and put two female guppies in it, one each side. Those two guppies would be bought from the store and I would purposely look for ones that look pregnant and ones with cool colors. Then I would buy a male and stick him in the actual tank. Now, I would let these two females give birth and when they were both done, I would stick them in the actual tank with the male. Then, I would stick all of the fry in the other 5 gallon tank and there would be a small pantyhose or something over the filter to be sure that they didn't get sucked in since I have had that happen before. So this way the 3 guppies in the one 5 gallon would continue to breed and all of the babies would grow. Once they got to a medium size, I would take most of them or take them in groups and go to my local petshop and try and get store credit with them or maybe even just give them away for free to them. I would check this before doing it though. I really like this plan and want your comments on it. I am also thinking about have a 5 gallon with 3 female bettas in it as well but that would be later on down the road. I really want to breed but I know that I might need a bigger tank than a 5 gallon to truly do it well. Anyway, gie me your thoguhts and ideas and suggestions. Also, if anyone knows of a nice stand I could easily find and buy where I could fit a few tanks vertically on it, that would be great.