Fish For 10g (uk) Tank

[rdoherty]

Hi
I have now changed my mind and the first fish I want are:
6 neon tetra
2 black mollies (male & female)
2 guppies (male & female)

Are these OK to start off as first fish?

 

[Callum]

nice seection of fish when putting in guppies i would reccomend 2 females to a male. Also you have to add a bit of salt for mollies which can get complicated.

 

[modernhamlet]

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe mollys get a bit large for a 10g.

I'd go with the neons and 3-4 male guppies unless you really want to deal with a massive overpopulation problem.

 

[Ethos]

About mollys and salt -
Thats actually not true. I've heard my stories about people adding salt to their tank, and having all the mollies die. I've heard more sucessful stories about keeping them in complete FW than with a little salt.
Although they do grow big, and may need a bigger tank than a 10G.

Yeah, if you want guppies, they're great fish, but get all male.

 

[dwarfgourami]

I agree that mollies get too big for a 10 gals. If you want a similar fish, why not get platys?

With all the livebearers there is the problem with sex though. If you have a small group of males (fewer than 5) without lots of females you may get aggression; if you have mixed genders (at a ratio of not fewer than 2 females per male) you will get babies, if you get females only you may still get babies (they may be pregnant from the store). Female livebearers have the awkward capacity of being able to store sperm from one mating for up to 7 pregnancies.

I'd settle for 4-5 male guppies and 5-6 neons. This is slightly overstocked so you need to be diligent with your water changes. Do a fishless cycle and add the guppies first.

 

[rdoherty]

Hi I would like some male and female guppies as I would like to see them breed
Would it be ok if I had 5-6 neons and 3 female guppies and 2 male guppies?

 

[ncjharris]

Sylvia has done a good post on what can and can't go into a 10 gal. Should be able to offer some good advice.
Let me see if I can find it................

EDIT: here we are here

 

[Annastasia]

Hi I would like some male and female guppies as I would like to see them breed
Would it be ok if I had 5-6 neons and 3 female guppies and 2 male guppies?

If you wanted to get males and females, I'd recommend just 3 females and 1 male. You don't want to get too many males and not many females in a small space, because the males may fight and the females will get very stressed out having the males follow them all the time.

You said you wanted to see them breed. Do you have a plan for fry? Some (If not most) will probably get eaten, by the Tetras and the parents but you need to plan for babies just in case. You may have 50 babies in a couple months. Guppies can produce large amounts of fry and frequently. So you need to plan how you are going to raise them, and where you are going to put them or take them when they grow up. I would personally say wait until you have a bigger tank to get Guppies, and then breed them. For now, I'd get all males. Just my opinion though.

As for Mollies and salt - It really depends on how they were raised. Some Mollies are raised in pure freshwater, in which case they will be fine in that for life, but a little salt is okay, sometimes good. Some are raised in some salt, in which case they will do best in some salt. Some are raised full-blown brackish, and in that case it's not that good for them to be in full freshwater, like any brackish fish. So it basically comes down to how they were raised, along with other things like pH and hardness. You can't really say they need salt or they don't, because it varies by fish. Anyway, just wanted to add that...I also agree they won't fit in your tank, rdoherty. Sorry!

 

[rdoherty]

Hi
With the fry I will raise them up a little bit then net them and take them to my local aquarium shop

 

[dwarfgourami]

If you want the fry experience (which I can understand), I would just get the 2-3 female guppies and 1 male. You can always get the neons later. You can't take the fry for sale until they have reached a certain size, and they need the grow-out room for that.
You will need to plan for raising them without all getting eaten by the parents. You can buy a breeder net to keep the fry in for the first few weeks (don't stick the mother in there though) and then release them into the tank. But check with the shop first that they will take the fry.