Finally Decided what fish for 10g tank
 

So, After literally 8 months of considerations,
I made ready today my 10g tank for its newest and
final occupants.
I have decided to go with this tank with Corydoras
Hasbrosus - 8 of them, and 4 Beckford's Pencilfish.

Heres my little beauties - I am incredibly happy
with how nicely they are settling in, and how their
colors have come out.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v359/SneakyPete79/eff36c9d.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v359/SneakyPete79/de4a7ba7.jpg[/img]

A Little More Colorful Now

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v359/SneakyPete79/4ca63b42.jpg[/img]

Settling In Nicely

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v359/SneakyPete79/PicsNewPC28056.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v359/SneakyPete79/527f523b.jpg[/img]

Looking as though they are made for this tank

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v359/SneakyPete79/26b4c653.jpg[/img]

a couple other good pics:

2 of the 3 ADFs in 10g tank hunting for bloodworms

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v359/SneakyPete79/66cc2580.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v359/SneakyPete79/PicsNewPC28035.jpg[/img]

2 of 4 new Cory Hasbrosus so tiny!! Look closely!

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v359/SneakyPete79/PicsNewPC28009.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v359/SneakyPete79/PicsNewPC28007.jpg[/img]

So, what do you all think of the pencilfish!?!

Wow, everything looks great man! Your really good at this lol

Oh Koran! They look so good! The pencilfish have really good colour. The cories are so tiny. I couldn't find any when I was shopping, but I'm happy with my pandas! Your frog has a lot more personality than the 2 I had as well.
Looking Great!

Thanks Scott and Colleen!
I really like them! I had pencils once before,
but in my inexperience at the time, put them in
an uncycled tank, and they both died of ammonia poisoning.
Well, come a long way since then!
Today they are even more colorful than yesterday!
I think I have 2 males and 2 females, I hope, but its super
hard to tell with pencils, as both alpha male and alpha female
will have dominant red coloration.
And the hunger! Holy Chow! These pencils must be starving the
way those mouths can inhale whole flakes LOL

As for the tank- I know the plants need trimming, but I kinda
like the wild look.

That frog in the pic thats snout is right at the glass is Krimet- I have had
him for 3 years now, hes my oldest and largest froggy.
I was worried at first that he being a solid 2 inches, would
be capable of eating the tiny dainty corys at only 1/4-1/2 inch,
but the frogs have shown no interest in the corys at all. Phew.

So right now I have 8 Cory hasbrosus - 4 are less than 1/2 inch size.
4 Beckford's Pencilfish, 1 Paradise fish, and 3 ADF's in there..
The young platy I cant catch *lol*, and 3 baby guppies.
The platy and guppies will all go to my 75g tank when i can catch the platy,
and when the little lady guppies grow a bit bigger to avoid being eaten.

I am not sure if the ADF's will stay or not.
Same as the Paradise fish.
What do you guys thinks?
8 C. Hasbrosus
4 Beckford's Pencils
3 ADF's
1 Paradise fish

The ADFS I moved out of my big tank temporarily due to the
medication I am using in the 75g being quite hard on them.
They can easily go back to the 75g any time when the meds
are finished.

This tank has the following readings:
ph 7.5
GH >250 ppm
Nitrates >10ppm.

It takes almost a whole month for the nitrAtes to rise above
20 ppm due to the massive number of plants I think.
Seems a well balanced tank. :-D

Thanks Scott and Colleen!
I really like them! I had pencils once before,
but in my inexperience at the time, put them in
an uncycled tank, and they both died of ammonia poisoning.
Well, come a long way since then!
Today they are even more colorful than yesterday!
I think I have 2 males and 2 females, I hope, but its super
hard to tell with pencils, as both alpha male and alpha female
will have dominant red coloration.
And the hunger! Holy Chow! These pencils must be starving the
way those mouths can inhale whole flakes LOL

As for the tank- I know the plants need trimming, but I kinda
like the wild look.

That frog in the pic thats snout is right at the glass is Krimet- I have had
him for 3 years now, hes my oldest and largest froggy.
I was worried at first that he being a solid 2 inches, would
be capable of eating the tiny dainty corys at only 1/4-1/2 inch,
but the frogs have shown no interest in the corys at all. Phew.

So right now I have 8 Cory hasbrosus - 4 are less than 1/2 inch size.
4 Beckford's Pencilfish, 1 Paradise fish, and 3 ADF's in there..
The young platy I cant catch *lol*, and 3 baby guppies.
The platy and guppies will all go to my 75g tank when i can catch the platy,
and when the little lady guppies grow a bit bigger to avoid being eaten.

I am not sure if the ADF's will stay or not.
Same as the Paradise fish.
What do you guys thinks?
8 C. Hasbrosus
4 Beckford's Pencils
3 ADF's
1 Paradise fish

The ADFS I moved out of my big tank temporarily due to the
medication I am using in the 75g being quite hard on them.
They can easily go back to the 75g any time when the meds
are finished.

This tank has the following readings:
ph 7.5
GH >250 ppm
Nitrates >10ppm.

It takes almost a whole month for the nitrAtes to rise above
20 ppm due to the massive number of plants I think.
Seems a well balanced tank. :-D

The only time my frogs showed any interest in other fish was when the fish were dying, then they ate them! The first one I didn't see until just the tail was sticking out, the second, one of the frogs got by the tail and was having a hard time getting it down as the fish was successfully keeping himself from going backwards, so the other frog came along and grabbed it by the head, took it away and swallowed it down. This was the white clouds I had in my very unsuccessful 2 gallon tank. The frogs lived quite well in that tank then cycled the 25 with the danios and I gave the 2 g away as it was too much work.

I like the jungle look, the more plants the better, you should see my terrestrial gardens. They are a zen gardeners nightmare!
As long as the fish and plants are happy, then I'm happy too.

In the spring, I will be making a trade with a fellow,
for some baby cryptocornes I have for his
java moss, apparently he is willing to swap all his
java moss for some baby crypts.

I am also going to try to find a good peice of
driftwood for this tank. Maybe something really branch
that I could sort of drape/mold the moss onto?
Like a centerpeice driftwood tree bonsai moss thing!

Hey Colleen, do the stores out there by you
carry many Anubias Plants? If so, next time youre at
the pet store could you have a look?
I found a great canadian aquatics site:
[url]www.ottawaaquatics.com[/url]

I am not sure how much shipping usually is though, I have enquired
and am awaiting a response.
They have pretty reasonable prices on their Anubias species,
from 7.50-about 12.50 depending on size and species.
I would like to make my 25g tank all Anubias plants. :-D

Your tank is beautiful and has inspired me to fix up my grungy 15gal that has had only two cherry barbs in it for the last three years!

What kind of light do you use that keeps the plants so nice??

Hi Lucky,
the hood is a regular incandescent 2 bulb hood

[img]http://www.servicelighting.com/catpics/sylvania/18656.jpg[/img]

It normally would take 2 of these above shown 4-5w bulbs.

However, I took them out and replaced them with
2 compact flourescent spirals of 6700k spectrum
in 23 Watts each. (most flourescent spirals are 6700k)

[img]http://www.kent.ca/img/home/buzz/6818186.jpg[/img]

This gives me 4.6 watts per gallon, probably 4wpg nominal.

This allows me to grow most high light plants, though I only
have medium-low light plants in there currently.

The only thing I need now is c02 - which I am getting for my
birthday, going to get one of those Nutrafin Easy-Gro C02 ladders.

The plants I have in the tank, if you look at picture labelled
Settling In Nicely, the 4th from the top full tank shot from the
right hand corner.
The Plants are From Left back to right front corner:

Asian Ambulia - Limnophilia Aquatica (the fluffy bushy green one)
Wisteria - Hygrophilia Difformis (the green leafy one back right corner)
In the very front right corner in the foreground is an Anubias Azfelli
plant, which currently is recouperating from being an Angelfishfish
breeding plant. It will grow to about 14 inches tall eventually.
The plant next to it, in the foreground, with the tall spikey leaves
is Crytocorne Petchii
The floating plants on the very surface of the water
that looks like tiny green bits or flakes on the waters
surface is Duckweed - a hellish plant I cannot get rid of.
It will completely cover and carpet the surface of the tank in
2 weeks time so thick light can barely penetrate.

OH wow about the lights! I would never have thought of those! They don't give too much heat for a small tank? Have you kept the same plants alive for a resonable length of time with them?

I've always bought the aquarium flourescent grow-lights, but they cost a fortune.

[QUOTE]Duckweed - a hellish plant I cannot get rid of[/QUOTE]

Oh I know all about that stuff - LOL!

Hey Koran,
I prefer to buy plants from Paradise Pets in St. Albert. Their prices are more than half of what Big Al's in Edmonton charges and I have had no losses. They also always have anubias, though I have not seen the petite form of nana yet, they had the larger anubias last time, I put some in my brother's 55g. Even the store in Spruce Grove sells anubias nana, it's actually where I got mine from, though their tanks are often sick and I prefer to go to Paradise! (Who wouldn't?) Watch out for that shipping, I haven't been brave enough to mail order plants yet, though if I can't find wisteria locally, I may need to, the water sprite just hates my 25g, but seems to love my 10g.

You're not the only one getting the Nutrafin Easy Gro CO2 for your birthday, I told the hubby last night that my birthday is the tanks birthday (1yr old) and we both want more light and CO2! Hopefully we get it too! Then I can add plants and redo the gravel.

Lucky ,
Yep, that tank has been up and running with those plants
and those lights for almost 3 years now.
All those plants except the anubias have been in there
for between 1-3 years. The wisteria and ambulia have been
there 3, the Cryptocorne 1.
I also used that tank to grow out Vallisneria Spiralis for my big tank,
to grow out dwarf lotus, and amazon swords.
The lights dont alter the temp in the tank at all.
Flourescent bulbs dont produce much heat compared
to incandescents.
Wish my 25g hood was incandescent, so I could actually
get some good wattage in there, instead of wasting money
on expensive flourescent tubes that only give 15w of light.

Colleen,
I actually mail ordered plants to a lady in NB, cost 25.00
but I could have sent her up to 2lbs of plants, I only sent 300g
worth, and I sent it 2 Day express post.
For shipping only a couple of plants, wrapped in wet paper towel
in a ziplock baggy inside a bubble envelope would
be about 6-7.00.

My Anubias Azfelli plant I paid 17.50 for
ugh
All Anubias plants here run from 12.00-25.00
depending on species.
Anubias Nana petite is 21.00 here for a plant
2 inches tall x 2 inches wide. Its awful!
Woohooo@ c02!
I cant wait to see how our tanks do under the c02!

Anubias at Big Al's in Edmonton doesn't even cost that much! At Paradise it was around $8, I haven't seen petite around here though, just nana and a larger, pointier one (great accurate name, it was next to the plant with the longish spiky parts!), aanyway, I still don't know if I would pay that much for a plant, but I haven't paid more that $8 for a single fish yet either (big spender that I am, glad I'm not a reefkeeper!). I may trade for some wisteria though, I desperately want some wisteria, the water sprite hates my 25, it could be that it is too low in the water, and I let it float for a while before anchoring it in the gravel.

I can hardly wait for the new light and CO2! I'm hoping for 65 watts, I have to figure out how to do it though, my tank is a Hagen Water Home 25, the light hood doesn't require a glass top. The bulbs are protected by a water proof gasket of some sort. So I'm hunting a new hood, a glass cover and bigger light bulbs. I hope I find it soon.