NationStates Jolt Archive

My daughter's boyfriend, having decided that two weeks is long enough to wait after the death of a pet, gave my daughter a PetSmart gift card for her birthday - suggesting that, while she could use it for things like cat litter and food for the other cats, she should adopt a new pet (cat litter does make an odd birthday present).

My daughter, unlike her usual M.O., actually discussed it with me. The upshot was that she bought a tropical fish setup - 10 gallon tank (somewhat small, but we don't have a lot of space and (fingers crossed) she'll be moving soon). So, does anyone have suggestions for fish to occupy said tank - we're rank beginners.

My daughter, unlike her usual M.O., actually discussed it with me. The upshot was that she bought a tropical fish setup - 10 gallon tank (somewhat small, but we don't have a lot of space and (fingers crossed) she'll be moving soon). So, does anyone have suggestions for fish to occupy said tank - we're rank beginners.

Daughter is moving soon so you'll be stuck with the fish? I had fish once and they were a real pain to take care of; Un-clorinate the water, change the water, what a pain.

Not angel fish. I swear I saw them attacking other fish in the tank when we had a fish tank. We were over feeding them a tiny, so it can't have been because they were hungry.

Angel fish are evil. Stay away from them.

Gold fish are good for beginners as are Tetra fish. Gold fish are very hearty creatures.

Not angel fish. I swear I saw them attacking other fish in the tank when we had a fish tank. We were over feeding them a tiny, so it can't have been because they were hungry.

Angel fish are evil. Stay away from them.

I had Angel and Guppy fish in the same tank. The Angel Fish ate/killed the Guppies.

My daughter's boyfriend, having decided that two weeks is long enough to wait after the death of a pet, gave my daughter a PetSmart gift card for her birthday - suggesting that, while she could use it for things like cat litter and food for the other cats, she should adopt a new pet (cat litter does make an odd birthday present).

My daughter, unlike her usual M.O., actually discussed it with me. The upshot was that she bought a tropical fish setup - 10 gallon tank (somewhat small, but we don't have a lot of space and (fingers crossed) she'll be moving soon). So, does anyone have suggestions for fish to occupy said tank - we're rank beginners.

Depends on what kind of tank you want. Fresh Water or Salt Water. I suggest Fresh water tanks.

Tetras are a staple choice.

I would really suggest talking it over with the pet store/on line communities. some fish don't get along with others.

oh and really suggest some form of bottom feeder. those will help keep your tank clean.

Gold fish are hard to kill, but as fish go theyre very messy and require a lot of maintenance.
Black Moors tend to have plenty of personality and develop amusing quirks, but (in my experience) tend to be unhealthy and develop lots of problems.
The other varieties though seem to be OK. I had a couple that we drove from Oregon to Arizona when we moved, and they lived through that just fine.

oh and really suggest some form of bottom feeder. those will help keep your tank clean.

How does one go about putting a scientologist in a fish tank? :p

Gold fish are very hearty creatures.

plus they can learn cool tricks like rising to the surface when you come near or picking up rocks and dropping them all through the night :)

though I have to say convert it into a hamster cage and enjoy hours of fun fending off cats

Axolotl; the Mexican Walking Fish.

plus they can learn cool tricks like rising to the surface when you come near or picking up rocks and dropping them all through the night :)

though I have to say convert it into a hamster cage and enjoy hours of fun fending off cats

Or have hours of endless amusement by watching the cat chase the hamster ball. Ah, my poor witless male cat couldn't figure out why the ball moved and why he couldn't get the tasty treat inside. Stupid cat.

How does one go about putting a scientologist in a fish tank? :p

well, first you got to find a very, very tiny one (it's only a 10 gallon tank after all) then out fit him/her in a minuature deep sea diving suit. it has to be light weight, so plastic works. then have air pumped into said suit to keep the scientologist alive.

lots of people have em in their tanks. unfortunatly, the plastic diving suit makes it hard to move, so they are very, very slow. most people mistake them for decoration.

Axolotl; the Mexican Walking Fish.

for the lulz! (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/41/Mudkip08.jpg)

Or have hours of endless amusement by watching the cat chase the hamster ball. Ah, my poor witless male cat couldn't figure out why the ball moved and why he couldn't get the tasty treat inside. Stupid cat.

my cats terrified of the things then again this is the same cat that is hunted by crows

My daughter's boyfriend, having decided that two weeks is long enough to wait after the death of a pet, gave my daughter a PetSmart gift card for her birthday - suggesting that, while she could use it for things like cat litter and food for the other cats, she should adopt a new pet (cat litter does make an odd birthday present).

My daughter, unlike her usual M.O., actually discussed it with me. The upshot was that she bought a tropical fish setup - 10 gallon tank (somewhat small, but we don't have a lot of space and (fingers crossed) she'll be moving soon). So, does anyone have suggestions for fish to occupy said tank - we're rank beginners.

You'll want a healthy mix of fish. Probably one or two catfish, an algae eater, and some colorful fish that won't live birth. Tetras are your best bet, they're hardy and, IIRC, fairly cheap to replace. The reason I say no live birth is that if you end up buying a bunch of guppies and similar fish, you're going to get a tank full of the little buggers soon enough, and while that's well and dandy with a large tank (we have about a dozen guppies in our 55 gallon tank) it'll get cramped in a 10 gallon.

If she hasn't done so already, she'll want to buy a tank heater and a thermometer.

Edit: Oh, forgot to add. Try to avoid cichlids, especially Oscars. They grow big, and they eat anything it can fit in its mouth. And I do mean ANYTHING. I once saw my friend's Oscar suck in a loach that was twice its length but was thin enough to fit in its mouth.

Pirayas.:gundge:

You mean pirahnas? :rolleyes:

You mean pirahnas? :rolleyes:
You mean piranhas? :rolleyes:

Or maybe he did mean Pirayas. After all, a piraya (http://www.piraya.com/)is apparently, "high-spirited", "dynamic" and "highly skilled" (which I guess means they do tricks), very good qualities for a pet. They're apparently very popular in Europe (Spain and France especially so).
Ooh, and they're also apparently capable of "product design, development and support," how many gold fish can claim that?

Here's a nice wiki page you might find useful:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_freshwater_aquarium_fish_species

My daughter's boyfriend, having decided that two weeks is long enough to wait after the death of a pet, gave my daughter a PetSmart gift card for her birthday - suggesting that, while she could use it for things like cat litter and food for the other cats, she should adopt a new pet (cat litter does make an odd birthday present).

My daughter, unlike her usual M.O., actually discussed it with me. The upshot was that she bought a tropical fish setup - 10 gallon tank (somewhat small, but we don't have a lot of space and (fingers crossed) she'll be moving soon). So, does anyone have suggestions for fish to occupy said tank - we're rank beginners.

Guppies are pretty hard to kill and the males come in beautiful colors.

I also like various forms of tetras.

If she really isn't keen on fish a few african dwarf frogs can be fun, no more than maybe 2 though, they like lots of room to roam, and are very active pets.

We've always had a mix of guppies, neons, catfish, tetras (they like to eat the baby guppies and neons, keeps the population down) and algea eaters. If you want something a little more exotic (but not to exotic) you could fork out the money and get either some red-tail sharks or bala sharks (these one can get big I hear, ours never lasted past a year or two though) or clown loaches. If you want a real adventure though go pick up a plecostomus. They can do the work of like two or three algea eaters and they get really big, really fast. Plus nothing can seem to kill 'em. Or if you don't want fish you can get a couple crayfish. My brother had one that lived like 3 or 4 years. He bought it when it was tiny and it wound up being about 6 or 7 inches long. It was bit of an escape artist and would get out at night sometimes and run around the house. Pretty anti-social though, killed anything else that was put in the tank with it. But really cool.

We've always had a mix of guppies, neons, catfish, tetras (they like to eat the baby guppies and neons, keeps the population down) and algea eaters. If you want something a little more exotic (but not to exotic) you could fork out the money and get either some red-tail sharks or bala sharks (these one can get big I hear, ours never lasted past a year or two though) or clown loaches. If you want a real adventure though go pick up a plecostomus. They can do the work of like two or three algea eaters and they get really big, really fast. Plus nothing can seem to kill 'em. Or if you don't want fish you can get a couple crayfish. My brother had one that lived like 3 or 4 years. He bought it when it was tiny and it wound up being about 6 or 7 inches long. It was bit of an escape artist and would get out at night sometimes and run around the house. Pretty anti-social though, killed anything else that was put in the tank with it. But really cool.

Maybe ONE betta, as long as you don't have anything else with long fins to nip.

Oh, get some neons, they school and look pretty when they swim around.

Also guppies and mollys are cute.

Oh, and get some sort of bottom feeding fish that will eat the algae.

A salmon, or perhaps a trout? Of course they wouldn't get very big before you'd have to eat them what with the little tank, but at least you'd get something out of it in the long run!