dogstar

Hello! I'm a complete newbie when it comes to fish tanks. I wanted to start off with a small six gallon one.. I did go to Petco and a young boy there helped me out with some information. It's been about three weeks now and as a total I have three serpae, one Red Wag Platy, I had another but he didn't make it..

My pH level is about 7.0 at this point and I just did a water change yesterday.

http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y7/...t=P9170062.jpg

There's my lil tank.

Anyway my problem is, the person at Petco told me having that many fish in my Six gallon was perfectly alright but the more I read up on them the more i'm getting a little worried. Should I try and upgrade to a Ten gallon one? Even when I went there they were sort of pushing me to buy another. And I would rather have another Red Wag for my Nicky.. he seems a little down. Always sticks to the top of the tank and just sorta floats there.

Any opinions?

Comments would be appreciated! And be gentle! Eep. >.O

Boxermom

Platies and tetras like to be in groups, the more the merrier. And they like to have room to swim around. I'd definitely recommend getting a larger tank and adding a few more. You could get a solo type fish for your six gallon, something like a betta.

Just as an fyi, clerks at pet stores like Petco, Petsmart, etc., very rarely have any clue what they are talking about so take any advice they give with a grain of salt. If he'd had a clue, you wouldn't currently have any fish as your tank would still be cycling (unless you got some BioSpira which Petco doesn't seem to carry).

dogstar

Dang, I knew it. I did actually want to upgrade anyway but now i'll have to wait until I can save up a little more cash PLUS do the cycling which takes quite a bit longer then the person told me originally heh.

The three tetra's seem to be doing really well, they cluster about the tank, moving all around but that Red Wag just seems so DEPRESSED. I really really hope he can make it until I can afford another tank.

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated.

Butterfly

Heres some interesting articles to help you along:
http://www.fishlore.com/Forum/index.php?topic=620.0
By the way welcome to FishLore!!
Carol

Kanadian

As i often reccomend to people that come into my Store where i work... i reccomend that they get 1 fish for every 2 gallons mainly n only because it'll save on some cleaning of the filter since it wont be getting junked up as fast and 2 its always nice to watch your fish grow... and I'd say about 98% of anyone who I've sold fish to at my work they all would love to watch their fishes grow! even in one of my 55 gals I've only got 27 fish total in it and thats the most packed tank i got!

dogstar

Well I brought back my Wag which was sad but I think it's better that way. He just seemed so darn lonely. Now it's just my three tetra's. When I switch to my ten gallon tank i'll get a few more of those for a bigger school they can play around with.


Thank you for the links and advice!