David C

My niece wants a 10gal fish tank for Christmas so I figured I would indulge her. She is 9 but her mom will help her out on some of the maintenance. If things go bad, I will be taking the fish and tank back to my house, I won't leave them in a bad situation. My question is, would glofish be an alright "starter fish" and if so how many can I keep in a 10gal safely. I will be cycling the filter and gravbel in my tank before Christmas so it will be fully set up on the big day. I just thought she would like the bright colors of the glofish. If they aren't good, what would be another good standby besides neons or guppies.

Thanks

Shawnie

what a great uncle!! at about 3" you could have 3 ...so would a 9 year old be happy with 3 fish? or maybe do some neon tetra's and you can have more with color? either way, shes lucky!! goodluck!

Fishies-for-me

Glofish are genetically altered zebra danios which are quite hardy fish. I think maybe 4 would fit in a 10 gallon tank. They get up to 2.5 inches each adult size.

Other fish could be a divided tank with a couple of bettas

a betta and a couple of ottos or corys

shrimp

4 or 5 platies

Lucy

Great idea to cycle the filter and gravel before Christmas. I hate to think how many fish are lost during the holidays for lack of knowledge.

Guppys get to be about 2" and you could have 5.
There come in such a variety of pretty colors. Add some ghost shrimp for the fun of it.


Hmmmmm guppys.......I want guppys lol

sirdarksol

Okay, unless GloFish grow bigger than zebra danios, they get to be about 2" in length. I did some searching, and it seems that the people who list 2.5 as the length for danios are using long-finned varieties. Most other sites list 2". As fin length doesn't really produce more waste, we'll go with 2".
Therefore, you can put 5 of them in the tank, which is good, because they prefer to be in bigger groups.

Setting aside guppies and tetras, about the only other bright fish I could think of that would go in a 10g, would be killifish.

jdhef

Dwarf Rainbows are supposed to be pretty hardy. At an adult lenght of 2" you could have 5 of them. They have a metalic blue body with red fins. They can be a little harder to find though.

Shawnie

I quoted the size from another thread you wrote sir!!
so I guess 2" is the consensious sowwy!

sirdarksol

Hey, no reason to be sorry. If you quoted me, I apologize to you and to whoever else I gave info to. I probably was just on Wikipedia when I gave that info. They list the size as 2.5. In the end, though, it doesn't matter too much. With danios, a little bit of overstock won't kill them, as long as the nitrates are kept down. They enjoy having company, which is why I wanted to try to get at least 5 in the tank.

Chief_waterchanger

Atleast we all know that sizes are approximate and only an approximation of average potential.

So in a sense, you are all correct.

(I agree that keeping 4-5 when referring to danio would probably be best for the fish and their comfort. )

David C

I plan on showing her photos of the various fish she can choose from and explain that once she decides, that's it and she can't go back. I figured I would already show photos of the neons and guppy's (not cardinals because of how sensitive they are), and I wanted to make sure of the glofish before I offered them up as well. I'm growing out some java fern and java moss for her right now, so I think it will be a good size by Christmas.

Thanks for the tips everyone, just trying to set her up for success and not the pain of losing fish.

jdhef

Did you consider a Betta with a few cories?

David C

My sister said no to the betta, something about not likeing the idea of an agressive fish in her house. I tried to explain but my sister is one of those people who gets something into her head and nothing you do can change her mind. So I have to go with other ideas although that was my first thought, betta and cory's.

fins

you could also do tiger barbs, but being fin nippers you have to be careful, maybe 4-5 of them..they are pretty and they have a variety of colors ..

jdhef

Adult size for Tiger Barbs is 3", so only 3 would fit in a 10 gallon tank.

Alessa

Neons seem to also be pretty delicate...

I think the guppies are a great choice. They are hardy, active and really colorful! you can have each one of them of a different color.

sirdarksol

I'd avoid the barbs for the above reasons.
Neons would be touchy, but black neons seem to be really hardy (I've not had any die on me).

Butterfly

If you could get them about 10 Endler males would be gorgeous. Males so you wouldn't have to worry about fry.
Carol

Devon

Oh yes, they are killers for sure!!

Good job on getting your niece a tank for Christmas, what an awesome gift, and a wonderful opportunity to teach the little one how to care for an animal. It's a very underrated skill, and she is bound to learn a lot from the experience, as well as have a tonne of fun.

David C

I agree Devon, I figure taking care of a pet is a tremendous responsiblity and it's important to teach these skills at a young age. My 4 yrold is helping with maintenance and feeding already. I can't believe my sister thinks betta's are agressive, they just have a bad rep, that's all. I think mine are very sweet little boys, but maybe I'm biased

Lonely Angel

I wish I had an uncle like you when I was little!

I know; I set up a tank for my mom and suggested bettas (I couldn't help myself ) but she had the same negative ideas about bettas (even though she's heard me gush about how sweet "my boys" are) I guess people don't get that they're only aggressive to fish, not people.

clinton1621

Harlequin Rasboras would be another alternative to neons, they are a bit more hardy and they also like to school like the neons =) roughly the same size as well

Shaina

This sounds like it will be fun

One thing I like about the glofish for a young child is that you can get your five but make them all different colors and they will still school nicely...if she's like most little kids she'll want to name them and that will make it easy to remember who is who

One kinda OT suggestion...if there's any way you can figure out what fish she likes before hand and quarantine them first, yourself, that might not be a bad idea. It's sad enough to us "old folks" if one of our fish dies...it would stink to get them all settled in and named and her all excited, only to have a few drop due to something in their system from the store...of course then she wouldn't have the chance to go with you and "pick" the fish from the tanks, if that's your plan...

David C

I think you're reading my mind Shaina. I will pick up the fish a couple weeks before I bring them to her, she lives 5hrs from me and there is no good LFS that would carry something like this. I figure it will all be for the best if I deal with the difficult period. I'll be staying with her for the first week to make sure she understands maintenance and I'll be testing the water daily to make sure it's up to snuff. I want to make sure the fish are in a stable environment before she takes the reins.