Christmas Inlaw Tank

[Garrett]

So my inlaws are really into my fish tank, which is cool for me but drives my suffering wife nuts. Anyway, they indicated they wanted a tank for Christmas, and given the joy that is Craiglist, I quickly secured a 14g. hex with light and some of the fixins' for a grand total of five bucks. My father in law is utterly fascinated by the African Dwarf Water Frogs and has insisted on having a couple in the tank. I showed him pictures of common community fish, and he's selected cherry barbs and a male betta as a centerpiece fish. I'm thinking about going with some snails or red cherry shrimp for a bit of a cleanup crew, as it's probably only going to get cleaned every other week or so when I'm over there.

So how's this for a stocking plan?
1 male Betta
6 cherry barbs
2 dwarf water frogs
2-3 snails or 4-6 RCS.

I've got an AC30 I'm going to hang on the back and I'm tentatively going to put some easy care plants in the tank to spruce it up and provide a little more filtration. It's going to have seeded media from my tank and I'm probably going to purchase all the fish before hand and make sure they're happy and healthy. I already bought two frogs for the tank, who're happily dwelling in my 55. I figure this way we avoid any unexplained just-bought-from-the-store fish death.

Anyone see anything wrong with this? I figure it's probably about right on for bioload, the cherry barbs are pretty small and 6 is enough for a happy little shoal. They're really gentle, so I can't see the betta getting freaked out. I know the frogs aren't going to bother anything, and, well, snails are snails. I'm leaning towards snails as they seem more durable than shrimp.

Anyway, thoughts? Like I said, this plan seems pretty solid to me based on what I've learned here, but I want to make sure I'm not missing anything I shouldn't be.

[bushwhacker]

up front let me say i know nothing about frogs, but sitting here looking at my 30 gal. hex and thinking its small i dont know if i'd put 2 frogs in there, much less something half its size. but wait for some one else who knows more than me. filtration looks good and plants are always nice the rest of the stock should be good i just dont know frogs

[Garrett]

Just to clarify, the dwarf frogs generally top out at about two, two and a half inches long, and are often on the small side of that.

[bigbad-ratman]

i still consider myself a noob , but i dont think the cherry barbs would be very happy in there. school of 7 cherry barbs in my 45 gal. they generally stay pretty well hidden, but when they move they are all over the place. i would go 1, maybe 2 snails once the tanks is established and there is algae growing. my thoughts for a 14 gal, i would just go a betta and a snail. bettas are pretty characterful little fish and i think with a 14 gal you would see that come out. dont know how they would do with a frog, never kept any.

[Garrett]

I had cherry barbs in a 20 tall for quite a while with problems-indeed, they were pretty much the only fish to NOT give me a hard time in that tank. Everyone's always sort of pointed to them as a small, harmless, generally undemanding fish.

[Red]

Sounds ok to me, I wouldn't put RCS in with bettas though. I would do one snail too.

[Rue]

It's a lovely idea...glad your in-laws are into the hobby as well...

But with any pet gift, you gotta ask:

Who's gonna clean it?

[Garrett]

Oh, I'm going to clean it. I'm over there often enough that normal tank care should be fine, and I'll show them how to do basic water changes to keep up with it. My inlaws are completely inept around the house, my wife and I take care of everything, generally with help from her grandparents, who for being in their early 80s are in excellent health and actually know how to take care of a house.

I was leaning more towards snails for a clean up crew myself, I mostly thought about the shrimp as I'm intending on picking up a load of them on aquabid and could just put a few in their tank. I think the snail would be more hardy and easier to care for.

[Rue]

I'm glad you'll be looking after it.

Nothing like going over for coffee and tank-cleaning! thumbs2:

[Garrett]

...and weed whacking, and computer repair (did I mention her mother's a computer programmer?), and garden tending, and fixing their plumbing, and...

*headdesk*

[Deleted User]

Just throwing this idea out there... I've thought of doing this for my nephews, but probably will not this year as my sister doesn't need yet another "chore" to fall on her (my nephews are young).

How about if you just get the tank you bought looking and spiffy clean and give them a gift certificate to PetCo / PetSmart so that they can pick out the decor and the fish? That part is SO much fun at least to me, and they'd probably love it, too.

You could maybe start running some extra media in your filter that you could give to them so they'd have an instantly cycled tank ready to add the fish they pick?

Either way, very cool gift!

[Garrett]

Well, her dad picked out the fish-everything except the male betta is in my tank, and he basically said 'I want those'. Apparently they had bettas in the Soviet Union when he was a kid, so after a bit of trying to figure out what he meant when he tried to describe it (the Russian name meaning nothing to me), I googled a couple pictures of bettas and he was very firm about that being what he wanted, specifically a blue-green one.

I also have no idea what reputable fish places are around their house on Staten Island, and I want to make sure they get good quality stock.