Suggestions for my 10gal

[Zerileous]

Hello, I am very new to the aquarium thing, and have inherited a tank of guppies from someone who no longer liked having guppies.

The tank is 10 gallons, and I am a little worried about population control. There are a few adults, but the fish in various stages of development number aprox. 30, but they are hard to count. I would say fewer than 10 of them are longer than an inch. The tank did not start this way, but guppies tend to reproduce I guess.

My first concern is bio load. I know that if they keep reproducing like this and grow up, eventually it will be too high for the tank. My initial guess at a solution is to add a predator of some sort.

The lady at the LFS suggested an oscar, but after doing research, that fish is way too big for a 10 gal. I am trying to find a more humane LFS, as this one had numerous ocurances of fish in too small of tanks (such as angles that couldn't move).

A friend said a betta might be a good idea, and that seems like a pretty logical solution, but I am no expert.

Right now the tank is about 78-79 dark, 80 ish lights (using heater). I have some sort of box filtration with floss and carbon powered by an air stone. I don't have test kits, but the tank is a few months old and the fish seem healthy.

I think a heavily planted south American theme would be interesting to develop the tank into.

I hope you guys can help me get into this hobby, it has been lots of fun so far.

Thanks.

[Chrona]

Welcome!

I would recommend seeing if the LFS will take the guppies in (as a donation), as there really isn't much you can do in the way of a predator in a 10g. A betta will eat himself to death with that many fry available and larger predators won't fit. Granted, in a sparse tank, the guppies will eat many of the fry themselves, but 30 is already way too many fish. I would suggest 8 max. 5-6 if you are doing a planted tank (the plants will technically allow you to keep more fish, but a low bioload makes taking care of a planted tank MUCH easier. Try to keep all of one sex obviously.

[Drumachine09]

Welcome to the A.C.!

Yeah, your tank is way overstocked, but thats what hapens when you have guppies i guess.

An oscar needs 55g BARE MINIMUM, provided you have AWESOME filtration. THat LFS sounds bad ,imo, and i wouldnt take their advice.

A Betta would be cool with some hardy plants, and a couple of corys, and maybe a few white clouds.

As for south american, the only ones i can think of are larger fish.



Good call on your part on knowing 10g is WAY too small for an oscar. I think she needs a head exam. Great job! :thumb:

[Drumachine09]

Try to keep all of one sex obviously.


I would keep only males for two reasons:

A.) They are way more colorful

and

B.) The females can carry sperm for months, or could already be pregnant upon purchase

[kenyth]

Give the extra fish away. If the LFS doesn't want them, there are plenty of people who need feeder fish. You'll want eight one inch fish in a ten gallon tank at the most. Like Chrona said.