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Help building fish community


Cilph
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Hi all. Brand new to the hobby (thanks to my 6 year daughter). Started with a 5 gallon tank and 4 guppies. Killed so many fish 😞 We really tried. Now we are left with one incredibly hardy and resilient guppy. I've got my quarantine trio ready to go (no more ich or parasites in my house) and am making sure to get a good cycle going before buying new fish. We have decided to upgrade to a 10 gallon tank. I set it up with substrate and a few plants about four weeks ago and have let it run while Sunny Wilma (the remaining male guppy as named by previously mentioned daughter) stayed in the 5 gallon tank. Checking the water every few days and amonia is at 0 ppm and its moving through nitrite and nitrate as expected. Moving plants and decorations over to the 10 gallon tank this weekend. Will move Sunny W. too. A few questions. First, we want a community tank. Borrowing from the post about cookie cutter tanks, we thought about trying the following. Again, a 10 gallon tank with four plants (dwarf grass, java fern, and something else I can't remember):

3 male guppies

6 neon tetras

4 panda/pygmy corydoras

3 amano shrimp

 

Does this seem about right? Too many? Too few? I don't want to overload the ecosystem and we are VERY much novices here. If that's about right, do you suggest I buy all those fish and introduce them at once, hitting all of them with the trio? Or do it in phases? If phases, how long between each new set of fish? In what order?

I really don't want to kill any more fish and would appreciate any advice.

Cilph

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first off, not to worry, we have all killed fish. it is part of the learning experience. tons of good info right here on the forum, so dont be afraid to do some reading , and ask questions if you need. what you have listed is a ballpark decent amount of fish. i would choose the pygmy cory's over the pandas in a 10g. once you start moving stuff into the 10gallon, give the 1 guppy a few days in there, then add 1 group of the above fish, and wait a week or two, then add another etc.

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I think that stocking is fine. I would say add the guppies or tetras first. And then add the other two groups a little later. (maybe like 2 weeks.) Add the Amani shrimp when algae first appears. I think Pygmy Corys would be ideal if you could find them. Maybe if you do Pygmy Corys do 6 instead of 4. Panda Corys are doable in a 10 gallon but I would only do 4. If you can find something like ember tetras or green neon tetras that are a similar care level but are a little smaller so you could get 8 of them.

ps. For stocking info you could use aqadvisor.com. With that tool you want to aim for 100% stocking or lower but lower is better.

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Stocking seems okay to me. I would take my time drip acclimating the shrimp. Also if you're not familiar with live nitrifying bacteria products that you can add to your aquarium, those can also help speed up the cycling process. Maybe add each group of fish one at a time and monitor water until ammonia returns to 0. I personally have found corys to be quite hardy so I might add them first, but honestly any of the fish in those quantities should be fine in whatever order. Best of luck. 

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Thanks everybody. Gave me a lot of confidence trying to establishing this tank after the slaughter that was the first round. I'll start with two more guppies (what the kids want) and the 6 pygmy corys as an initial clean up crew.

What do you mean by drip acclimate?

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I also think you could add the amanos now. I like to add them at the quite early on of any new tank to help with cycling, melting plants, getting ahead of algae, etc. I set up an 11 gallon tank with guppies, shrimp, and pygmy corys last fall. I found my guppies often outcompeted my pygmy cories, even though i had sinking pellets and blood worms for them as opposed to a variety of floating foods for guppies. Just FYI to keep an eye on. I'm not sure of your lighting situation, but pearlweed, dwarf sag, and maybe a vallisneria nana would probably look good in your tank. 

 Drip acclimation videos: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=drip+acclimation+shrimp

oh, and friendly reminder that quarantining new fish is a very good idea 🙂 

 

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