Ok - I now have a 10 gallon tank with light in hood, and a clean slate. While other tanks came with lights, I've not used them because they did not also come with heaters and I didn't want to invest at the time, so I've basically had different types of goldfish experience.

It is possible to get a small heater for this tank, but would the light be enough warmth for other fish?

How many fish for 10 gallons?
Which kinds?

Plants - remember - my only sources are the big petstores, so the pickings are few and far between.

Since I am in the experimental stage, I don't want to invest toooo much at first, til I get the hang of it...

HELP?!?

Well come on in and lay on the couch and tell us all your problems... ... Sorry just could not resist!

I am SURE that Sarah is gonna get you going the right way and I am gonna keep an eye on this too for when I get my tank!

Alright, Lynne!

First, goldfish are messy and dirty, which is why I don't keep them. Do you plan on keeping them?

Second, I don't like the undergravel filters. I greatly prefer the ones that hang off the back, because they are MUCH easier to change.

Third, plants should be easy to come by. My favorite is elodea, which is also used as a pond plant.

Cute, Triss - actually... I'd love to relax on your couch a bit and watch how you manage to multi-task the way you do!!!

Sarah - how interesting that goldfish are dirty fish - it's sooooo good to know that others are not so! And no... I did NOT want this tank to be goldies too! Would love a bit more color and interest!

Also interesting about the under gravel filters - they are the only ones I've had experience with. The box says "whisper 5-15 power filter with cartridge". It does not show where the filter sits on the set-up on the box.

There is also a mistake on the box:

Plants: 1-3 small, 4-8 medium

Make sense? Not to me...

I think that will be a hob filter...the one that came with mine was!

As for plants, maybe that is their suggestion for how many silk plants you can have?

All fish are dirty to some extent, but goldfish are by far the worst. I would suggest a betta, and maybe some long finned danios, or neons...and maybe one cory cat to help clean up the bottom.

All in all, I would say 1 betta, 6 small fish, and one cory...

no - they wrote less for the small size than the medium - doesn't make sense to me, unless I'm reading it wrong!

I already have 3 betta fish vases, but was considering getting one for this tank. Not too found of neons for some reason - can't put my finger on it... Any other fairly nice sized fish that I might try?

As for getting plants... when I was looking for some small ones for the bathtub pond last summer - they were not readily available, even with traveling about an hour in a few different directions, but... I'm going to start searching around - maybe even tomorrow morning - any other suggestions in case I can't find that one?

My son keeps several 120 gallon tanks in our house full of Cichlids. He also does not use under gravel tanks. As a matter of fact in saome of his tanks he uses sand instead of gravel. He uses swimming pool filter sand as a bottom and floats banana plants in them. He devotes all his studies to Fish, computers, astronomy, and Ancient Egypt.

Thorny - I just searched those fish - they are very pretty! Are they very expensive?

Most low-light plants will do fairly well. I can send you some elodea if you can't find any locally...it's a really tough plant.

Let me see what I can find for fish...brb.

Sarah - I need to head to bed now - another busy day on tap for tomorrow - beginning with taking Seven to the vet, and ending with a school concert for Amy tomorrow night.

If you wouldn't mind... would you please post anything you can think of here, and I'll catch up with it and you in the morning?

thanks so much for all your help ... Lynne

Those are gorgeous fish Thorny. They can get pretty big from the googles images I saw. Nice lookin' though.

This site does a fairly good job of recommending the right size tank for each type of fish... freshwater fish

Cichlids are a specialty fish that require almost as much work as a saltwater tank...but they are awesome!

And for some plants...

freshwater plants

I don't know how expensive Cichlids are, but they get BIG! You need pretty big tanks for them.

A lotta people would disagree with me in my tank setup. I do water changes twice a week though ^.^ Mostly cuz i have a day off and i get bored very easily. But ya, here's what i got in my tank

10 Gallon Tank
Black Gravel
Lil stone ornament thing with lotsa holes in it
Tetra Whisper Power Filter 20
Goldfish (Experiment #7)
Gold Dojo Loach (The Force)
Black Kuhli (The Dark Side of The Force)
2 Neon Tetras (Obi Wan & Luke Skywalker)
2 Glolight Tetras (Darth Sidius & Darth Vader)
Ivory Snail
1Million Trumpet Snails (They come out at night, eat all the crap, and airate the gravel by burrowing)
Banana Lily
lil thermometer thingy
Aqua Culture Betta Pellet Food (My goldfish won't eat anything else)
Tetra BettaMin Tropical Medley, (My Tetras won't eat anything else, and they can't fit the pellet food in their mouth)
Annnnnnnnd Tetra Aqua AquaSafe drops. They make tap water safe for fish by neutralizing chlorine, chloramine, heavy metals, and it stimulates the natural slime coating on fish.

My fish got Ick from a Pleco that i bought at petco, because i didn't go through the quarentining process. Soooooooo ya, do the quarentining process. I use CopperSafe to get rid of ick.

I'm probably gonna get another Goldfish later on and switch off this tank for my 20 Gal that i currently have my Nepenthes Bicalcarata in. it'll fit in the 10 gal just right ^.^

But ya, that's what i have right now I want another goldfish because my current one has breeding tubricals and its getting very pushy with all the other fish, so i think a female will do it just right ^.^ There's pleanty of room in my 20 gallon too, so that should solve the "i'm king of the tank" problem lol.

~Phoebe

I have the exact tank you are talking about and at one time (some have died from moving place to place or lack of care) I had a betta, 5 little neon tetras, an albino cory, 2 pearl danios, 2 black tetras, a african dwarf frog, an apple snail, and a plecostemus....I'm back to fish hunting tho cuz now all I have is the betta and the cory!

oh and I forgot to say that my light usually is a sufficient heater tho it causes algae to really build up if you leave it on too much