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Help!!! ASAP!!!

23 16:21:10

Question
QUESTION: Hey,
I want to get a mystery snail, 2 ghost/glass cats, 2 hatchet fish, dojo loach, 2 dwarf gouramis, 1 male betta, and a cory fish!  But i need to know the average tank set up, the Ph, the hardness of the water, food, everything, ect. ect.  thank you!

ANSWER: Well, One issue I can see already is the 2 dwarf gouramis and the male betta.  They are both labrinth fish and don't do well together.  I would choose a single betta or a single gourami.  I would avoid the hatchet fish as they are notorious for jumping out of any little hole left in the hood of your tank.  They also are schooling fish and need to be in groups of 6 or more.  dojo loaches also are schooling fish and like to be in groups of six as are the cory cats.  I would choose either dojos or corys and get a nice big school of them.  For a tank with

1 mystery snail
2 glass cats
a school of either dojos or corys
and a betta or dwarf gourami

I would go with a 30 gallon or larger tank

whatever your water's ph and hardness is should be fine, just take your time acclimating the fish (drip method in a bucket with airline tubing over 2-3 hours is best)  Normal tropical fish food with some freeze dried bloodworms and some frozen brine shrimp as treats would be fine for food.  You would need a heater, a filter, and a hood.  Gravel- 1 lb per gallon of water in your tank.  decorations- live or fake plants, caves or driftwood, etc.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Well I only have a 10 gallon tank and I would love dojos and a variety, what do you suggest???  Also I recently had African Dwarf Frogs and the water hardness, and ph, hurt them terribly, are you sure i don't have to do anything with the water?  Thanks again!

Answer
In a 10 gallon I would do a single male betta, a mystery snail and maybe a small school of dwarf cory cats, but the dwarf variety, not the regular ones.  ADF are very sensitive creatures, they do not live very easy if the water quality is not perfect- water changes 50% a week (all fish should have this done for them)  it hurts fish a lot more for the ph to be unstable than to be high.