newbie

hello

Recently started my first 10 gallon tank at the beginning of January? Like everyone else that just starts out; I didn't really listen to the "wait a while to add a bunch of fish"

I had a catfish, 3 minnows that I just bought because they were 13 cents each and I thought it was funny and I couldn't pass up the bargain , and some red and black fish that i believe was a swordtail.

The Swordtail died in two days. the catfish and minnows appeared to be doing very well.

A week or so after when I noticed the catfish and minnows still doing good and swimming around looking healthy, I added 2 tetras to the tank. and somewhere before the tetras I added a algae eather that my girlfriend bought me.

Another week or so goes by; and the tank was looking pretty spacious...and I wanted to add some more life in there. I added a live plant, and 2 Iridescent sharks.

Almost immediately after putting the sharks in, i noticed one of the sharks looked like its bottom fin got bitten or something. After a few days tho, it became more clear that this was most likely fin rot. also within a few days...the sharks, tetras, catfish, and one of the minnows were showing definite signs of ich.

Long story short, the only fish now in my tank is the algae eater, and hes been in there alone for about 2 weeks now?

And now tonight, i roll over from my computer to my tank to take a look at the little guy, and i see a baby snail crawling around the gravel.

anyway. this is the first forum that Ive actually joined and id like to say hello =]

Well, hello and welcome to the forum. If your looking for any help, or just want to post feel free to ask. Obviously. But John is the guy with the most knowledge and I'm sure he will tell you why your tank and tank mates did as they did.

But anyways, like I said Welcome.

Welcome to the forum!

Please feel free to look around here.

Personally, I would recommend looking at some posts on Cycling... The Nitrogen Cycle... Things like that.

Ick can run rampant quickly.

First thing I would recommend is getting a test kit. Check your water parameters and then post them here. We can help you much better with the correct information. Please use actual numbers instead of "The nitrate was ok"

Sounds like new tank syndrome. John has a ton of informative posts about this topic.

Glad to have you here! Please read freely and ask questions!!

Hi and welcome. It's flattering to see that people think I know something about the aquarium hobby, but the truth is i know just enough to realise I don't know anything. All of us are learning, and a good many of us learned the hard way.

Believe it or not, a ten gallon aquarium is more difficult to keep healthy than is a much larger one. If you over feed or over crowd even a little, things go bad very fast. Larger tanks are more forgiving. Since you're down to one fish, this is a good time to do a little research on the fish you plan to add. Detailed information about most species of aquarium fish is available on the internet search engines, and this very website has hundreds of posts that cover most aspects of aquarium keeping.

Thanks again for joining our forum. Newbies are very welcome, and we will do our best to answer your fish questions.

Like everyone has already said "welcome to the forum". And and just to ad to the comments already stated. mekes sure you check to see how big the fish normally get in captivity as some fish like the irredecent shark will quickly out grow a 10 gallon tank

Welcome! You will find tons of good advice here. I have!