Advice please

[matt1983]

I am buying my 3 year old nephew a baby biorb 15 ltr tank for his Xmas am looking at getting 4 White clod minnows and 2 guppies or neon tetras will this be ok or any other suggestions welcome is limit is 50 quid for tank

[Mikeysm]

They should be fine.

But if I were you, Id keep a very close eye out for a bigger, better tank than a biorb.

Would defo be worth it in the long run and could probably find one cheaper than a biorb too

[Moby Jones]

Originally Posted by matt1983

I am buying my 3 year old nephew a baby biorb 15 ltr tank for his Xmas am looking at getting 4 White clod minnows and 2 guppies or neon tetras will this be ok or any other suggestions welcome is limit is 50 quid for tank

15 litres is too small for the fish you mention. Buy a larger aquarium, At least double that size.

[Trillian]

WCMM are coldwater whereas the other species you mention are tropical. I keep just three male Guppies in my Baby BiOrb and they're doing just fine in there but I wouldn't add any more than that.

However, please please make sure that you cycle the tank first, preferably via the fishless cycle (see Sticky) or by getting filter squeezings from a mature tank.

When small children are involved, it's just heartbreaking for them to find their fish dead, killed by the toxic levels of ammonia and nitrite in an uncycled tank...

[mariekni]

i personally would steer clear of a biorb! a nice 2/3ft tank is much better and most of the time cheaper!

[matt1983]

Will be telling my sis to cycle for a fortnight before he can get his fish

[Frase]

the bigger the tank, the easier to maintain too. more water generally = more allowance and such.

You can get some nice smaller tanks so cheap nowadays, for kids they have themed tanks and everything

[Trillian]

Originally Posted by matt1983

Will be telling my sis to cycle for a fortnight before he can get his fish

It can take up to a month so if you're serious about it, you should start now so that it's ready in time for Christmas. But as other people have said, you'd get a much larger "traditional" rectangular tank for the same money. I wouldn't recommend BiOrbs as a beginner tank as they're tricky enough to maintain.

However, if that's what your heart is set on, be sure to tell your sister to ignore the manufacturer's instructions to change the filter media every month as that's just a money-making racket. You just need to rinse it in old tank water - I have my BiOrb over two years and have the same filter media in it all that time.

[DragonFish66]

i would steer clear of these the smaller the tank the faster things can go wrong the bigger the tank the more choice u have that said it would be alright for some freshwater shrimps something totally different theres a lot of variety in them or the common neon tetras ect but not many