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I just want to tell you something Labrakitty, if you have female platies and male guppies, you will surely end up with pluppies. Guppies, platys, swordtails, mollies, all livebearers can interbreed with varying results. Keep an eye out for this as hybrids sometimes are not viable.
I agree with the others, you cannot fit in your 10g tank what you want here. You could return the 3 platies, and then you could add 4-6 sparkling gourami!

As a guide for you, here is what I have in my 10g tank:
1 Bristlenose male
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1 Singapore WoodShrimp
1 Hillstream Loach
1 Apple Snail
1 Ramshorn Snail
about 12 guppy fry 1/2 inch- once they reach 1 inch, they will move to my 25g tank for grow out prior to sale.
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The above stocking, without the guppy fry, is how I keep my 10g, and with that single BN in there, I clean that tank at least once every 4-5 days. He is a poop machine. His "home base" literally becomes a flotilla of pleco poo.

You could rearrange your stocking list:
2 Guppies
4 Sparkling Gouramis
2 BN
OR
3 Platys
2 Sparkling Gouramis
2 BN
OR
1 Guppy
1 Platy
2 Sparkling Gouramis
2 BN
OR
2 Guppies
4 Sparkling Gouramis
1 BN
1 Platy

But you really cant fit everything you said in there.
What I do when I enter a new fish store, is ask each employee I encounter the following question "Would a 10g tank be enough to keep a Goldfish in?" and depending on their answer to that question, that determines whether or not I ever again ask for advice. If they respond Yes to that question, I ignore their information, they obviously only want to sell you fish. And besides, if they overstock your tank by a lot, and your fish die, they know You will come back for more fish. Im sorry to say it, but most fish store people dont care if your fish die. In fact they prefer it, that way you come spend more money in their store.
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If you read the articles/information in the links, it describes how when viewed with a bright light behind them, the internal shape or mass of each sex is different. The picture of the fish in the second link is a male, as its internal organs are shorter and sweep upwards in quite a steep vertical line. Females, however, have a more elongated shape inside, almost like a triangle stuck on the males shape. The females also tend to be slightly larger with the males being slightly smaller and finer in body.

How can you tell? Are the males brighter? do they have longer and pointier fins?

Thankyou

[link=Trichopsis pumilus]http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_sparkling.php" style="COLOR: #BA55D3[/link]

[link=Sparkling Gourami]http://tnreefer.com/content/index.php?option=com_fish&Itemid=41&func=detail&id=3" style="COLOR: #BA55D3[/link]

The picture in the second article is a male.

How do you tell the sex of them?

They didn't tell me they never had dead fish. A good store still should remove dead ones if they have any and should have tanks with sick or dead fish not for sale. Black Burn will sell fish form a tank if someone bought a fish fromt hat tank and thinks it was sick.

I never saw dead fish at the lfs I used to buy most things from until I started working there. Any store that says they do not have any deaths is telling you a big fat lie! Most shops will pull out the dead ones as soon as they are discovered and remove any that are looking very ill before customers notice them. Its part of the presentation of the store.

WHY DOES EVERYBODY ALWAYS ASSUME LOCAL FISH STORE WORKERS ARE DUMB AND LYING TO GET MORE MONEY?

Some of them might genuinely believe their advice is right because thats the education they have been given. A lot of the time their advice is not right though, as it is in this case.

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Before you criticize someone walk a mile in their shoes. That way you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

One question: WHY DOES EVERYBODY ALWAYS ASSUME LOCAL FISH STORE WORKERS ARE DUMB AND LYING TO GET MORE MONEY? Not all lfs workers are bad, one way to tell is if their tanks are healthy. Have you seen dead fish or sick ones in them. I went to an aquarium somewhere that had 4 pearls wiht very visable velvet in a tank for sale.(not black burn aquarium.)I agree wiht you that some are like htat but not all. One lady(Chris at black burn) actually told mne in person that they do not do it for the money. I completely disagree with Lindy about black burn aquarium workers, as I go very often and know them a lot more that her.

Let me clarify that not *all* fish store employees are bad...

Me and my manager both work at the LFS and sell people fish, but first and foremost we are hobbyists. You should see his display tanks... They look like Takashi Amano's tanks. We are both very knowledgeable when it comes to fish (though I specialize in catfish and he in cichlids), and we do not tell people to buy supplies they don't need or fish they cannot properly take care of. In fact, it's not uncommon that we refuse to sell people fish if we can tell that they are not going to take care of them.

We love sharing our knowledge with customers and showing them how to improve the quality of their fishes' lives. Sure that might mean that we don't get as much money because we don't have tons of people always coming in to replace their constantly dying fish, but it's worth it if it will help save these animals' lives.

I remember one time this teenage girl came in with a bowl in her arms that she was buying and she told my to scoop up a feeder goldfish to put in the bowl. I just flat out said "Nope. I can't sell you that fish if you're going to put it in that bowl". I offered to show her the bettas, but instead she just rolled her eyes and walked out of the store without buying anything. The bowl cost $13 and she had a container of food too, but to me that was still worth nothing compared to the life of that goldfish. I then scooped up the goldfish that she wanted (who was quite attractive) and put him in the turtle tank where he would be safe (and he's still there today - a lot bigger though).

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

went to a LFS store told the lady i wasnt interested in buying any fish i was just looking to kill some time. i mentioned i had a 75g tank searching for conversation and she of course asked me what i had in it. i told here a single oscar and a gibby pleco ( which grows to 18 inches ).


these are both large fish with HUGE bioloads because how messy they are. she asked me if this was all i was putting into the tank. i said of course because of the large bioload and size of the fish. she insisted i could put atleast 4 oscars into the tank, they would only grow to the space allowed, and would be happy with all the company.
well anyone with the least bit of knowledge of fish knows that it would be way over stocked with serious problems in the future.

i went back to this shop a few weeks ago because iw as in the area. she had 4 oscars jammed in a 55g tank, full grown, ALL suffering from severe cases of hole in the head which is most commonly caused by bad water quality.

let me explain to you in short what the problem is. fish shops are a buisness. if they tell you what they think you wanna hear you may come to them for fish or eqiupment. the people on this web site are hobbyists. we dont make money from our advice in anyway shape or form. usually lucky to get a thank you. we preach good advice daily with the best intentions. pet shops preach sales pitches and advice that brings them money daily. just because you grab an employee and say you are getting none of my money ever i just wanna know what to do. they will more often then ont feed you the same old line of BS because its all they know.

who do you take advice from, the mother with 6 kids...or the sweatshop with 100 kids. who knows how to bring up kids better.

Who do you know at the shop? Chris, Susan and Kel are the smartest and most helpful. Kel does scrapings on fish, Chris looked after our fish when we went on holidays for us and they don't normally do babysitting fish. There is a young boy who doesn't know that much and a few other young girls.

When I went to noosa I went to an aquarium and asked the person there if my tank was overstocked with bristle nose catfish. He knew we were not going to buy fish because we are from Melbourne. He said that it was definitely not overstocked.

Every aquarium in Melbourne I have been to said the bristle nose where ok, even the ones I have never bought anything at. All of their fish were extremely healthy.

I hope you take this in mind when posting in my threads.



Last edited by labrakitty at 12-Jan-2005 15:36

Please listen to the advice that you have been given in this thread. I do know the shop you are talking about that have these gouramis, infact I know the owners a little. I can tell you now that they are not the 'fish gods' you think they are. They didnt even know what a cichlid was when I first went in that shop after they had bought it. I was in the shop several times a week when they first took over helping them ID fish that they stock. Their years of experience are in goldfish and koi ponds.

I know of only one store in Melbourne that sends people away to research fish before they will sell them. Its a store that is too far away for me to go regularly or it would be my lfs.

Ultimately the decision is yours, and it looks like you have decided, but can you understand why people get miffed when you brush them aside? Many people who work in lfs's get to a point where they just tell people that the fish selection is fine because people DONT listen anyway, just as YOU have brushed off all advice given here.


Like the others have said, I think your tank is overstocked already without the gouramis. The female platies are capable of storing sperm for months after seperation from a male so you could and probably still will have fry showing up in your tank.

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Before you criticize someone walk a mile in their shoes. That way you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

the store does not tell me that things will fit because they want to sell me more. If they did then why wouldl htey al\ways be giving me stuff for free. They gave a whold packet of rocks for free, then when my fish was sick and htey looked after it and gave it medecine they didn't charge for it.

Oh and I forgot to tell you as well,
any female livebearer, such as guppies and platys, can store "sperm packets" in their body for up to a year.
This means even though you have a female platy who had her babies, she could still continue to have babies for a year now.

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I am thinkng of getting a pair of them to finish of my tank. I have 1 guppy, I am getting another, 3 platys, 2 bristle nose catfish. My water is:7.0, 10-12 GH. 25-26 degrees. Woudl they be ok? I am a little confused about the different types are there is the Pumilas and the Vivattis, or something like that. Atr my lfs there is some about 1" big, called sparkling gouramis, they were so cute and I fell in love with them. they were sort of a silvery whitish sparkly colour. Is this the Pumilas or the other type? Can you tell me about them? Would they be ok in my tank? It is a 10 gallon. How big do they grow to?

Thankyou so much!

Platies can store sperm, but I won't even get into that.

I helped my father with his 55g for many years, at age 15 I bought my first betta and have been keeping fish ever since, which is 23 years now.

I'm not going to argue with you. Like others have asked, why post questions when you've already decided what you want to do and get upset when you don't like the answers you receive?

...joining Sin in

( done reading labrakitty threads )

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

My Platys will not keep produceing fry because they are both female. One of them came from the shop pregnatn and had already had most of her babys there. So there won't be anymore babies. The owner of the shop told us, and she is has had a long time of experienced fish keeping. she is very nice to me and would not lie just to sell me things, becuase hse is always giving me things for free and gives me a 10 percent discount off everything evne when I haven't even bought that much from her. None of any of my lfs have said anyhting about the bristle nose. the ones I talk to are not hte ones who sold them to me. How many years of fish experience have you had? thsi lady ahs had 25 of fish experience.

I agree with Toirtis.

You will also find people who say a goldfish or oscar will do fine in a 10g.

edit: for what it's worth, you will find people hesitant to reply to your posts or disregarding them altogether if you argue with their advice or get upset with ther replies

Last edited by Theresa_M at 27-Dec-2004 16:59

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

I agree with Toirtis.

Anyway, as long as you ARE going to get them () I might as well give you a bit of advice. Don't listen to most LFS workers. They are paid to sell you fish, so obviously they will be a bit biased towards you getting more fish. As far as I know, most aren't required to know anything before getting the job, and many don't keep fish themselves. I'd listen to other knowledgable aquarists on here over a LFS worker.

Contrary to what that person said, you CAN'T add more fish to that tank. Or rather, you shouldn't. You are overstocked as it is, like others said, with those bristlenose plecos. If you know they'll need a bigger tank, why'd you get them, and why are you knowingly keeping them in too small of a tank? I wouldn't keep 2 bristlenose in anything less than a 29 gallon. Yes, I have them, so I do know what I'm talking about. Mine are about 5 inches (12.5 cm) long currently, and still growing. It doesn't sound that big, I know, but when you actually get a ruler out and look, it is. I also have a 10 gallon, and I cannot imagine my bristlenose plecos being happy in there.

I know that your platies are producing fry as well, so that will also fill up your tank quicker. Even without the bristlenose plecos, I would still only add 1 gourami to that tank.

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