Help! I have no idea what I'm doing!

[flounder]

Hi!
I have quite the dilemma and I hope someone here can help me out. I have never owned a aquarium and I just got my 10 gallon tank set up. I love clown fish and would really like to put at least a couple in there.
Can anyone tell me what should do? And what other fish would be good to add considering my tank size and college girl budget? Do I need an anemone?
Please, please help me.

I am so lost and I know I sound like a really big idiot.
Kimmie

 

[pyro]

Well, first off, goto the New Hobbists forum and read around there for a while. You'll find a lot of good information on there. Don't go off what your fish store says, they are just trying to make money normally. Basically, it all comes down to just plain old research.

 

[schneidts]

Well, let me be the first to welcome you to the boards, :jumping:
There is so much useful info here. I bumped up a few outstanding threads titled "Saltwater Aquariums 101" by 007, in the new hobbyist forum, that should answer lots of questions for you. Clownfish don't need an anenome at all, and many tank raised clowns wont even give it a second look.

 

[flounder]

Thank you all so much for the help!!:happy:
I am going to look around more and see what some of the other threads have said in the past.
Yeah...my pet store didn't even have clownfish so I was bummed.
Only one, eh? With a clownfish and goby...how much room do clownfish need? I want a plentiful amount and all the books and such say that I can have an inch of fish for every gallon of water. That sounds like pushing it but I would like to have a few fish in there. So how many fish should I put in a tank with clownfish? (I had just said two so it wouldn't be lonely)
Thanks again and I will have to check things out.
Kimmie

 

[overanalyzer]

with salt water tanks it is actually more like 1 inch - full grown per 3-5 gallons of water. So an adult Nemo is 3 inches .... meaning on per tank.
Most smaller clowns don't roam much in the wild so a slightly bigger tank would provide space for a pair. Though I think a 20 gallon is the perfect "pair o' clowns" tank.
ALso - smaller tanks are harder to maintain so you may want to look into something even a little larger!!
WELCOME and best of luck - swim on over ot the new hobbyists section!

 

[flounder]

Thank you for the welcome!!!
Okay...I think that I have settled myself on just getting one clownfish for my tank. (though I thought that a pair would make them never lonely)
Now I am curious as to what fish are extremely compatible/incompatible with them. I would most likely get the ocellaris kind and I just want some little fish that will be colorful, kinda cheap possibly, and fun for both.
I know that I MUST be annoying, but I am desperate and need help.
And someone else better berate me and tell me not to get two cause it still sounds oh so tempting.
Kimmie

 

[overanalyzer]

hey kimmie - where in MO are you?? There is a local fish board that arranges meetings and stuff and covers MO, KS, and Iowa. fishheads.org
Hmmm if you are determined to keep a nano tank then hit the nano section as well as the new hobbyist section.
a nice clown fish with a clown goby would be good - but in a 10 gallon you will have major water fluctuations - so you will need to work on getting the tank stable first before you do anything else like adding fish!
Good Luck

 

[barry cuda]

The best advice I've ever seen given on this board is to get a good book (or two or three) and read until your eyes hurt. You can get lots of good information here but a good book will go a long way toward giving you the complete picture. Two I would recommend are The Conscientious Marine Aquarist by Robert Fenner and The New Marine Aquarium by Michael Paletta. The Fenner book is just a slight bit out-of-date imho but is still THE bible for home aquarists. The Paletta book doesn't contain as much information but is very approachable and still covers the essentials pretty well.