Got some more advice for a new aquaium owner?

a ten gallon is kind of limited -- you want to make good choices on your fish and go from there -- you can't cycle your tank without a fish to create ammonia and nitrates. there is fishless cycling but its best just to get 2 small fish and they will do the work for you. if any of your friends want to start at tank tell them to start at 20 gallons -- its exponentially easier.

walmart is usually not the best choice to get fish from. you also shouldn't mix and match like you did. groumis, gobys and goldfish all have very different needs.

in a 10 gallon you can't keep a lot and i would strongly recommend some live plants to help filter your water because your water paramaters can go crazy in less than 24 hours -- like they probably did when everything died.

start with one basic fish -- if you had a dwarf gourami that would be great choice. a couple guppies or danios would be good too. add some water sprite, a hygrophelia (aquarium wisteria is most common), or a clump of java fern and you are in business. (a product like stress zyme or cycle will help too).

let this run without overfeeding your fish for about a month -- this will give you lots of time to add extra plants and get the tank set up to be a good home for the rest of your fish. research, research and more research is what you want to be doing. its also a great time to add some extra plants but no fish.

then dump in fish at a general rule of 1 inch per gallon -- remember thin fish are a little less and fat fish are a little more -- goldfish are a lot more and you dont need to count long flowing tails like on guppies or long finned tetras in your inches. use full grown sizes and not the size you get them -- like i just got pearl gouramis -- awesome fish but too small for 10 gallons -- they are about 1 1/2 inches but grow to 4 inches -- two little fishes are about 1/3 of what i can keep in a 20 gallon.

oh here are some good fish indexes for you to look at -- remember most small fish prefer to school -- if they don't have buddies they can get stressed out. and stress leads to sick fish which leads to dead fish.

http://www.aquahobby.com/e_freshwater_tropical_aqu...

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/categ.cfm?pcati...

more answers --

tropical fish generally means just basic fish excluding those that do ok in cooler waters like minnows and goldfish.

standard setups for a 10 gallon usually include one or two nice fish (dwarf gouramis, a male betta, angelfish, etc) and a school (tetras, rasboras, danios) and a bottom feeder. i am not that keen on bottom feeders -- if you gravel vacuum weekly (which you should) then you don't need one anyway. most grow too large or will willingly attack your fish for some yummy fish slime coat. none of them will do the job people think they do -- clean the tank for them.

which brings me to tank maintenance -- once a week get in the habit of taking the lid off and wiping down the inside walls with clean paper towels. remove all decorations other than living plants and rinse them off in tap water and set them aside to dry while you do a gravel vacuum and drain about 1/4 of the water. prep another 2 1/2 gallons to go back in the tank -- put everything back in including the fresh water and thats it -- enjoy your tank for the next week. i keep a 2 1/2 gallon trash can around to act as a bucket. 2 1/2 gallons is a premeasured 25% of a 10 gallon tank. pure genius. it also stores larger equipment like the gravel vacuum and a ladel (i hate nets).

WOW! I checked your previous question - talk about fish with different requirements! The goldfish is coldwater, the others were tropicals, and the dragon should have salt in the tank. I take it none of the original group survived?

Tropical refers to fish that need temperatures above 76o. The barbs and danios can be kept around mid 70s, the mollies would probably prefer a little warmer (80o) and should also have some salt. That's not to say that they can't be kept together, you just need a temperature around 76-78o, and add 1 tablespoon of non-iodized salt (rock, kosher, pickling, aquarium) for every 5 gallons of tank water - this won't hurt the other fish.

Here are a couple of websites that I like - the first two have species profiles on individual fish, the third has some "preplanned" fish communities, so the fish are grouped by what can live together in order from the smallest and most peaceful, through larger and aggressive, to species that need their own set-up without other types of fish:

http://www.fishlore.com/

http://www.elmersaquarium.com/000tropfishcareguide... - look for fish with a hardiness rating of "A" or "AA" for the ones easiest for beginners.

http://www.elmersaquarium.com/h701elmers_freshwate...

And a couple of sites with just general good info on set-up, equipment, etc.: http://www.peteducation.com/index.cfm?cls=16

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/

http://www.firsttankguide.net/

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You would do yourself a heck of a lot of good if you just went out and splurged on a good tropical fish book - it will cover setup, care, and list the many species of tropical fish.

I think red tailed sharks are pretty cool,and swordtails.I prefer cichlids but they are aggressive fish. I have a pair of Convicts and within a couple weeks they mated and now I have a big family of Convicts.They are very hardy easy to care for fish.And a joy to watch when they are raising their young.They are very good parents. Good luck!

One thing you may have overlooked is the stocking level.You have cover basically most of the neccessary tools you need and even cycled your tank.Choose your fish wisely and make sure you don't overstock your tank.A good website to guide you in how many fish you can put into your tank can be found in the link below.

http://www.tropicalresources.net/phpBB2/beginners_...

tropicals are any fish that isnt either saltwater or kept in cool(cold) water AFAIK.

What size tank are you cycling?