1. cycling the tank: Set up your tank with declorinated water like “Aqua Safe”, a filter, a heater, gravel on the bottom, live plants and decorations as you wish and a couple of hardy fish like zebra danios , get yourself an ammonia, nitrite and nitrate test kit, as soon as your readings of ammonia and nitrite’s are at ’0′, and your nitrates start to raise, you can start adding other fish,
2. Good starter fish are for a 10 gallon fish tank:
schooling fish like neon tetras )
bottom feeder like 2 cory doras
1 male betta OR 3 female bettas (never put 2 males together or male & female, they are likely to attack each other)
Since these fish are all tropical and require a temperature of 76-82 degrees, so you will need a thermometer as well to check your temperature
3. Do regular waterchanges after you have finished the cycle and you have more fish, the recommendation is a partial waterchange of 25% weekly with a gravel siphon
4. Do not overfeed your fish, feed them only twice a day what they will eat in a period of 3-5 min at each feeding
5. Do not keep your fish tank near a window where sunlight enters the room, that causes algae growth . Leave your light on for 10-12 hours only during the day and turn it off at night for 12-14 hours (use of a timer is recommended.)
6. Fish are categorized into tropicals, semi-aggressive, aggressive, cold water fish . When you buy fish from the pet shop, always get fish from only one category only
7. It is advisable to buy a complete aquarium kit, which comes with the tank itself, filter, heater, hood and light bulbs
8. Also after you added fish you have to replace your carbon cartridge every 4-6 weeks