Help with fish for a 10 gallon

Subject: Help with fish for a 10 gallon Sat Feb 23, 2008 6:38 pm

I just got a 10 gallon tank and before I start to set it up , I would like to figure out what I'm going to put in it after it has cycled. Does anyone have any suggestions on what fish would be best for a tank this size?

Subject: Re: Help with fish for a 10 gallon Sat Feb 23, 2008 7:37 pm

neons and barbs came to mind for me.

Subject: Re: Help with fish for a 10 gallon Mon Feb 25, 2008 2:08 am

This is a question I think it's best for you to answer. Go to the aquarium store and decide on a number of small fish that you like, or look on the Internet. Then we may be able to tell you whether and which are compatible with each other. You can think in terms of fish that stay on the bottom, fish that stay by the top, and fish that stay mainly midway in the water column so you don't crowd any particular level.

Subject: Re: Help with fish for a 10 gallon Tue Feb 26, 2008 7:09 pm

I'm thinking I will go with some thing easy when it comes to fish, neon tetras, Glow light tetras and some Otto cats. I'm also thinking of using live plants.

Subject: Re: Help with fish for a 10 gallon Tue Feb 26, 2008 10:26 pm

Tetras are so nice in a school. I've got this thick glass 40 gallon long tank and I'm wanting to feature tetras in it as well as fresh water shrimp and a fish that looks like a flying fox (Siamese algae eater) but has more of a suction type mouth and it's really good with algae. Cyanensis or something. As long as Otto cats don't grow very big I guess they'd be cool. I know that I had a catfish that got really big really fast a number of years ago and it ate a bunch of my smaller fish, and then it died of a bacterial infection. The funny story with this fish is that when it died I threw it in some bushes and my neighbor's cat found it. I live in LA and there's no native catfish or any other fish for that matter in the city. But anyway, there was this old black guy who was working on our apartment and he saw this cat leave it on it's owners door step and it was hilarious for all of us. He really got a kick out of it because he was from the south where there are catfish, and he was like, "where on Earth did this cat find this fish?". Anyway, we got a good laugh out of it. PS Just to be politically correct, my girlfriend is black and so have been a number of my martial arts and Afro-Latin drum teachers.

Subject: Re: Help with fish for a 10 gallon Wed Feb 27, 2008 5:04 pm

I think fishguy is saying he wants to get some Otocinclus or for short Otos. if I'm wrong he can correct me.
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Subject: 10gal Thu Feb 28, 2008 9:33 pm

Small fish, they are all small as imports, but the white cloud comes to mind. The Corydoras would be ok. Ottos sound really nice (though I accidently killed one pouring water in a tank. That was a heartbreak). I was looking at some really nice sail fin rainbow mollies today and some very blondish and deeper blue guppies.

Livebearing fish as a trio and and a pair of corydoras may be a really nice tank.

If you put goldfish in there it better be nice slow fantail no more than two and treated like gold with the expectation that they will go to a larger tank at some point.

Any thought on gouramii , or bettas out there? My gourami were in 10 gal tanks for quite a while just fine.

Subject: Re: Help with fish for a 10 gallon Thu Feb 28, 2008 9:41 pm

Dwarf Gouramis probably would be OK they only get to about two and half inches a male and a couple females.
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Subject: Re: Help with fish for a 10 gallon Fri Feb 29, 2008 12:18 am

Otocinclus. OK, now I know what they are. They are great algae eaters and that's what I was calling Cyanensis. They only get an inch or slightly bigger when full sized, and they're totally peaceful in a community tank.

Subject: Re: Help with fish for a 10 gallon Tue Mar 25, 2008 3:57 pm

I have had ottos before, but they got sucked into my filter pale

Might wanna get a sponge filter for this tank.....
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Subject: Re: Help with fish for a 10 gallon Tue Mar 25, 2008 4:36 pm

Well, the tank has been up and running for some time now. I have only put 3 Glow lite tetras in the tank and some java fern and moss. I have got the water parameters perfect and will soon add a few more Glow lites to it, maybe 3 or 4. I am going to slowly add the other fish slowly over time. The filter I'm using will be fine for the Otto's it's not powerful enough to suck them in and it has a screen to prevent it. I will try to keep you up dated. Thanks for all the help Surprised

Subject: Re: Help with fish for a 10 gallon Tue Mar 25, 2008 10:47 pm

How are the plants growing?

Subject: Re: Help with fish for a 10 gallon Wed Mar 26, 2008 8:39 pm

They seem to be doing well, they are both slow growing and thats one reason I decided to use them. Over all very green.

Subject: Re: Help with fish for a 10 gallon Wed Mar 26, 2008 9:25 pm

I would also get some anubias. There's anubias nana (small leaves) and anubias bartari (large leaves). It's a low light plant and they look really nice and they're pretty tough. Anubias is my favorite plant for aquariums. It can grow in any gravel and even on wood, and when it's on wood the roots are really cool how they grow down and around whatever shape they're on. Anibias has leaves that are really nice for fish to hide under, and it's the third plant in the three I grow the best. I also have Java moss and fern as well as different sizes of anubias. You can see some in my pics though I had to prune most of the leaves because of brush algae so it's not grown in in the pics. Suspect

Last edited by billchnc on Fri Apr 04, 2008 6:29 pm; edited 2 times in total

Chinese algae eaters get big and tough and will act like a lamprey with all but the quickest companions, like minnow types and they got along with my red tail shark just fine. When they are really small they look a lot like ottos. Ottos stay small (and are more fragile) and are really nice and they like being in pairs or better. They like eachother.
Just thought I might give some a heads up. I've enjoyed raising both, with suitable companions.
I really like having quite the number of bottom dwelling and rasping fish as a balance in a tank.

Thanks for that correction, Celtic.

Subject: Re: Help with fish for a 10 gallon Fri Apr 04, 2008 6:26 pm

I think you are thinking of the Chinese Algae Eater.

No problem, I looked back and saw that you had Chinese Algae Eater there and thought great I just corrected him and he had it right, how could I have miss read that. Then I saw the thanks.
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