Stock Ideas

[snork6]

Hello! It's been awhile since I have posted a topic and been on the forum. I hope to get back into helping people on here Anyways let me get back to the question at hand. I have an old 10 gallon tank that's been running for about 8+ years (It is my original tank) it has a amazon sword in it that is growing and looking pretty good. The tanks main purpose recently was to be a place for my older guppy moms and one random platy that snuck into the bag one time when I bought my first endlers. As of now the fish in the tank have died off due to old age. I was going to start using it as a grow out tank for fry but then thought about maybe starting something new in it. so does anyone have any recommendations? I want to avoid Livebearers and tetras. And preferably a species that would get along well with guppies if I ever need to put some new older moms in the tank. I don't know if there is a fish that meets those requests but hey! it's worth a shot

Tank info.
Water: Soft
Age: 8+ years
Cycled?: Yes
P.H. and other specs: I honestly haven't had the water tested in years, the fish seemed fine and I didn't feel like I had a reason to.

 

[Demeter32]

There's not very many species I can recommend for a 10gal that also gets along with guppies. Bettas are out, as are dwarf puffers, tetras and livebearers. The only thing I can think of is shrimp (not the larger ones, only small ones like cherries and amonos), mystery or nerite snails, or kuhli loaches.

I have 4 kuhlis happily in a heavily planted 10gal and plan on adding another trio whenever I come across some in the pet store. Some people say a 20gal in the minumum for kuhlis but I feel a 10 is good so long as the substrate is soft (sand) and there's plenty of cover. You might want to add some low growing plants if you want loaches (which I recommend). Crypt wendtii is perfect for kuhlis.

 

[Baker]

I would go with a small harem of celestial pearl danios. One male and 2-3 females. You could get away with a couple more as they are very small so bioload is minuscule. However, the males are quite territorial so I don't think a 10 gal would be sufficient for more than one male. If you had a 20 long I would say 2 males and 6 females because the competing males like to flare for each other and put on a nice show. They are very beautiful and max out at about an inch. Peaceful fish, although multiple males will compete they don't really bother other fish.
You would also have some room for a few more inhabitants so you could do shrimp but if you can find a couple freshwater pompom crabs they really spice things up. They're fully aquatic and don't seem to have predatory instincts. One note about Pompoms however, is that they are excellent escape artists so make sure they don't have access to the surface.
I personally also love Pygmy corys but they do best in higher numbers and I don't know how many you'd get into a 10. I have 12 in my 20 long.
Coral red pencilfish is another option. The males can get pretty aggressive with each other but if they have enough plants to hide from the dominant male they should be fine. They are also jumpers.

 

[Byron]

A 10g is very limited space. You should look at "nano" sized fish. If your water is actually soft, meaning from 1 to maybe 6 or 7 dGH, there are several suitable species. For bright colour, the Boraras species of dwarf rasbora are ideal. Boraras brigittae, B. maculatus, B. merah, and the others. Ember Tetra (Hyphessobrycon amandae) is very similar, more orange-red than the brighter red of the Boraras. Corydoras pygmaeus, C. habrosus, C. hastatus are the three common "dwarf" species of cory. There are some nice small gourami, like the pygmy sparkling gourami Trichopsis pumila.

The above are all fairly easy to maintain, no fussy eaters etc which can sometimes occur with the nano fish. And in a planted 10g you can have quite a number of these, so you have more interest than you would with very few slightly larger-size fish.

Byron.

 

[DutchMuch]

Agree with baker great information he gave there