Help Me Stock My 10g

[Phaedra]

Okay, so long story short, I started my whole fish hobby with a 10g setup, then eventually bought a moontail betta, 2 african dwarf frogs and 1 mystery snail. Betta ended up making a snack out of my poor snail's antenna and then got curious about my frogs, so he got moved to his own 3g tank.

Now I have 2 ADF's and 1 mystery snail roaming around in the 10g but no actual fishies.
I was pretty much set on getting fancy guppies, but I want to make sure I don't overstock my tank and want an interesting selection of fish to watch (top, mid and bottom dwellers) and easy to care for.
Someone please help this indecisive fish keeper decide! I really appreciate it.

Here are some of the inhabitants I thought would be interesting:
Fancy Guppies
Endler's livebearers
Spotted Rasbora
Cherry Shrimp - then I found out how expensive they were and went OOOOHkaynevermind.
or
Amano shrimp
Pygmy cories
Zebra otocinclus

I'm not partial to the neon tetras or platies I've seen so far, but I'm open to any suggestions at this point.

Thanks so much!



Edit: Just adding to my fish list...

 

[mommyof2bettas]

ok,
Guppies- these are very friendly and "bite" your arm durng water changes They come in a variety of colors and breed very easily. It's fun rearing the fry! They usually don't bother anyone, and need to be kept at a ratio of 2 females per male. If you don't want fry get ll males because females can store sperm and can become pregnant several times after being with a male. About 5 could fit in a 10 gallon.

Endler- Guppy's "cousin" same as guppy except I'm not sure if they're as friendly and I don't think they come in a wide range of colors.

Pygmy Cories- should be smaller than other cories. They need to stay in shoals of 3-4 or more. Haven't seen cories bothering any fish before. They will eat any fish food that has fallen as well as algea biscuits/discs.

zebra oto- If i's like normal otos it should stay in an "old" tank (a tank that has been running for at least 3 weeks) as they are pretty delicate. They CAN survive in new tanks but it's not recommended. They like to feed on algea so any fallen fish food and algea bisuits/discs will be preferred. Like cories, they won't bother most fish.

HPH!

 

[Phaedra]

Thank you! My tank has been set up now for two weeks or more, but my parameters are all still at 0, so no cycling. I'm assuming that's due to my not having any fish...

If I ended up getting 5 guppies or endlers, would it be a bad idea to stock with anything else? Say, a mid level fish or 3 cories?

 

[mommyof2bettas]

livebearers, cories, and otos are usually one of the main community fish because they usually don't bother any other fish. I would consider getting otos as well, In my post it sounded as you shouldn't get them if your tank hasn't been running for a while but I'd say there is a 60% chance they'll live maybe more. I'd say you should get a couple of guppies, some cories, maybe one oto if you like.

 

[Phaedra]

So in other words, it would be something like this:

5 Fancy Guppies or Endlers Livebearers
2 Zebra Otos
1 Pygmy Cory
2 African Dwarf Frogs
1 Mystery Snail

?

I'm in no hurry to have a fully stocked tank. The only reason I'm not doing a fishless cycle is because I can't find any usable ammonia around here, so I thought I would start a fishy cycle with guppies or some other hardy fish and then slowly add the rest.

 

[mommyof2bettas]

guppies tend to be hardy but otos and cories aren't as hardy. If you are doing a fishless cycle then no otos. Cories need to be in groups of 3 or 4. So maybe something like this:
5guppies
3cories
2ADF
1mystery snail

 

[Phaedra]

Once the tank is cycled, do you think it would be okay to go with zebras instead of the cories? They're so beautiful.

And not to try your patience (I really do appreciate your advice!), but if I decided to go with shrimp instead of the bottom feeders, what do you think would be a nice addition for the mid level of the tank?

 

[Tessla]

I currently have a ten gallon set up with this:
1 male betta
4 kuhli loaches
1 amano shrimp (plans to increase the number of shrimp after temporary fish are removed)
2 neon tetras (temporary, going into a larger tank)
1 very small clown pleco (also temporary, going into a larger tank)

I could probably stock a few very small rasboras as well if I really wanted to, but I'd rather keep it lightly stocked. If you do consider kuhli loaches, keep in mind that they require a sandy substrate and if they feel at all threatened, you won't see them at all. Mine come out and play so long as they can't see movement outside the tank as they know that they have a quick access hiding spot under the bogwood (which they will dart to if they see anyone moving outside the tank.) They're really very playful and active when you do see them out and swimming around, but many people keep them and never see them. I spent a few months fiddling with decor specifically for the kuhli loaches: well planted with bogwood (the bogwood works better than other sorts of cover as it provides multiple small caves and burrows, the loaches prefer a tight spot to a larger cave) and sand for the kuhlis to hide in.

It sounds as though you have the ADF and the snail in the tank already, correct? Those are all waste producers so your tank should be cycled already, do you have any nitrate readings? Compare the nitrate readings in your tank to your tap nitrate, tank nitrate should be higher. If ammonia and nitrites are zero, and you're getting a slow nitrate buildup between water changes, you've already got the bacteria present in your filter. Note that if you start dumping ammonia into your tank to do a fishless cycle, it will hurt your current inhabitants. You'll just want to stock very slowly, I'd start with maybe three guppies (or similar sized) and keep an eye on your water quality.

As for inhabitants, I'd go with either otos or cories, a group of three would be good with the 5 or so guppies suggested. Another option, if you can find them, are kuhli loaches. In a ten gallon tank, there really isn't much of a mid-level, this only really exists in larger tanks. Your guppies will swim around in the mid to upper levels of your tank. You could also keep a small gourami like a honey or a dwarf, though keep in mind that these may have the same problem with your snail that the betta did, I'd say a dwarf would be more likely to nip your snail than a honey. As for the shrimp, they usually don't count much towards stocking so long as you don't get carried away. You could easily put three amanos or cherry shrimp in your tank with everything else, the only thing to be careful of is that they may get munched on by certain fish, gouramis would be the most likely to nibble on them though you shouldn't have trouble with any of the others.

Considering that you've already got some "fish" in your tank that add to stocking, I'd do something like this:

5 male guppies or 5-6 male endlers or 5-6 rasbora (species comprable in size to the guppies) or 1 honey gourami with 3 endlers or smaller rasboras
3 pygmy cories or 3 otos or 3-4 kuhli loaches
2 ADF
1 mystery snail
1-3 algae shrimp (if you'd like)

Hopefully that gives you a few other ideas.

 

[Phaedra]

Thank you so much, that's really very informative and I hadn't even considered Kuhli's. Unfortunately, I just changed my substrate earlier today to a smaller sized gravel (the original stuff I bought was a bit large for the bloodworms I was feeding my ADF's) and I do NOT want to go through that again LOL!

Just to clarify, I'm not doing a fishless cycle. I was originally planning on doing one, but couldn't find any pure ammonia anywhere around here, so I'm planning on doing a fish-in cycle instead. And yes, the 2 ADF's and snail are already in the tank.
I just checked the parameters today and everything is still at 0, with maybe a very, very slight variation of color from previous tests. I did a vacuuming on Sunday and added some new water, so that may be inhibiting the nitrates & ammonia a bit. I don't want them to get out of hand, particularly because I know my ADF's are sensitive to toxics in their environment. Is it possible to over clean a tank that needs cycling?

I'm really not dead-set on getting a mid-dweller, particularly if it wouldn't be a peaceful fish. I don't have any more funds (or room for that matter) for more tanks if everybody doesn't get along.

Would shrimp and bottom feeding fish get along together? I hadn't thought about that possibility either.

 

[Tessla]

Yep, my amano does fine with the kuhli loaches and so long as you're sticking to bottom feeders pygmy cory size and under they'd be fine. You may have some trouble with the dwarf frogs but I doubt it.

Just wanted to make sure you definitely don't do a fishless cycle in your tank even if you do find ammonia as it will hurt your frogs and snail. Overcleaning can lead to a mini-cycle sometimes if you're using an undergravel filter as the gravel is the filtration media in that case. If your filter has been set up for a while, then it should already have bacteria living in the filter media and cleaning the gravel won't change anything. Water changes during cycling however do slow down the build up of bacteria, but if you're keeping fish in a cycling tank it's better to have a slower cycle than higher ammonia and nitrite levels.

 

[Phaedra]

Thanks so much for your help. I promise I won't do a fishless cycle. The last thing I want is to have anything harm my little froggies or Bento (which my snail has been dubbed since getting an antenna eaten by Darby).

I've had the tank now for almost a month, did get some filter media from my sister's tank before I got any fish, so it was in there for about a week or so without anything to "feed" off of. I threw it out a couple of days before getting Darby and the rest (I've only had them for about a week) as I was afraid it would foul up the water with dead bacteria. The filter is of the back mounted variety, so I guess I won't worry too much about damaging the tank's bacteria.

I don't know if that gives you any helpful information, but it never hurts to try.

 

[Tessla]

That does give me some helpful information, it tells me you have a tank handy with a mature filter. Rather than worry about cycling with fish, toss in a bit of filter that's been in the mature tank for a while when you go to add your guppies or whatever else you choose. Cloning from an old tank is so much easier than hassling with all the water changes of cycling with fish.

 

[Phaedra]

Well, that's the problem. I got her old filter and put it in my tank before I actually had anything in there. Her new filter probably isn't cycled yet, and even if it was, I doubt she would let me steal her new filter too lol. I might be able to talk her into letting me have some of her gravel though...

 

[Tessla]

Oh you don't need the entire filter, just a bit of the filter media. Gravel wouldn't hurt either, especially if the tank has been set up for a while now.

 

[dwarfgourami]

guppies tend to be hardy

Can I just urge caution when shopping for guppies. A lot of them are overbred and not hardy these days and quite a few of them carry disease. Look in all the shops you can find for strong-bodied energetic-looking specimens (even if this means less pretty colours) and on no account buy from a tank with dead or ailing fish- this may well mean either parasites or bacterial infection, which you would then be bringing into your tank.
Male endlers have absolutely stunning colours.