I Want A Challenge

[stanleo]

I love my tank. But to be honest, I am bored with it. Maintenance has become robotic and since I have not had anything die in months and everything is thriving I think I am ready for a challenge. 
 
But I need some ideas for what to keep. I have been reading articles on several hard to keep species but I don't know what would be best. I don't want to breed anything cause I don't have the room. I want something that will fit well in a ten gallon tank. I am open to considering freshwater, saltwater or brackish. I am perfectly happy with the idea of spending considerable time setting up the right conditions before buying the fish. I believe in fishless cycling. 
 
My tap water is 8 hardness and 7.4PH. Though I am willing to go through the hassle of changing the chemistry to match the fish i want to keep. 
 
So does anyone have any ideas on a species that would be challenging and fun? An oddball would be awesome!

 

[AmtotheBurr]

Ooh this sounds fun. Can't want to see what people suggest for you
Shell dwellers could be fun because they'll change up enough you won't get bored. Or maybe a pair of dwarf puffers? I have no idea about water parameters so I'll leave better opinions to the experts

 

[RobRocksFishTank]

Ten gallons isn't much to work with but I've seen some amazing stuff done on the micro tank level that would work well in 10 gallons.

 

[Chad]

With a tank that size you might want to try some inverts and see how that goes. 

 

[hobby5]

Hello OP!
 
I am sad to read your post. Is fish keeping boring if nothing dies? It also means you didn't chose the right fish for you in the first place. Is your profil up to date? If yes than getting a decent stocking for your 55G should be your first challenge.
 
Tbh imho the real challenge is to breed something else than live bearers. I cannot imagine more joy than seeing the adults mate and afterwards the juveniles grow to adulthood. So I would use the 10G to breed some fish of your main tank instead of setting up something different.

 

[Baccus]

Perhaps the real challange could be to get a particularly tricky species of fish to actually breed in captivity and nail it. Some species that come to mind are most of the loach species, or the real challange of breeding and raising fresh water shrimp that have larval and brackish stages to their live cycle.
Ten gal might be a bit small but mudskippers are pretty odd ball or even micro-crabs if they are available in your area.

 

[RobRocksFishTank]

Hobby5, why so critical? Fish keeping is different things to different people. The OP is looking to get more advanced without breeding and has not expressed a desire to change things up in his established tank. A smart decision since he does not have the space for raising fry. You should be happy for him, I am. He's been successful with his current tank and will most likely continue being successful with some of the finer aspects of fish-keeping. He wants a challenge and setting up a well planned specialty 10 gallon is a challenge. 

 

[Wildbetta]

Licorice gourami would be a nice smaller difficult fish to try and keep.  Parosphromenus Nagyi is IMO one of the more beautiful species of licorice gourami.