Restarting 10 Gallon

JemZ

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After 3 years of poor choices for my ten-gallon tank, I am starting from scratch.

Currently only have a male swordtail who is a little over a year old, and would like to build around him. I'm looking into adding live plants but am a little nervous since I've never had success with plants.

Any suggestions for fish to keep with him?
 
After 3 years of poor choices for my ten-gallon tank, I am starting from scratch.

Currently only have a male swordtail who is a little over a year old, and would like to build around him. I'm looking into adding live plants but am a little nervous since I've never had success with plants.

Any suggestions for fish to keep with him?
You could maybe do 2 more swordtails. A 10g tank really isn’t that big. You could move the swordtail to another tank and do a single Betta or a trio of Pea Puffers.
 
You can always go with another swordtails, or perhaps their close cousins the platy fish. I remember a friend saying she had a dwarf crayfish that she ordered online. She kept it with 3 platy males in a 10 gallon.
 
You could maybe do 2 more swordtails. A 10g tank really isn’t that big. You could move the swordtail to another tank and do a single Betta or a trio of Pea Puffers.

If I were to go with more swordtails, should I pick females or males? I fear that my swordtail would mate with females or be aggressive towards males.

I've also heard that freshwater Amano shrimp could work? I'd ideally like a bottom feeder as well as a middle-level fish(es)
 
If I were to go with more swordtails, should I pick females or males? I fear that my swordtail would mate with females or be aggressive towards males.

I've also heard that freshwater Amano shrimp could work? I'd ideally like a bottom feeder as well as a middle-level fish(es)
Males if you go with another swordtail. If you did a male/female tank you would be overrun with babies and you would need 2 females per male. You might be better of getting two male guppy or platy, so your swordtail could be the "center piece" fish. That is if you want similar fish in the tank.
 
Amano shrimp would do okay, but they will not breed in freshwater, as far as I know.
 
Males if you go with another swordtail. If you did a male/female tank you would be overrun with babies and you would need 2 females per male. You might be better of getting two male guppy or platy, so your swordtail could be the "center piece" fish. That is if you want similar fish in the tank.
I am interested in guppies, they are definitely the type of mid level fish I'm looking for, however, the last time I tried two of them, they died in two days.
 
Amano shrimp would do okay, but they will not breed in freshwater, as far as I know.
I'm perfectly fine with that. They seem like an interesting choice as the scavengers in the tank.
 
I am interested in guppies, they are definitely the type of mid level fish I'm looking for, however, the last time I tried two of them, they died in two days.
Sometimes if the water is too different from they are used to they will have troubles. I assume you have medium to hard water, since you are interested is livebearers? I would try to find a local breeder if you can.
 
Sometimes if the water is too different from they are used to they will have troubles. I assume you have medium to hard water, since you are interested is livebearers? I would try to find a local breeder if you can.
I do have harder water. I'm not dead set on Amano shrimp especially if they may struggle with their environment. If I were to try guppies, would a dwarf crayfish(es) be an option? I think I may go will guppies but I am still unsure of what type of lower-level fish to get.
 
I do have harder water. I'm not dead set on Amano shrimp especially if they may struggle with their environment. If I were to try guppies, would a dwarf crayfish(es) be an option? I think I may go will guppies but I am still unsure of what type of lower-level fish to get.
Amano really should be fine, but shrimp can always be tricky. I lost half of my first batch of cherry shrimp, but now I have almost 100.
For the guppy and crayfish might not do well together, since the crayfish might catch long fins. Also, make sure what the store has is true dwarf crayfish. Standard ones get too large for a 10 gallon.
You could always try the dwarf or pygmy corydoras, if you like them. They do good in groups of 8 or more and would be okay in a 10 gallon, I believe
 
Amano really should be fine, but shrimp can always be tricky. I lost half of my first batch of cherry shrimp, but now I have almost 100.
For the guppy and crayfish might not do well together, since the crayfish might catch long fins. Also, make sure what the store has is true dwarf crayfish. Standard ones get too large for a 10 gallon.
You could always try the dwarf or pygmy corydoras, if you like them. They do good in groups of 8 or more and would be okay in a 10 gallon, I believe

I actually used to always have cories, you can see two of my favorite ones I ever had in my profile pic. They seem to die easily though and I have gravel instead of sand. I may go for a snail as my bottom feeder, particularly one which does not reproduce quickly.
 
I may go for a snail as my bottom feeder, particularly one which does not reproduce quickly.
Nerite snails do not reproduce at all, and are completely plant safe. They will lay annoying eggs about the size and shape of a bout 1/2 a grain of rice. They are easy to remove.

Mystery snails are easy to keep the population under control. Whenever it lays eggs (they will be crystallized feeling lumps above the water line) just take them off the tank and toss them out, or just keep water topped all the way up. Mystery snails may or may not eat live plants though.

With harder water you can keep a black devil snail. I have 2 of them and they don't eat plants either, and have not reproduce in my aquariums yet.

Rabbit snails look cool, but I have never kept them.
 
What are the tank dimensions (length x width x height)?

What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

Depending on what the GH of your water is, will determine what fish you should keep.
Tetras, barbs, gouramis, rasbora, Corydoras and small species of suckermouth catfish all occur in soft water (GH below 150ppm).

Livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies) occur in medium hard water with a GH around 200-250ppm.

If you have very hard water (GH above 300ppm) then look at African Rift Lake cichlids or use distilled or reverse osmosis water to reduce the GH and keep fishes from softer water.

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What sort of light is on the tank and how many watts are the globe/s?
 

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