Tank Stocking

[XeroTolerance]

Hello everybody. I'm new to these forums and I just had a quick question. I am currently trying to cycle a 10 gallon tank with two mystery snails. It has been around a week and it seems to be going well. Anyways, my question is when it is done cycling what fish should I get? My pH is 7.6. It's pretty high but not too bad hopefully . I wanted to get

1x Cory Catfish
4x Cardinal Tetra
4 or 3x Mountain Minnows

I already have 2 mystery snails in the tank too. Thanks for your help . Here is a picture of my aquarium.

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

I'm not great with stocking, I seem to over stock my tanks lol, however I will say, you can't keep much in that tank, minnows, tetras and corys are all schoaling fish, which should be kept with 6 or more, so you could get 6-8 cardinals in there. Cload mountain minnows are cold water fish, so they must not be kept, unless they are in a tank set at roughly 18C.

Thats my idea, however wait until you hear from more experianced people here, as as I said, im not great with stocking

 

[minnnt]

First of all, welcome to the forum! And congratulations on your new tank and taking the time to cycle it properly!

Cory's like to be in groups, so you will need at least 5 or 6 for them to show their true potential and natural behaviour. But, a tank of around 50 litres is probably too small for a group of normal size Corydoras so you may need to find some Pygmy Cory's. I would drop the White Cloud Minnows as they're more temperate fish so won't be suited to a tank running at 24-26 degrees celcius. Your Cardinals will do much better in a group of 8-10 also. You could make a nice smaller species tank with it being roughly 50 litres.

You could add say:

12-15 Mosquito Rasboras
6-8 Pygmy Cory's
2 Badis Badis
10 Shrimp

This is a similar setup that was suggested to me by a few other members. You could also look at Sparkling Gourami's in a group of 4-6. Get some low maintenance plants to make them feel at home and help with water parameters and you will be laughing! Add a black background also, it will make them feel safer and adds extra depth to your tank

 

[Wills]

12-15 Mosquito Rasboras
6-8 Pygmy Cory's
2 Badis Badis
10 Shrimp

This looks okay but I would stay to the smaller side of those numbers. Also if you go for Badis go for Galaxy Rasbora as Badis need lower temperatures (24/25) than most comm fish but the cories will do well in this where as the Mosquito/Chilli Rasbora need higher temperatures.

Wills

 

[XeroTolerance]

Sadly I don't have any of the fish you mentioned anywhere near me, except the shrimp. How about I go with

2x Cory Catfish
5x Flame Tetra
2x Mystery snail

Or

2x Cory Catfish
2x Mystery snail
6x Cardinal Tetra

I'm only going to buy two Cory Catfish at most because there aren't lots of hiding spaces for fish that big. There is plenty of places to hide for the Cardinal Tetras in the big tree root thing I have . Thanks for your help, I'm really getting good advice already .

 

[Wills]

Hi you need to keep Cories in groups of at least 5 or 6 as they are schooling fish. And also flame tetras are quite a big tetra so I would advise against it.

Where abouts are you from maybe we can point you in the direction of some good shops?

Wills

 

[XeroTolerance]

I have searched around and asked but sadly all I have is a Petsmart, so not very good luck.

EDIT: I am thinking about just dumping the Cory Catfish altogether because my substrate will be pretty crowded. I have a good enough tank for fish that would like to hide every once in a while. I even have places inside the trunk where it is impossible to see into.

 

[XeroTolerance]

Instead, I'm thinking of adding 6 Neon Tetras, 2 Cherry Barbs, 2Mystery snails, and maybe 1 ghost shrimp. I was doing some research on the Cherry barbs and they do well in pairs. They do even better in groups of 5 but I don't have the space in my tank to accumulate them. What do you guys think about this setup and in what order should I add my fish when the tank had finished cycling?

Sorry for the double post

 

[fluttermoth]

Ihat sounds like a nice little set up which should look really pretty

I think you could even add a couple more in; five or six cherry barbs (2m, 4f; they're easy to sex, even in the shop tanks; the males are the very red ones) and put those in once you've cycled, and then add the neons a few months down the line; they don't like newly set up tanks; spend those few months getting a few more plants on the go (some mosses on your tree trunk perhaps?) and the water perfect for the shrimp and you should end up with a very nice tank indeed.

I hope you've thought to put the tank somewhere were you can sit next to it

 

[XeroTolerance]

Ihat sounds like a nice little set up which should look really pretty

I think you could even add a couple more in; five or six cherry barbs (2m, 4f; they're easy to sex, even in the shop tanks; the males are the very red ones) and put those in once you've cycled, and then add the neons a few months down the line; they don't like newly set up tanks; spend those few months getting a few more plants on the go (some mosses on your tree trunk perhaps?) and the water perfect for the shrimp and you should end up with a very nice tank indeed.

I hope you've thought to put the tank somewhere were you can sit next to it

Wow! I will indeed add some more cherry barbs. I also think it is a good idea to add the neons down the line because like you mentioned, they don't like newly set-up tanks. The moss seems like a good idea. I'll think about getting some after my tank has cycled but I don't know that much about it. I'm very new to the whole live plant thing and I'm not sure what I should use to help grow it. It sounds like a great idea and I'll sure think about it .

 

[fluttermoth]

You don't need anything special in yout tank to grow moss; just tie it onto something

 

[XeroTolerance]

Awesome . So I dont even need fertilizer or chemicals?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Just light... the fish will add the rest that needed.

 

[XeroTolerance]

Sweet . Thanks for everybody's help so far I really appreciate it