Ten gallon ideas

[cowgirluntamed]

Still thinking of the future. So far my tests have shown my brain is fine...Yay! But I do get to have a sinus surgery soon. Hopefully that will help.

Anyway...I technically have hard water. pH 8.2. GH and kh around 12-13.

If I can use this water I would rather use it(free well water after all!) If not...I am open to buying either distilled water from Walmart or their Primo water you can fill jugs up at the front of the store. I think it's RO water. Here is the link that talks about it.
https://primowater.com/self-service-refill-water/

So...I know one male betta can be happy. But I'm not sure I want another one(I can always change my mind...Lol.) I also like the orange shrimp quite a bit but not sure how well they would do in my water. Watched a YouTube video saying that the neocardinas like harder water...But it didn't say how hard. Lol.

I actually really like the blue(three spot) gourami. But if I'm not mistaken it needs a bigger tank than a ten? I don't know if a dwarf or a honey gourami would work or not(these would be the only fish in the tank as well. I would get nerite snails and Malaysian trumpet snails for clean up crew.)

Oh yeah..Sponge filter only in this as well. Planted tank(not sure with what yet). Plants will come first, fish after.

Anyway...If there are any other suggestions I'd appreciate them. I don't really want to breed anything either, so if any kind of live-bearers I would rather have only males. (I do like guppies but how many?)

Any other smaller fish that would be good? I kind of want one that would go all over. Just thinking...Lol.

Also,I will not get them from my local petsmart anymore. I will be probably getting them online, more likely at www.petsolutions.com so...If you want to take a look and have some suggestions...Thanks! Lol.

 

[SnailPocalypse]

Well all those options would work except the blue spot gourami if you want my opinion I would stocking it with a school of tetras but thats just my thoughts on the matter.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Yes but which tetras is the thing. Some, like the neons, may be small but need more room than a ten gallon due to them being skittish. And the more the merrier. Lol. I don't know if embers would be good or not? They are smaller.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Most Tetras tend to be soft water fish, emperor tetras may be ok but not in a 10 gal unfortunately, this is where things get tricky, most hardwater fish do best in at least 15 gal tanks.

Anyways, would rather you stick with with the water parameters you have rather than adding distilled or ro water etc, always seems to be something like asking for trouble going down that route unless you know about how kH, gH and pH effects each other. You cannot adjust one without adjusting the others. Tricky stuff sometimes.

Anyway, I had honey gourmis in a at one point, nice enough but pretty aggressive unless you happen to have all 3 males, or 1 male with 2 or 3 females. That put me off them, pretty nasty bullies when they want to be. Also can be hard to tell what gender they are at LFS due to stress and faded colours etc.

A little shoal of endlers, with snails and loads of cherry shrimps is kinda nice, I had that for a while until upgraded to larger tanks.
In fact, still have one or two of the orginal mob now in the larger 25 gal long tank but most have passed due to age, over 3 or 4 years old now and no idea how old they were when I got them, so have replaced a few of them, still have 5 in the large tank, have a soft spot for endlers for some reason, silly little gannets.

Another couple of options you may consider, Pencilfish (Nannostomus beckfordi), Least Killifish (Heterandria formosa). There are other you MAY get away with, depending on a couple of things, Celestial Pearl Danio or maybe Emerald Danios, they are the smallest of the danios and a smallish group can be kept in 10 gal but your 8.2pH is at th eextreme end of their range.

Wonder if that pH is from the tank itself or a reading you got from tank water? You can add bogwood and indian almond leaves to the tank, this slightly softens the water a bit after a short while.

My tap pH is around the 8.0 range but the tank pH is lower at around 7.4 - 7.6 but the tank is very established and has several pieces of bogwood as well as IAL which all helps to keep levels at that sort of range. Also checking your water hardness may help, most of these fish I have mentioned can tolerate up to around 268ppm hardness (worth researching on SF what exactly is recommened for each specie), hardness pppm is slightly more important than the pH imho, my hardness is around 215ppm so I know my fish will tolerate that range since its not over the extremem range.

Hope that helps, even just a teensy little bit.

Oh, just remembered, one fish I did (and still do) seriously consider for a 10 gal tank in hard water was the Scarlet Badis (dario dario), may be worth you considering as these are pretty nice.

 

[NickAu]

Shrimp wont work in your water.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Shrimp wont work in your water.

Why not?

I have kept Red Cherry Shrimps in my water, pretty similar parameters to the OP's and always done well, also have amano shrimps, 4 of them for must be about 3 years now, maybe nearer 4 years I reckon. The 2 females are pretty big now, 2.5 to 3 inches long I reckon.

But of course the more delicate colour morphs of red cherrys like the green, yellows, orange, blues and blacks etc may need further care with water parameters. But not impossible by any means.

Crystal shrimps or Taiwans, nope, quite correct, these are more soft water shrimps with pretty exacting water requirements.

But I cannot see why OP cannot have Red Cherries or amanos as they are the hardier of the shrimps species if so wished to.

 

[Byron]

Several of the fish being mentioned will not do well in a 10g tank. I'm thinking thrive not survive here.

I admit having basically nil knowledge of shrimp species, but I am surprised they wouldn't be fine in your water from the tap/well. If you do soften it, this limits species. But I will not dispute others who know more on this.

A 10g really should be considered a "nano" tank when it comes to suitable fish. Too many think "small" fish like neons and glowlights are OK, but this is not so, again the thrive rather than survive mode. The "nano" species like Ember Tetra are good, and many of these will be wild caught and thus more particular about softer water. But if you are willing to dilute the tap water with the RO linked, half and half say, this could work quite well. Wood and leaves would add tannins, good for the fish and the water. Boraras species of rasbora are a species that comes to mind. And the nice thing about staying with small species is you can have more of them for a natural habitat feel. A group of 15 Boraras brigittae, with perhaps 9-10 pygmy cories, is what I'm thinking of [I had this a few years ago in my experimental 10g with no filter or light]; shrimp could work here too, there are some that do fine in softer water.

Some of the small and more delicate gourami would work (with modified water params). Pencilfish are pushing things, Nanostomas beckfordi needs much more space, as males are feisty and very territorial. Larger quarters for the other species would be preferable too; I've maintained eleven species and all in at least a 29g though a 20g long has the same footprint and works too. My present shoal of N. beckfordi are in the 90g, and even so I have to be careful about tankmates.

Byron.

 

[NickAu]

Never seen shrimp do well in a PH of 8.2 without some sort of PH lowering. Even with RCS the upper limit is about 7.5.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

I kinda like endlers a little, but I think I could get guppies a bit easier. But again, I really don't want a breeding colony of either. I don't have any where to take the fry and I wouldn't want the tank to be over loaded by any means.

I have kind of read that the color morphs of the cherries are a bit more sensitive, so I could try regular cherries. They aren't bad, just sort of like the other colors better. Lol.

As for them and the pH, I don't think it's a matter of pH but the hardness, which I know I have. I'm sure I have tons of calcium in the water as my nerites are thriving. (My first ever male is 2 years old! Huge guy!)

And without RO my water pH won't go anywhere. No matter how much driftwood or IAL is in the water. I have good kh for buffering. Lol. And the pH is Sam as tap...My GH and kh are actually higher in the tap than the tanks...Never figured that out!

As for the RO water, I was thinking of straight RO and then getting, what is it, seachem equilibrium or stability? Or some other product additives. I wasn't sure if it would be easier this way or doing half well and half RO.

Would 3 or 4 male guppies do OK? Or endlers...Whichever I could get easiest...If I stuck with my own water? I know they would love females...But as I said...No where to go with fry!

 

[Ch4rlie]

If it's guppies or endlers you like then simply get all males.

The males are much more colourful anyway and aggression between guppies or endlers are never that bad, a nip here and there just to show who's boss is as bad as it gets.

That's what I have in my tank, all male black bar endlers.

 

[StevenF]

Still thinking of the future. So far my tests have shown my brain is fine...Yay! But I do get to have a sinus surgery soon. Hopefully that will help.

Anyway...I technically have hard water. pH 8.2. GH and kh around 12-13.
If I can use this water I would rather use it(free well water after all!) If not...I am open to buying either distilled water from Walmart or their Primo water you can fill jugs up at the front of the store. I think it's RO water. Here is the link that talks about it.
https://primowater.com/self-service-refill-water/

Its good to hear that your brain is OK.

regards to RO water Primo is basically that same as what you would get from a small home RO unit. Steps 1, 2, and 3 are standard for small home RO filters. The only difference is the UV light. The RO filter will filter out all bacteria and parasites from the water. A UV light is not really necessary. Some RO units also add a DI filter Step 5. that cleans up the water even more. Again this is not really necessary for the aquarium.

When using RO water I would definitely recommend using a Sulate GH buster. Sachem equilibrium is the one. But in my case I made my own using gypsum (calcium sulfate) and Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) with a little calcium chloride thrown in. Its only been a couple of months but it is working well.with Flourish comprehensive.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Thanks for the suggestions. I had a ten gallon with guppies before. And they almost always had nips taken out of their tails. But then again...I had 7 of them...And it wasn't well planted either. So...Could I do 4 and be fine or just 3? And the same number for endlers if I went with them? Or are they a bit smaller than the guppies? I do like the idea of guppies(or endlers) and shrimp.

I will still look up the other fish if I decide to do RO water. Thanks for the info on that StevenF! I know not much can go in a ten gallon. But at least it wouldn't be hard to afford a smaller ten gallon of primo water if I go that route.

Thanks for all the info guys! I really do appreciate it!

 

[Ch4rlie]

Guppies are slightly larger than Endlers actually, but there are sort of hybrid of guppy/endlers so it kinds of depends on what your LFS stocks.

Odd numbers seems to work best when comes to stocking so, 3 or 5 or maybe even 7 Endlers should be ok, 3 or 5 Guppies would be it but remember as mentioned Guppies are larger so anything that fits in its mouth is fair game for foood so small shrimps may be tasty snacks. Endlers have smaller mouths so the chances are smaller but may peck at some shrimps, depends on temperanment I suppose of the guppies / endlers.

Floating plants are appreciated by guppies or endlers btw so they do like a more densely planted aquarium imho but as long as theres at least a few plants, should be fine for both endlers and shrimps

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Thanks Ch4lie! I plan on it being heavily planted. So that will be good for shrimp as well as fish. Floating plant in the ten will be either water lettuce or frogbit, depending on what I find at the time. I'd say once the plants are doing well, then I should add the shrimp before the fish. How many shrimp should I put in at first?

Just found this cute little guy...Would this be a guppy/endler cross? In the actual description it says they are smaller.

https://www.petsolutions.com/C/Live-Freshwater-Fish-Guppies/I/Male-Multi-Color-Guppy.aspx

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Just saw this site...

https://orchidendlers.com

Those snakeskin endlers look pretty cool! Lol.