10 gallon tank

[benny25]

I am getting a 10 gallon starter kit and was wondering what fish to put in. I was thinking along the lines of some guppies, a platy or two, and maybe some neon tetras. What would you suggest? (This is my first 10 gallon tank although i have 2 one gallon tanks with a betta in each)

 

[sylvia]

So I suppose you already know about cycling and will do a fishless cycle first? (read through the first three links in my signature)

I think guppies and platies are a good place to start if you aren't too experienced and want something attractive and interesting but also hardy. I think platies, in particular, would work great. The only problem with livebearers is their tendency to over-stock a tank by producing fry non-stop and of course you need to keep them in a ratio of at least 2 females to every male. If you aren't interested in dealing with fry, get males only (easily distinguished by the rod-like anal fin or 'gonopodium' when compared to the female's fan-shaped anal fin).

Other fish you could include and are quite hardy are honey gouramies (a male and 2-3 females would work great), white cloud mountain minnows (though I'd preffer a larger tank for these myself and they like to be in a group), bronze or peppered corydoras catfish (in a group of 4 at least) , black phantom tetras, harlequin rasboras or checker barbs - all of which should be in a small shoal, a couple of cherry barbs, other small rasboras, tetras or barbs and some of the smaller species of danio (not zebra/leopard, pearl etc though - these more common species usualy require at least a 20 gallon tank because they are very active) and you could also try an american-flag fish.

Then there's shell-dwelling cichlids, killifish, certain small gouramies and dwarf puffers which would all work but might be more difficult or require extra research.

There's a lot of choice out there - and don't over-look the number of invertabrates like shrimp and snails that would love a 10 gallon and there' will always be african dwarf frogs and similar oddities

 

[benny25]

Thanks for the response. About the nostop fry though, wouldnt the adult guppies and/or platies eat them? And how many fish would you recommend putting in there?

 

[vidiots]

The old rule of thumb for max stocking is one inch of fish per gallon. Given that adult platies, guppies, and mollies are all roughly 2inches long at full adult size that allows you 5 for a 10 gallon tank. However I would recommend less if you are new to keeping tropical fish. If you want to breed them you'll need more room for the fry which will be born in batches of 20 to 80 every month and grow to sexutual maturity in about 6 months. However if you have a excess fry disposal system such as someone to give or sell them too, or another critter to feed them to you may enjoy breeding them.

Although it is technically possible to keep keep like 50 of them in a 10g tank, you'll be working your butt off trying to clean it everyday, the fish will be at a high risk of illness, algae will be a continuous problem and so on and if attempted by someone who is new the most likely result is complete disaster and you'll kill most if not all of them.

My suggestion if you are just starting out and want to breed them that you get 2 females and one male of the same kind and stay with just that to begin with. They will produce many more for you to choose from.