My Husbands New 10 Gallon Tank...needs Ideas!

[OregonCoast]

Since we are stationed in Seoul, South Korea and we are not allowed any kind of furry mammals as pets..we started up the aquarium hobby awhile back. We have a 10 gallon tank that is on its way of being cycled. We have the driftwood in it on dark pea gravel and soon it will be a fully planted tank with a couple of rocks. Not heavily planted tho. We have the aquaclear filter, heater,light, etc..all its goodies on the way from amazon. Once that gets here...we will start the nitrogen cycle. This gives him lots of time to consider his tankmates
I personally keep a 7.5 gal tank with my betta Meep and 4 snails and 3 ghost shrimp. He is a quite content little betta. (he has been making a bubblenest for the past 3 days now).
I also have a 4 gal nano that just has RCS in it with 4 saddled females!
My wants a tank his own..that he sets up, aquascapes and eventually stocks. (b/c I have two of my own

Question tho. He is torn as to what fish to put in it. A betta with some rasboras, tetra? Snails or RCS?
Or... a dwarf gourami with some small fish.
Or...guppies, mollies, or endlers?
is there any other ideas he can consider? so could he put 6 chili rasboras and a betta together? He is now leaning towards a crowntail betta plus some small schooling fish. and some snails with rcs? or...omit the betta and go for chili rasboras and celestial pearl danios?
This tank will not be stocked anytime soon. It is still in the process of setting up but we are throwing fish tankmate ideas around now so when it is ready to house some fish..we know what we are going for when we are ready to purchase fish and start the stocking process.

 

[MissLori]

Aah...the Land of Not Quite Right (South Korea) LOL!  What branch of the service?
 
10-gallons is pretty small, but how about:
 
2 MALE Cobra guppies
3 Harlequin Rasboras
2 Glolight Tetras
2 Neon Tetras
 
That's a little over-maxed but would make for a colorful tank.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Sorry Lori, but most of those fish should be kept in numbers of at least 6, with the exception of the guppies.
 
I think the idea is to have fish that will behave well in a small planted set-up.  Personally, I'd go with:
 
2 honey gouramis
6-7 trigonostigma espei or hengeli.
 
If you are looking for a splash of different color, then replace the gouramis with a male betta.  The hengeli or espei shouldn't bother them.
 
 
Heavily planted - this tank would take on a charm as great as any large tank!

 

[Gvilleguy]

I also like the idea of a betta with shrimp.  But it's up to the personality of the betta as to whether or not the shrimp will become dinner or not, and how big the shrimp are.  I have a crowntail betta in a 6 gallon wide setup, and am about to introduce a colony of cherry shrimp to keep him company.

 

[the_lock_man]

Like I said before, you should be able to get a seriously awesome betta in Seoul and your daughter would LOVE it.

That and some chilli rasbos would be the dogs doodahs

 

[r.w.girard]

I have a little school of ten Hengel's Resbora, Trigonostigma hengelii, and they are lovely, active schooling fish.  I find them more attractive than Harlequins and Espes.  Although, Chili rasboras are lovely too!  But bettas can be really hit or miss.  Some just hide behind the heater all the time while others are more active.  Dwarf gourami's are active and lovely but tend to be sick with an incurable virus.  Which is a bummer.

 

[Gvilleguy]

I really LOVE Dwarf Gourami, but cannot recommend them to anyone.  I have tried four to five over a three year period, and each one seems great for several weeks to a month, and then, usually overnight, dies.  Not outward sign of disease.  So I have stopped buying them. I think you are right about the virus.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Dwarf Gourami Disease, actually. 

 

[OregonCoast]

Lock-Man...you are going to laugh at this...We now have a total of 4 aquariums..one for our daughter, 2 for me and the 10 gal for my hubby. My two tanks consist of these:
7.5 gal
One male betta
3 Amano shrimp. (they were sold to us as ghost shrimp) but I found out yesterday they are amano shrimp.
5 little snails
3.7 gal
rcs..26 of them with 2 berried females!
 
 
The daughters tank will consist of 2-3 endlers or guppies and it is 3 gal long.
 
The Betta's tank ..Meep, is on its way to being planted..we have it on pea gravel, black with a nice piece of driftwood and I plan on putting 2 anubis plants and 1 java fern. So far he is digging it.! due to your recommendations my betta Meep is very happy little pain in the ass! he is very needy and very curious. I have compared him to an underwater cat really. He always comes to the front of the tank when I enter the living room and especially to the top of the tank when I'm near it. I'm the one the one that feeds him of course! I constantly do updates on my facebook page about him and the other tank. I'm loving my RCS tank tho..very happy that I also have several saddled females in there too.
 
It is the 10 gal that my husband is having an issue with. He wants a crowntail betta but doesnt know what school of fish to put in. This will be planted as well and we already have the black pea gravel and driftwood sitting in it. Just waiting on filter goodies and all that stuff to come in. These will be low light tanks so we are planning on getting low light plants.
 
 
@MissLori ..we are US Army

 

[eaglesaquarium]

6 hengelis rasboras would look fantastic in a planted 10G aquarium with the crowntail betta.

 

[the_lock_man]

Lock-Man...you are going to laugh at this...We now have a total of 4 aquariums..one for our daughter, 2 for me and the 10 gal for my hubby. My two tanks consist of these:
7.5 gal
One male betta
3 Amano shrimp. (they were sold to us as ghost shrimp) but I found out yesterday they are amano shrimp.
5 little snails
3.7 gal
rcs..26 of them with 2 berried females!
 
 
The daughters tank will consist of 2-3 endlers or guppies and it is 3 gal long.
 
The Betta's tank ..Meep, is on its way to being planted..we have it on pea gravel, black with a nice piece of driftwood and I plan on putting 2 anubis plants and 1 java fern. So far he is digging it.! due to your recommendations my betta Meep is very happy little pain in the ass! he is very needy and very curious. I have compared him to an underwater cat really. He always comes to the front of the tank when I enter the living room and especially to the top of the tank when I'm near it. I'm the one the one that feeds him of course! I constantly do updates on my facebook page about him and the other tank. I'm loving my RCS tank tho..very happy that I also have several saddled females in there too.
 
It is the 10 gal that my husband is having an issue with. He wants a crowntail betta but doesnt know what school of fish to put in. This will be planted as well and we already have the black pea gravel and driftwood sitting in it. Just waiting on filter goodies and all that stuff to come in. These will be low light tanks so we are planning on getting low light plants.

 
 
LOL! No need for X-boxes then?

 
For your daughter's, being a teensy tank, endlers will be much better suited than guppies, to the point of saying that guppies would be too big completely.
 
For the 10gal, really any of the micro-rasbora species will do, I like chillis because I used to keep them myself. Hengeli, Espei, Harlequins, Celestial Pearl Danios would all look lovely in there.

 

[OregonCoast]

Lock-Man
Endlers for the daughters tank it shall be! She was actually trying to decide between guppies or endlers. They are both beautiful fish.
we just received the first shipment from Amazon today, and I now have a really neat light for my RCS tank which has now moved from the living room to the corner of my computer desk. We have quite a few more things on the way from Amazon as well.

 

[RCA]

My Halfmoon (in profile pic) is in with 11 Rasboras Espei and they are fine together.  Mind you the Espei's are like little Piranhas when food goes in so I make sure the Fighter gets his pellets etc.  With live food they are just as capable of taking something bigger than themselves.  It is my first time keeping Espei's which I ordered from my LFS and waited 3 months for, but it was worth the wait in my opinion.  They school well, eat well and are very bright, and thus far hardy.  The reason for 11 is my LFS got 6 in for me and 5 went missing over night at the store while being quarantined, a complete mystery as to where they went!  So I bought the one, then when they got some more a few weeks later (a tank full this time) I got 10