Need some stocking advice..

[jazzx101]

Alright, at the moment I am working on getting a 30 gal tank running but I do not have a lot of time and money so that most likely won't happen until the end of the summer. At the moment I have just the 10 gal, and my gourami who I had for a long time just died. So basically I'm weighing my options at what I can add to this right now.

1 Bushynose pleco (still very small, about 3.5 inches)
1 Zebra danio (I know these should be kept in a group, but I'm not interested in getting any more. These were my first fish I got years ago, and only one is left but for some reason it refuses to die or look stressed/unhappy)

I have one beta that I keep in a seperate 2 gallon bowl type thing...but the pleco I have is fairly aggressive and the beta is ultra aggresive as far as betas go so I don't really want to put them together.

Anything interesting I could put in now?

 

[glolite]

Penguin tetras are nice friendly fish and quite entertaining too. You could have a little shoal of 4 or 5

 

[jazzx101]

I was thinking about tetras possibly..haven't seen any penguin ones though.

 

[sylvia]

Can I just point out that zebra danios also shouldn't be in a 10 gallon but in a 20 gallon (minnimum). I know you aren't interested in this fish so I don't expect you'll be trying to keep it in ideal conditions but I wanted to point it out anyway.

As for what you could keep - there are SO many options. Is there a particular species or group of fish you like?

As far as tetras and simialrly small schooling fish go, there's neons (group of 6), rummynoses (group of 6), spotted rasboras (quite a big group of these - around 8 - would work as they are tiny), pygmy cories (at least 4) and golden dwarf barbs (group of 7) to name a few.

Also, penguin tetras actualy get to 3" so they may not be the very best option in a 10 gallon. If you ever get that 30 though, they are lovely fish.

There's also fish like cherry barbs (a pair), sparkling gouramies (trio), guppies (trio), platies (trio), endler's (trio, but not with guppies), mosquito fish (2 males, 4 females - prefferably not with guppies or endler's and don't confuse with the western mosquito fish. The latter is gambusia affinis and quite aggressive, the former is heterandria formosa and similar to guppies except for size as they are tiny - don't keep with anything that might eat them!), honey gouramies (pair or trio), a singe dwarf gourami, a single banded or thick-lipped gourami (colisa fasciata and colisa labiosa respectively), otos (2-3 but only if your plec won't mind them), female bettas (at least 4), you could choose from.

Be careful though as not all these fish are compatible with each other (though I'm pretty certain they'd all be fine with the fish you already have).