Good tank mates
- Thread starter MonsterKeeper4
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Anything small and peaceful really, the lack of a heater shouldn't be a problem as long as the tank is kept at a warm stable tropical temp.
A shoal of 6 white cloud mountain minnows, or 1male and 3female+ guppys, group of small corys like panda or pygmy corys, shoal of bloodfin tetras etc would be the sorts of fish that would be fine in a 10gal- i would just personally avoid fish which grow to more than 2.5inches long for such a tank. What are the exact measurements of the tank?
A shoal of 6 white cloud mountain minnows, or 1male and 3female+ guppys, group of small corys like panda or pygmy corys, shoal of bloodfin tetras etc would be the sorts of fish that would be fine in a 10gal- i would just personally avoid fish which grow to more than 2.5inches long for such a tank. What are the exact measurements of the tank?
A 10g will support around 40-50 1-1 1/2" fish if well aereated and filtered. Your main limit is place by the lack of a heater. If the tank is in an area that has a stable temp in the mid 70s then many of the smaller tetras will work though neons can be touchy at that temp. range. A mix of 6 pygmy cories (C. pygmaeus) or dwarf black diamond cories (C. hastatus), together with 6-8 glo-lights, 6-8 blue tetras, and 6-8 lemon tetras, with up to around 12-18 ghost shrimp will work in a 10g as long as you give it lots of multilayered strsuch as bushy plants, artificial will be okay.
MonsterKeeper4;1098401; said:
6 neons would be fine for such a tank, although they would thrive better in an established tank, if the tank is under 3months old, especially if its not cycled or going through a cycle, they probably wouldn't fare that well in the tank as they are very sensitive to water quality conditions (which are not stable in young tank set ups).
guppy;1098487; said:
40-50 in a 10gal fish sounds very crowded to me, in small tanks you don't just have to worry about over-stocking, over-crowding is a very real problem too and can be just as bad. If your tank is over-crowded, the fish will feel stressed and will become more vunerable to diseases and parasites, and treating diseases/parasites in an over-crowded tank can be very difficult indeed.
Not just that, but the average 9-10gallon tank filter would not be able to cope with the bioload of 40-50 fish.
If the tank has a lot of filtration and healthy planting and is fully established, personally i would stick to no more than 2 types of shoaling fish in shoals of 5-6 fish each, a few extra top or middle dwelling fish, and a few types of bottom dwelling fish numbering no more than 5.
So much depends on the exact type of fish though and the exact type of environment in the tank, its very hard to apply guides like the 1-2inch of fish per gal rule of thumb etc to stocking with any real degree of success etc.
The tank is actually closer to 9 US gallons;
Dimensions 48 x 30 x 25cm/19" x 12" x 10 Surface area 0.14 sqm/1.51 sq ft/ inches sq in Volume 37 l./8 gal. (9.77 US gal.) Probable volume 33 l./7 gal. (9 US gal.)
'cos its a long 9gal though, i would still treat it like a 10gal in certain respects.
A soft sand or very small fine rounded gravel substrate, some planting and decor to create hiding places, is important for keeping fish like corys healthy and happy.
MonsterKeeper4;1098772; said:
Just make sure the tank is not cycling when you introduce the corys to it, as ammonia is more concentrated at the bottom of tanks where corys spend the majority of their time, so they are quite sensitive to it.
Just stick to the smaller varieties of corys too like panda or pygmy corys, as some can get relatively large (3-4inches+), corys tend to do best in groups of at least 3-4 of their own type :thumbsups: .
A sand substrate is better than gravel, however gravel is fine as long as it is very small/fine and rounded. Make sure you get the right type of sand too, avoid stuff like coral/marine sand etc
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Maybe you could get some gouramis too, Look for a female they are really rare, Lots of LFS don't want to sell.