fish suggestions please

[SmokeShank]

hey guys,

I have a small tank (10gallons) for my office. It has 4 small tiger barbs in it currently. they seem to be doing well other than im getting some brown algae that should go away soon ive been told.

Anyways, my LFS is Jacks Aquarium (dont know if anyones heard of them). I would like to add some more fish. I like things that are colorful and look cool (as most people do). The store suggested some Glofish. I would like your guy's opinions. I am thinking of getting a Plecos (i believe thats the name), the "sucker" fish. i had one when i was younger and it did well. what else would you suggest? I was thinking of that to help keep the algae down.

Like I said, i dont have a super exotic fish store, but they do have quite a bit. This is for my office, so color fish are a +.

so what would you suggest?

thanks guys.

 

[fishstixs05]

I would not suggest the common pleco. They get way too big for your ten gallon. If you are looking for an algae eater, the otocinclus is probably the best fish for the job, cheap small and tough as nails, or at least in my experience. Unfortuantly the tiger barbs can be rather aggressive, so be careful with whatt else you add. And with it being a ten gallon, you dont have much room for other fish.
You could try adding
one oto
three skunk botias
possibly a small school of glofish or other danios or other tetras, buth then your getting over stocked.

or, you could ditch the tiger barbs and go with :
Style one
Sand, river rocks, tons of snail shells
colony of shell dwellers
(lamprologus multifasciatus, brevis, or ocolattus (spelling))

Style two
gravel, plants, flower pot
pair of kribensis or rams
one oto
school of neon tetras

Style three
gravel, plants
school of guppies
5 cory cats
1 oto
maybe some marbles hatchetfish (keep the lid on!)

Hope this helps
Ben

 

[SmokeShank]

thanks for the suggestions! the only problem with that is i dont know all those names! i have to search google for pictures of all of them haha.

right now i have gravel and are adding plants very soon. I have a fake log and the tigers seem to like it alot (one is especially shy and likes to hide in it).


i wouldnt know what to do with my tiger barbs if i decided to go with a different setup though. thats why i was looking for something to add to them.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Otos like to be in groups. I'd get 2 or 3 otos and 3 cories for the bottom.

 

[SmokeShank]

what about adding ~3-4 cory cats, ~3 otos and keeping the tiger barbs.
maybe add 4-5 neon tetras?




ill start small by adding the cories and and otos. then ill see how that goes.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

The tigers will more than likely eat the neons. How about neons and cherry barbs?

 

[SmokeShank]

well i already have the tiger barbs in the tank. so would the otos and cories be alright with them?

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Yes, no problems there.
Could do Rummy nose tetras with them.

 

[woodsplace1]

I have a mini clown pleco for my 10 gal and it works great, won't get too big either like most plecos. They are so neat to watch also, especially with a piece of driftwood, late at night he goes to town like he is on a mission, cleaning up things like magic! It's amazing to watch!

 

[trotty]

Great taste in pleco.... I would have suggested maybe a bristle nose.

 

[woodsplace1]

like those too...they didn't have a bristle nose when we went searching for pleco's. We also go to Jack's Aquarium and Pets, they usually have a wide variety of algae eaters/bottom feeders, but at the time no bristlenose...then I fell in LOVE with the mini clown pleco, he was so adorable, sitting on this piece of driftwood, as if he was saying "pick me, pick me" staring right at me....have loved to watch him ever since, he is my favorite!

 

[SmokeShank]

ok, so i got two cory cats, and a eel. they all are rated C which is what the tiger barbs are (C is the LFS compatability rating) and so far so good. the eel likes to bury its self in the gravel and you just see its head sticking out. they are all fun to watch. i was going to get a DAF but they only had the regular AF which get to be rather big. so i skipped those for now.

 

[Hovoc]

not sure if it was mentioned, but a yellow mystery snail adds a nice touch to the tank i just love these little guys

 

[Lonewolfblue]

What kind of eel? Most eels will outgrow a 10G in no time flat. I've had my 2 fire eels now just over a year and one is almost 12 inches and the other has already topped 12 inches, going on 13 inches.

 

[SmokeShank]

i actually am not sure of the exact name. it said on the tag but i dont recall (im not very name savvy). it has a very long nose. its about 3" long and the maximum length it will get is 8"


my plans are upgrading to atleast a 20g, if not a 29g. but thats later down the road.



havoc: the only snails i saw were those tiny ones that always crawl around on the glass, i had those when i was younger and ended up with atleast 75 by the end. they were every where! but those were just the normal snails. ill have to look again @ the store for some yellow ones.