Want a larger fish in the tank - options?

[jfoust]

After browsing around here for the last few days, I've got the itch to add another resident to my son's aquarium! Details of the aquarium and its inhabitants are in my sig and also in my profile... Right now there are 8 fish total, all small fish except the bleeding heart tetra.

Given the limited space in a 10gal tank, what should I think about adding? I'm kind of thinking about adding another Bleeding heart or two. The one that's in there now does very will with the other inhabitants and would probably appreciate the company! I was also considering a dwarf gourami or a small oto (my son always gets a kick out of them sucking the glass at the pet store).

I don't want to overload the tank, so I don't know if adding a bigger fish like that would be too much. Right now I test the water regularly and all my levels look great. Any ideas or suggestions?

 

[jcarlilesiu]

You should have enough room in the tank for a couple more tetras, but that will probably be close to filling you up bio-load wise.

Keep in mind that the more maintanence you do on a tank the more bio-load you can carry.

 

[jfoust]

You should have enough room in the tank for a couple more tetras, but that will probably be close to filling you up bio-load wise.

Keep in mind that the more maintanence you do on a tank the more bio-load you can carry.

Thanks! We do pretty religious maintenance on the tank - regular water changes and vacuuming, testing, filter media changes at recommended intervals, etc. The tank is in my son's room, so

A) I want him to be able to enjoy the fish without curd floating in the water and funking up the ornaments and plants

and

B) I don't want him to wake up to a tank full of dead fish because of my negligence!

Might toss a few more bleeding hearts in there and call it good for now. I'm sure the one we have would appreciate the company.

 

[joy13]

Bleeding hearts top out at about 2.5 inches I have had mine less than a year and they are over 2 inches already. They do better in groups of at least 4. With a 10 gallon tank you figure 10 inches adult size fish, I also look at the bioload like I know my bristlenose pleco is about 4 inches but her bioload is huge so I look at her as a 6 or 8 inch. I don't know what type of rasbora you have but some of them can get big too like the scissortail gets 3 inches.

Bleeding hearts are my favorite tetra.

 

[jfoust]

Thanks for the info! The rasbora is a Harlequin.