10 Gal Stocking Plan - Tips/Comments?

[jeishii]

Hello!

Sorry to do 2 posts in 1 night but I wanted to keep my questions separate.

I have the following stocking idea and I was hoping I could get some opinions on it. And help with a slight conundrum I've found myself in.

I have a 10 gallon. The equipment I have includes:

HOB Filter
Small bubble wand with air pump kept on low
Adjustable heater for tanks 10 - 20 gallons

Plants include:
5 plastic plants of various styles and lengths (I plan on getting more live plants in the future and slowly rotating the plastic ones out, possibly to newer tanks.)
3 live plants, very small, including a small fern and one leafy green plant (lots of hiding places)

Decorations are limited to one large rock formation (man made) with coral colors, along the length of the tank, offering some hiding spaces.

The gravel is standard aquarium gravel in black and blue, 2 inches layered.

Okay, now, stocking plans were:

5 Diamond Tetra
3 Spotted Cory
1 Zebra Snail (1 and 1 only)
1 male betta (likely a halfmoon or crowntail) *

* IF the community, once fully stocked, get along well with no signs of aggression or fin-nipping, I was going to introduce the single male betta. If there are any issues, I would move him to a smaller tank, likely a 5 gallon, to live on his own.

Conundrum: I started with 3 Diamond Tetras to test the biofilter, ensuring the ammonia and nitrites remained at 0. They don't seem to like how bright the fishtank hood light gets so I have been keeping it off. And the tank water sits at about 78 degrees.

Which is, to my dismay, ripe for breeding, and my silly butt didn't realize that.

So after adding 3 spotted corydora and 1 zebra snail on Friday, then going to dinner with family, and coming back, I was watching the cories to see how they were getting along with the tetra (looking for nipped fins, etc.). I noticed what LOOKED like the tiniest spotted fish I'd ever seen floating by on the current from the HOB filter. I found a tiny baby diamond tetra hanging out by the submersible heater.

Today I've counted at least 5 babies in various stages of growth. My plan was for 5 diamond tetras TOTAL.

So... I suppose I have two questions:

1) Does my original stocking plan sound feasible?
2) What on Earth do I do with these tetras if they survive? (My research has lead me to believe they aren't threatened by the snail, other tetra, or cories - in fact, 4 of the babies were hanging out with one of the cories, who likes to sleep in the corner of the tank).

 

[Pictuspower]

1) Personally I feel your 10g is overstocked. The snail seems fine, but I'd give the cories away or sell them. First off they are very social fish and need a larger group than just 3 and secondly for their activity level a 10g is just WAY too small.

In my opinion also, I think the tetras are too much for a 10g. Information I've gathered said they require at least a 36" length tank.

I think the betta would love it in the 10g all by himself. Or... you could do some neon tetras. Two dwarf Gourami's aren't a bad idea either but I wouldn't recommend a betta in there with them.

2) Give them away/sell them. Your tank isn't big enough to comfortably house all those fish.

 

[jeishii]

Hi Pictuspower,

Thank you for your opinions. I definitely know I need to move the babies, but how old do they need to be? Currently they are still so small they are able to hide and I literally cannot see them until they feel like coming out. I keep telling my husband the cory catfish ate them, then they magically appear again. Haha.

I chose the catfish because several of the websites, wikis, and random forum responses on forums like this one recommended them as long as they were the smaller breed. The type I selected do not get larger than 2 inches. I got 3 so that they would be able to socialize; currently they seem to be very well adjusted and enjoy playing in the tank. Given that I've been given a lot of advice opposite to yours, I'm hesitant to sell or give them away. But I will keep that information in mind and keep an eye on them - if they appear unhappy or stressed I will see if any friends or family with established larger tanks would like them, or try to obtain a larger tank myself (that is my end goal but I need a base AND the tank, and that will get more expensive than I can handle right now).

I had considered neon tetra but decided against them for a few reasons. Both a co-worker of mine who is a seasoned aquarist and former head of the fish section of a pet store, a couple different fish store workers, and a few websites/forum posts recommended them for my tank because they are lovely, mild mannered (generally) and hardy. I asked specifically about their size requirements (tank size, number versus tank size, etc) and was told they'd be good in the tank. They stressed that tetras are better in schools of five but I can keep only the three I have. Only one of them seems a bit shy (the male), but he usually comes out towards the end of the day and when it's food time.

 

[Pictuspower]

That's perfectly fine heh, there are many people out there all with different opinions, and many times you get a lot saying the same thing. I was just giving my opinion on the matter because I'm one of those anal people who stick pretty hard with what I've learned in the past until it is very obviously proven wrong. I don't doubt that cories can be happy in smaller numbers and in a smaller tank. Just depends on the tank ya know.

As far as the fry goes, it's not a huge issue to move them out right away. You can wait till they develop more and show their colors and such before selling them, but i do recommend to not keep them, especially if your current tetras are breeding, you'll end up with more and more and then soon enough you're saying to yourself "Oh god where did all these fish come from" ya know?

I still stick with what I said before though to keep the betta out of the 10g and just put him in a tank by himself. Betta's are so awesome though. I'm really debating on getting one before starting my 100+g this summer just to ease myself into the whole thing. Such beautiful fish I want to take them all home because of their poor living conditions in the stores.
(I was surprised when i walked into petsmart last week and saw they actually had a very nice rack with them and they were in about oh I don't know... 10-15 ounce containers? None were stacked atop each other all had some space between each jug... I was impressed, but i still wish they'd move them to small tanks with dividers and filters)