Advice: stocking a 10gal planted tank

[greenfin]

Hi,
Just looking for some advice and suggestions on how to stock my tank. I'm more of a gardener than a fish keeper, and this is my first fish tank.
I have a heavily planted 10 gallon tank that has been up and running for about 4 months. I currently have the following in the tank:

Plants: 1 medium java fern (Microsorum pteropus), 5 dwarf sagittarias (Sagittaria subulata), java moss (Vesicularia dubyana) on driftwood, and a nice carpet of Hemianthus callitrichoides (I think the common name is Dragon's Tail) covering about 2/3 of the substrate.

Fish: 2 bronze corys and 1 otocinculus.

Other: Hagen CO2 system, 40Watts power compact fluorescent light, Fluval 104 canister filter.

So far the plants are doing extremely well and the three fish seem very happy. Over the next few months I'd like to stock the tank with some more small fish but I'm pretty new to fish and uncertain about a few things.
I've had my eye on some zebra danios and some checkered barbs - they seem small enough to keep a mini-school - but I'm not sure how many fish I can safely add or whether these fish will destroy my aquascaping or not, or bother my three catfish.
Just looking for some suggestions and advice. How many smallish fish can I add to this tank? What types would you suggest? Maybe I should just leave it alone?

Cheers and thanks in advance.

 

[YuccaPatrol]

I'd go ahead and add a few small fish.

My longest living fish is a zebra danio which came along with a few feeder guppies that I bought for a fishy cycle when we started our first aquarium. He was the first tank inhabitant and is still thriving in one of my planted tanks. They are zippy and hardy in my experience.

But for small and pretty, I'd go with Neon Tetras. They won't bother a thing and will look really good as a small school in your tank. Get 6 or so of them and they will school together.

 

[Blucat]

Neon tetras can be very sensitive and not very hardy. 4 or 5 zebra danios would be fine. You may want to consider fancy male guppies. They are bright, clourful and stay relatively small. Also check out other small tetras: cardinal tetras, glowlight tetras, rummy nose, hockey stick to name a few. Regarding numbers, you could get a small group of 5/6 tetras or the guppies.

Regarding your catfish.... your cory cats woudl love to be in a trio and your otocinculus would love to be in a pair.

 

[An t-iasg]

I'm wondering how the Fluval 104 is performing for you. I wanted a canister filter for my 10 gallon tank (not set up yet) but I thought they would all create too strong of a flow in a small tank.

 

[toddnbecka]

Killifish do well in planted aquariums, and prefer lower pH, 6.5-7.0, which is what CO2 generally does anyway. They are more expensive than zebra danios, but also much more colorful.