Need Advice on what fish to add to aquarium

[Coralreef]

Hello, so I recently had my betta fish die and decided to try out some new fish. I have a 10 gallon and recently purchased 3 Ast Platys and 8 ember tetras.

Unfortunately 2 of the 3 platys died and all but one ember tetra in the first 2 days of bringing them home. I brought the dead fish in along with a water sample and when they tested it everything was fine, but they said I had hard water which is common where I live.

I am looking to get more fish but don't know what my best options would be. I know the ember tetra won't survive long without a group, but I am not sure how many tetras I can have? I was thinking of just keeping the one platy and then getting 2-3 fancy guppies. So then I would have one platy, 2 guppies and possibly 8 tetras.

I am not sue if this would be a good option though and if I should just get more tetras and leave the single platy as I dont want to overstock my tank.

 

[Andy Sager]

Hello, so I recently had my betta fish die and decided to try out some new fish. I have a 10 gallon and recently purchased 3 Ast Platys and 8 ember tetras.

Unfortunately 2 of the 3 platys died and all but one ember tetra in the first 2 days of bringing them home. I brought the dead fish in along with a water sample and when they tested it everything was fine, but they said I had hard water which is common where I live.

I am looking to get more fish but don't know what my best options would be. I know the ember tetra won't survive long without a group, but I am not sure how many tetras I can have? I was thinking of just keeping the one platy and then getting 2-3 fancy guppies. So then I would have one platy, 2 guppies and possibly 8 tetras.

I am not sue if this would be a good option though and if I should just get more tetras and leave the single platy as I dont want to overstock my tank.

For starters, Tetras do better in soft water not hard water so I would be hesitant to add more Tetras to the tank. Also, many Tetra species can be fin nippers so adding fancy guppies to a " tetra tank" would be very risky.
The first question is just how hard is your water? If you do not have test kits, I'd take your water to be tested again at the store and ask for actual numbers. "OKay" is not a good answer. Okay for what? Tetras? Platies? Other fish species? Water will never be okay for all species of fish together because of different areas where the fish come from naturally or where the farms are that you are getting the fish from. I'd also get the numbers of the water where you got the fish from to better understand why you lost the other fish so quickly.

So you know, Platies can live singularly so it's not imperative that you add more. In fact, if you have a female and she was in with males before you got her, she is probably already pregnant so you will have more in a couple of months anyway. If it was a male, that's better for population control. Depending on what other fish you get in the future, you may want to return or rehome the Ember Tetra.
Fish that generally do better in hard water include Guppies, Platies, Endler's livebearers, Certain Blue-eye rainbowfish for example but you need to also know your Ph before just adding these species.
So start with there and then we can discuss other species.

 

[Joe_D]

FWIW....
In my 10 gal tank I have....
* 12 neon Tetras
* 5 Harlequin Rasboras
* 5 Panda Cory cat fish
* Several Cherry shrimp
It is very peaceful community tank

BTW Platys tend to be "dirty" fish compared to what I posted.