New ten gallon

[Rach101]

I am going to be getting a new ten gallon, and im stuck on what i want to stock it with. I am not sure if i want to make it a heavily planted dwarf puffer tank, or perhaps a community tank. Also, I am still debating if i should get a sand bed, or use gravel as I have in my past tank, aswell as my other two one gallons. e.e;; I hate making decisions.
Im not opposed to single species tanks, or community, nor am I opposed to having a single fish inside the tank.

So far I have thought of these choices

1 male betta with corys and otos

9 or 10 freshwater puffers-- permiting that I can find the right male to female ratio
or
1 celestial goldfish

Any other stocking ideas, and such? Im pretty open minded, though im not really interested in livebearers as i already have a community tank.

 

[Hrafnkel]

There is no way that you can stock a ten gallon with 9 or 10 puffers.

 

[Rach101]

Probably not, I was hoping to find a good ratio. Like, three males, and then the rest females, but ofcourse, i am perfectly fine with a 5 or 6 puffers all the same

 

[Jchillin]

Puffers are a good idea but you really could only keep a couple, no more than 3-4. A betta and a few cories is also good.

In regard to planting, that is also a good idea. Plants provide a natural way to remove ammonia, nitrite and nitrates from your water.

 

[Hrafnkel]

Like Jchillin said, only a few puffers. From my understanding, they don't like being crowded, and I dunno what species in particular you're looking at, but most are a fairly large bioload. From what I've seen.

 

[Rach101]

Ofcourse.. they get about a inch big, and that was only wishfull thinking, obviously the chance of a store having the exact ratio i wanted is almost impossible. Either way Im open to everything, and I plan on having a heavily planted tank. I rather like the over run look ~ coughs.. ~

 

[id10t]

Just finished reading about dwarf puffers on a different forum, consensus is they like 2.5-3 gals each with lots of plants, etc. to break their line of site so they don't see each other and go nutz. Referenced http://www.dwarfpuffers.com/ (haven't gotten to that tab yet myself) and pufferlist.com

 

[Fluff]

I think 2-3 dwarf puffers is a good number for a ten gallon tank. But, I like the betta idea as well. Or, maybe a couple female bettas with corys and otos. As for the celestial goldy. I had one and gave it to my sister. It was clumsy and just couldn't compete for food. Just my experience but you have to watch it to be sure it finds the food.

 

[penpitt]

SA puffers require 15 gallons each. You could stick with 2 to 3 dwarf puffers for a 10.

 

[Rach101]

I had one and gave it to my sister. It was clumsy and just couldn't compete for food.

Yeah, i heard that, but their so cute!
Ive only seen a female betta once, they dont have much of a demand for them since their fins are lacking.

 

[Fluff]

That's a shame because they are nice and you can keep a group so you have more color. Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

[Rach101]

New idea. Not sure if itd work any good.. But here it goes.
Getting a divider, and splitting it down the center, but drilling holes into it so that both would still be equally heated and filtered and then putting two male bettas in it, dividing it with the drilled divider

 

[jrp1588]

They will probably go insane trying to kill each other unless you put some long plants next to the divider to prevent them from seeing each other. Thell probably try to kill each other so long that they will both get stressed and die.

 

[megladonsharky]

1 male betta with corys and otos ... I f you want a female I will happily give you mine she is one aggressive girl..

 

[Rach101]

I wish there were more females down here, they are really beautiful.

I was thinking still on the divided tank set up, maybe with a set of cories on each side, such as a small spotted cory school on one side, and an emerald catfish school on the other. Both being about 2-or3 in each school.Maybe even an oto on both sides, once the tank matures enough and then the bettas along with plants all along the sides, aswell as floating plants. And then getting a sponge to put over the filter intake to make the current easier, aswell as retreats for the catfish
The only thing i see wrong with that i might have problems with equally heating the entire tank since the heater would have to be on one side.

 

[gheitman]

There are many different species of fish and plants that work well in a ten gallon tank. Some fish you could consider would be cories, American-flag Fish, dwarf gouramis, some of the smaller barbs, etc. A lot of different plants will work with the normal 15W fluourescent bulb that comes with the standard hood. I suggest some of the cryptocoryne species, dwarf sags, moss balls, African ferns and Anubias species.

 

[Rach101]

Id kind of like it to look something like this, course i know id require alot of work to remain like this.
Does anyone know of any good low light floating plants, low-medium.

 

[feeder_guppy]

Anacharis! >>http://www.petfish.net/Anacharis.htm