What should I do with my 10g?

[grimlock3000]

My 10g tank is boring as heck! With my current fish load, there is hardly any movement or anything interesting ever going on. When I used to have a couple Dwaf Gouramis and a school of Tetra, it was always fun to way. now, ost of the fish just sit around and do nothing all day, especially the Betta. My wife wants Neons, I have no idea what I want, but when I look in the tank it would be nice to not have to look for all the fish

 

[nick_schembri]

Your avatar shows an image of a guppy and even the one in the photo doesn't seem to be sitting still. I know that guppies are beginner stuff but if you plant it and put a couple of colourful males and 6 females you'll get a lot of activity and babies. And thats fun to watch. Just my opinion. Thats what I did to my 10. I still find guppies fun even though I'm breeding discus.

 

[grimlock3000]

Those fish in my avatar are the male Guppies in my 26g tank The females in the 10 are plain Feeder Guppies. I originally got the Betta to eat its way through the Guppy fry and put the males in the 26g. After months of being without any males in the tank, I finally got the females non-pregnant, so I do not keep getting little ugly Feeder Guppy fry. If I had Fancy females, or even did not have the Betta, I would love to have some cute little fry in the tank.

I was thinking some orange Platies might be cool too, but would they be happy in a pair?

 

[lmw80]

You know what's fun.....danios! They are always moving! I have 4 long-finned leopard danios in my 20 gallon....they never stop moving, I love them, they are great fun!

 

[bunebop]

Danios are really fun and amusing to watch. I have 6 zebra danios in w/ my female bettas. I would watch what you get though w/ the betta. Many danios come in short-finned and long-finned, I don't think the betta would like the long finned species too much.

 

[grimlock3000]

Short fin Danios might be the way to go.

Here is the tank in all of its glory:

The Guppies always poke around near the top. The Betta sits on the plants until he eats, the Cories lay behind the corner filter, and the Oto is usually hiding in a plant.

 

[Mere Air]

I replaced the male betta in our 10-gallon tank with a female. Without all that extra finnage to lug around, she's far more active. I also have an African Dwarf Frog and some ghost shrimp.

The ghost shrimp take their tank maintenance job very seriously and can usually be found sifting through the sand substrate. The African Dwarf Frog naps from about 10:00 a.m. until around 4:00 p.m. But, when she's awake, she stays quite busy.

 

[millipede]

colorwise I think a couple of orange platys would look pretty good. It would probably be good to keep to males though, unless you want the babies. My personal preferance/suggestion is a khuli loach or two. Sure they stick to the bottom for the most part, and they like to hide... but when they are active, I can't take my eyes off of them... Of course another suggestion you might imagine from me, dump the fish and start a herp tank...
You could always ditch some of what you have now and go back to a school of tetras... I love watching fish swim. I love bottom dwellers, I think partly becuase they explore more things and don't just go back and forth.

 

[grimlock3000]

Ok, it is down to Neons or whatever type of orange colored Platies I can find. I want the Platies, wife still wants the Neons. Once one of us budges I can make a trip to the fish store. Any reccomendation on how many of each fish I could safely get away with? Also, how can I tell the male Platies from the females? Should be simple, but I have read some conflicting information online.

 

[Blackpearl]

Here is a picture of a female platy (I have one exactly like this called 'Big Momma' 8) )
http://www.aquariumfish.net/images_01/gold_wag_platy_w360.jpg

Here is a picture of a male platy.
http://www.aquariumfish.net/images_01/platy_red_painted_w180.gif

You probably can see from the two pictures that the main difference is the bottom fin. The female has a wide fin, and for the male will have gonopobium (did I spell it right?) The female will grow bigger than the male too.

As millipede has stated, you better get all males unless you want to have lots of babies, since a female can actually keep the sperm and get pregnant many times.
If you plan to have babies, then go with the standard 1 male and 3 females. (Beware of FRY!!). Otherwise get around 3-4 males.

IMO a spotted platy look like a mini koi so I would get those

 

[grimlock3000]

Well, the current plan it to get Neons AND some Platies. Then I would just put one batch of fish in the 26g and the other in the 10. This is a much better solution than arguing with my wife. Probably going to get...

6 Neons for the 26g + 2 Platies for the 10
or
4 Platies for the 26g + 4 Neons for the 10

 

[nick_schembri]

Hey I have an idea! why dont you put in a couple of oscars. Or maybe 3. Make sure you buy adults at 10 inches each.
THEN add a few guppies. I'd say fifty would do it.
But a 10 is kinda small so don't add more fish or you'll overcrowd.

 

[grimlock3000]

Hey I have an idea! why dont you put in a couple of oscars. Or maybe 3. Make sure you buy adults at 10 inches each.
THEN add a few guppies. I'd say fifty would do it.
But a 10 is kinda small so don't add more fish or you'll overcrowd.

Wow, that was really a help to me

Anyway, I got 5 good looking little Neons for the 10g tank, about .75 inches long each. The store had three tanks with Neons in them and they were all on sale. I specifically asked for 4 and ended up with 5 in the bag. The clerk put an extra one in the bag to be in case all of the first 4 did not all make it. Talk about a confident pet store Guess they were trying to get rid of some extras 8O

I acclimated the Neons over a 90 minute span in a darkened room. I will see how things are in the morning and the lights come on. Maybe the Betta will get the Neons to stay in a school.

I also got 4 Platys and one more Guppy for the 26g tank, that is in another thread...

 

[nick_schembri]

LOL, I was only joking.

It would be hard for neons to survive in groups of less than 8. You also need a very low GH. And pH can't be above 7. They do tend to stick together but they usually need a larger tank to show natural schooling behavior.

Hope that helps
Nicky.