10 gallon stocking ideas

[sairving]

 I'm looking for some stocking ideas for my 10 gallon. My betta has a tumor and it's starting to impact his health. Louie eats but otherwise spends all his time at the bottom of the tank. The pygmy cory, nerite, and pest snails are healthy.  I don't want another betta though.  When I look at the tank, I want more active fish. Pygmy cories are out of the question. They cost $10 a fish locally. I need to add more plants too.

Idea 1

Ember tetras and Chili Rasboras 

Idea 2 

Some type of gourami like a pair of sparkling gouramis

Idea 3

Celestial pearl danios

Other ideas?

 

 

 

      

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Shrimp? 

@Guppysnail don't the CPD have aggression in small tanks?  

[sairving]

@Chick-In-Of-TheSeaI have stupid hard water. Do shrimp do well in hard water? I've thought about it before but didn't want to give my betta an expensive snack.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 9/20/2022 at 10:03 AM, sairving said:

@Chick-In-Of-TheSeaI have stupid hard water. Do shrimp do well in hard water? I've thought about it before but didn't want to give my betta an expensive snack.

Oh, I misread the post.  Yeah, don't put shrimp in with the betta.  😉

[sairving]

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea

On 9/20/2022 at 9:06 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Oh, I misread the post.  Yeah, don't put shrimp in with the betta.  😉

 I'm not adding more fish until my Betta is gone. At this point though, he's not going to be around much longer. I thought he was dead the other day.  

 

[Guppysnail]

On 9/20/2022 at 9:52 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Shrimp? 

@Guppysnail don't the CPD have aggression in small tanks?  

Yes and no. I started with 1m/2 f I’m a 10. That was perfect but they were not full grown just breeding size/age. They had zoomie space to run off energy and no boy “I’m BOSS” crap. When the kids started growing up and Hit sexual maturity I started having injuries so moved them to a 20long. This limited injuries and fights. I never call it aggression per say they are not territorial as much as I’m boss big man/ultimate mate on campus. When I put them in a 40 breeder is when I stopped having all but a random injury usually sustained in the rough breeding prices of the girl being smooshed to the substrate etc. 

 

Here is a 40B to show activity levels and why small tanks are inappropriate in my opinion for this fish. Kind of like a hyperactive child will survive their entire life cooped in their small bedroom but will not be really happy. 

Here is one of the boss fights

I have a bunch of videos on my YouTube thing of the social dynamics between CPD . You are welcome to look. 
Edit PS I’m a lousy camera girl 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Edited September 20, 2022 by Guppysnail

[sairving]

@GuppysnailThanks! Every guide and YouTube video I've watch about them so far says they are peaceful and happy in a 10 gallon tank. I don't want to put a fish that needs zooming space and is happier in a larger tank, in my 10 gallon. 

I'm also looking to avoid guppies. Don't want to buy 4 and have 200. 😂

 

 

[AnimalNerd98]

 

On 9/20/2022 at 7:46 AM, sairving said:

Idea 1

Ember tetras and Chili Rasboras 

Idea 2 

Some type of gourami like a pair of sparkling gouramis

Idea 3

Celestial pearl danios

Other ideas?

 

 

 

      

Idea 1: If you can’t find chili rasboras, you can also consider other closely related rasboras like exclamation point rasboras or phoenix rasboras.

idea 2: Honey gouramis can also work. You can also look into doing pairs of wild bettas, especially mouth brooders like Betta albimarginata or Betta channoides. However, wild caught specimens are especially averse to hard water, but if you can find some that are locally bred, that could work. (They tend to be a bit more expensive though). 

Other Ideas: green neon tetras, white cloud minnows, killifish (right now, I am keeping clown killifish). 

[Guppysnail]

On 9/20/2022 at 11:00 AM, sairving said:

@GuppysnailThanks! Every guide and YouTube video I've watch about them so far says they are peaceful and happy in a 10 gallon tank. I don't want to put a fish that needs zooming space and is happier in a larger tank, in my 10 gallon. 

I'm also looking to avoid guppies. Don't want to buy 4 and have 200. 😂

 

 

If you do go for 1m/2f trio. If it get heavy plants I have fry survive all the time so be prepared. They do not populate like guppies but they will slowly increase in numbers. Nature finds a way. 

[KatGoneFishing]

All of your ideas sound great!

I have both ember tetras and white clouds in 10 gallon tanks at the moment, they've been lovely.

The embers aren't as high energy as the CPDs seem to be and are a similar size. I've got 8 of them them in with a betta at the moment (he's flared at them a couple times, but otherwise doesn't care) and they use the whole tank. They don't school together much unless they're scared/startled, so it's fun to watch them swim around or hang out with a couple buddies for a while. They did start out very shy and easily startled, but have been much more relaxed and confident after I added the betta, which I think is an odd choice for a dither fish, but I'm not complaining with the results ahaha.

The white clouds are more of a schooling group, sticking fairly close together midwater, though if I haven't startled them by moving too fast, they will spread out more loosely. I've got 7 in my tank with a borneo loach and two amano shrimp, a bit of a species showcase rather than a true community, and they're absolutely lovely to watch. They've even bred in there, with at least six fry hatched as of yesterday.

     

 

I think a single or pair of honey gourami would also be really nice in a 10 gallon. I have three in a 20, but am planning to move one of them into his own space with some kuhli loaches.

[AnotherHumanPerson]

I would recommend endlers, especially if you have really hard water. You can probably do 4-5 males or a breeding trio in a 10 gal.