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Okay I want colorful SMALL fresh water fish. For a ten gallon I have about 4 fancy tail guppies left, what do u thikn? The guppies are allowed to go if nessasary. (Having issues, want to truly hurt myself for screwing with guppies!!!!)

Jess

Now Jess back away from the tank

Take a deep breath, guppies will be guppies that is just what they do best, i'm making the assumption that they are doing their thing and reproducing like crazy and that is why you want to hurt yourself for messing with guppies? Let's face it, they are fun, and easy to breed, but get out of hand too easily

Now you want small fish that are brightly colored, but want/need to stay in a ten gallon? Why not try a small school of one of these, 6-8 would be ok if you have a good filtration system on the tank, and keep up with weekly water changes and gravel vaccumes

Neon Tetras
Glow Light Tetras
Harlequin Rasboras
How about 3-4 female bettas?

Those would be my suggestions...all are bright and really nice to watch...if you went with the 3-4 female bettas, you could basically choose your colors

Now be nice to the guppies, and take them back to the lfs or get yourself a 29 gallon tank and drop them in it, and let them do their thing

Best of luck, and happy choosing, heidi

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

You could look into these as well:

killifish
female bettas
ADF
Paradise fish
Cherry Barbs
Dwarf puffer
Small tetras
A pair of bolivian rams
small cories

I'll do graffiti,
If you sing to me in French.

Right now I've got a school of 8 cardinal tetras and 1 otto(need to buy another) in my 10 gallon.

They're nice and small. Also colorful.

You should probably get rid of the guppies. You wont have room for anything else if you don't.

Last edited by fishnewbie at 01-Jul-2005 23:05

You can go with an all male Guppy tank or else a school of Glowlight Tetra's with some plants.


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you can also have some combination of a small school of small tetras (let's say about 5) with 2 ottos and 1-2 female bettas. the combination of sizes, colors and behaviors will keep you occupied for a long time

Nah with the betta idea, the school of tetras really isn't big enough.

But you COULD still do it, I guess...

Fry,

"you can also have some combination of a small school of small tetras (let's say about 5)"

Im assuming your suggestion is to combine 5 tetras that are of 5 different species. This is not a good idea as a tetra needs a school(at least 6) of its own kind. When kept alone a tetra becomes timid and not exciting at all.

I'll do graffiti,
If you sing to me in French.

OMG thanks you guys!! And your right actually about the guppies!! OMG BREADERs And diers! I cant keep them alive for some unknown reason Im having issues with them!! anyways I have neon tetras and they are awsome!!
Thank you so much you guys I'm going to try and part with the little devils but im so attatched to the trouble makers lol but ne ways i want something else i dont know there do difficult want to bash my head lol

Jess

I wouldn't suggest otos in a 10 gallon. They are far too sensitive (water quality in a 10 is never perfectly stable) and a 10 gallon is not big enough to support more than one of them with a healthy supply of fresh algae which IMO they require to keep them from starving to death slowly over time. It is possible to "farm" your own algae but IME they really prefer algae that has been grown in the main tank for some reason. Culturing algae still doesn't solve all of the problems with keeping them in a small tank. I would never keep less than a group of 3 otos because they are extremely skittish on their own and keeping more than one in a 10 is risky due to dietary needs. I suppose it could work if it were an extremely densely planted tank (and I mean extreme). Keep in mind that otos tend to prefer nitrate under 5 ppm IME, which is fairly difficult to maintain for a beginner.

I also don't recommend bolivian rams for a tank that small. Those cichlids will eventually top out at about 3 inches (maybe a little larger even), FAR too large for a 10 gallon tank. There simply isn't enough floor space to support a pair of 3 inch cichlids in a 10 gallon. The minimum tank size I would suggest for bolivians personally is 20 gallons, 15 gallons for blue rams. Rams are fairly peaceful as far as cichlids go but if you overcrowd them there can be problems. They can get nasty and are capable of killing smaller fish.

Why has nobody suggested small shelldwellers? A trio of N. multifasciatus would be wonderful in that tank. They are very cute, attractive and infinitely more interesting than any tetra I have ever seen. They will breed a lot and eventually fill the tank with a nice sized colony, but unlike guppies they actually have some monetary value and can easily be sold. For small tanks you can't go wrong with shellies, they're great.

THANKS you guys!! I'll think about it!!