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I am going to be keeping a breeding pair of blue rams in a 10 gallon that I have had other fish in for about 6 months or so. I transferred all but 2 small fish out and have basically rescaped the tank for the rams. my question is, in process of reducing the stock and feeding as well as with the large water changes i did while changing the substrate, I seem to have gotten my high nitrate problem under control. this alters my stocking plans a bit, because I had originally planned to have 3 otos as tankmates with these rams and now my masses of algae have all died off. I am positive now that the nitrate problem was just because I had the 10 gallon overstocked in anticipation of an upgrade, where i originally though it was mostly because of sunlight.

so anyway, since I am no longer in desparate need of algae eating fish, should I choose some sort of dither fish instead of using 3 otos? preferable one which is more top dwelling since the rams are more bottom dwelling?

I already have cardinal tetras in a different tank so i dont want to use those... I was thinking maybe lemon tetras? i think lemons are very pretty. The only problem is that most fish i think of that are suitable as dithers need to be in schools of 6 and I dont think I have room for 6 dithers in addition to the 2 blue rams. is there some other fish suitable as dither fish which would work in this tank without it becoming overstocked again? I am sure the algae will be back if my nitrates become high again and I dont have time to be doing constant big water changes, though I have heard that small tetras are very low contributers to the bioload.

so would 6 lemon tetras and 2 blue rams overstock the tank bioload wise? I am not too concerned about territory and stuff since rams are more bottom dwelling and tetras are basically mid-level dwellers.

if this wouldnt work is there something else that might? perhaps 2 cherry barbs? or would they not be suitable as dithers?

I think cherry barbs would work, but they arent much of a fast moving dither fish. Lemons would also be ok. I think you could do 3 or 4 cherry barbs, or 6 lemons.
Other options could be Neons- would definetly accent the blue rams; White Clouds - always a wonderful surface dweller; Marbled Hatchetfish - small, surface dwellers and good looking too would be neat to have the different shapes of the hatchets and the rams; Leopard or Zebra Danios -personally I prefer the Leopards, very fast dither fish; Glowlight Tetras- the red would look nice against the blue of the rams; Pristella Tetras- also a nice looking tetra.
Im sure you could also pick just about any smaller tetra or cyprinid. Harlequin Rasboras also come to mind, and there are several other varieties of rasbora that are nice, but harder to find.


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I recomend 4 white clouds. They stay rather small, and stay tword the top. And 4 should be a big enough school for them to be happy while not overstocking your tank.

Pretty much any of the Rasboras should work. Stay small, school nicely and almost always prefer the top part of the tank.Just what you're looking for

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Harlequin rasboras would be nice. If you can find them there are other colorful, schooling rasboras that are a bit smaller:

exclamation point rasbora (Boraras urophthalmoides)
pygmy rasbora (Boraras maculatus)
emerald dwarf rasbora (Microrasbora erythromicron)


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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

hmm I like harlequins but I already have some in my 29 gallon and I would like to try something new

I guess what I am trying to say is that with 2 blue rams and 6 lemon tetras, would the nitrates be hard to keep down? because 8 fish in a 10 gallon seems like a lot.

I have heard though that small tetras add little to the bioload, so you can keep more of them than usual....

I don't think that would be too much, but then again I tend to overstock and run larger (?) filters on my 10g tanks. What kind of filter do you have on it?

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

How 'bout a school of rummynoses. They enjoy same water parameters.

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I don't have much of a filter on there, its an aquaclear mini...

rummynose are a good idea, hmm i think i will do either rummys or lemons

In both my 20 long and my 40 breeder my school of WCMMs have always stayed in the plants not really at the top.

I have 3 red flame tetras in with two rams. The biggest tetra and the two rams all have fun chasing each other around the tank. No one actually get hurt though. I love red flame tetras, they are beautiful and funny.