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My little brother is setting up a little 10 gallon fish tank. ( wants to be like his big brother lol) Hey wants some guppy and an angel fish, and a bottom feeder he seen in the store. any advice for me to help him out.

Angelfish aren't appropriate for a 10-gallon tank. They simply get too large. (a good 6 inches long *and* top-to-bottom) Guppies, however are a great choice. The best option for several reasons is to get several males. They're more colorful, if only males together they will be less aggressive than if they are competing over females, and you won't have the population explosion that occurs when you have females (even if you only have females, they could be pregnant when you get them).

As for the bottom feeder, I don't know what he was looking at. Corydoras catfish stay small, but need to be in groups. 4 Male guppies and 6 small Corydoras would work out ok, but that would fully stock the tank. Make sure the tank is cycled, of course, and only add a few fish at a time. The good news is, guppies are considered very hardy fish. They would be good to get first.

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When you say younger it depends how young. Certainly the angles are not suitable reason being they adult size would be too big. Even in a bigger tank they would treat the fry as a snack between meals.

Once you help him set it up a few male guppies would be ideal as mentioned they are colourfull and easy to maintain. The other way to go would be one male guppie and two or three females. It would not be very long and he would be having fry all over the tank. Live plants would be best and inparticular a little bit of floating water sprite for the fry.
Bottom feeders I cannot think of any thing at the moment that would be suitable to go with guppies

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cory catfish would work in the 10 gallon, as long as you make sure that you dont over populate with other fish. cories go great with guppies. there is even an pygmy cory, here a link to some information on it. http://www.petresources.net/fish/catfish/cor_pyg.html

I wouldn't suggest corys in a 10 for two reasons.

1. The hardy corys will be too large for a 10 gallon tank, they're active and get to be a few inches long.

2. The smaller corys that might work in a 10 gallon tank I wouldnt suggest for a new keeper as they're usually more delicate and not as forgiving as many other fish.

Instead of corys some shrimp would be fun, ghost shrimp are usually sold as feeder shrimp but with a few guppies they should do alright. They're fun to watch since you can see food moving through their insides.

Snails are another option to fill up the bottom.

^_^

What about Oto's for the bottom?

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they get up to two inches long, and for a 10 gallon that may be too big, unless you only get one. they should be kept in small schools, probly 3 or 4. so if you get 4 oto cats that right there would make up the tank popluation, i would say go with the shrimp, i try and avoid snales unless you have one and only one. They breed just like the guppies.

I forgot to add that oto's are mid to top dwellers.

I would have to say your best bet is to go with the shrimp and or snales, there is plenty of variaty for both those options, but being as your brothers tank is a 10 gallon you have very limited choices. or you could go without a algae eater and just do the proper water changes and clean the tank probly once a week, depending on algae growth.

Corydoras are schooling fish & need to stay in a group of 6. So a 10 gal. tank is too small for most, if not all the Corydoras.

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Otos are considered bottom dwellers. They are much like miniature plecos and will always be sitting on something. They may sit farther up on the glass sometimes but they won't really swim around the middle and top of the tank. They would be a far better stocking idea than cories but otos are also fairly sensitive to water quality. The ghost shrimp might actually be better so long as the tank is cycled. Shrimp do not handle ammonia or nitrites well but beyond that ghost shrimp are pretty hardy as far as shrimp go. Add them last after the tank has been setup for more than a month. An applesnail would definitely be a good choice. They survive about anything including a cycling tank. They'll keep the bottom clean just as good as any other bottom feeders. Just make sure not to get the really large applesnails usually sold as gold inca or gold mystery. These guys literally do get the size of an apple and won't physically fit in a 10g. However the smaller brigs which come in a variety of colors(I like the blue and jade ones) only get about 2" in diamter.

I would suggest a school of small tetras with the shrimp. Shrimp really dont take up any space as far as inch per gallon rule. So you could have 8 Neons, cardials, Black neons, Glow Lights or Even possibly rasboras. Any of those small schooling fish would work.

Then like you could use ghost, red cherry or amano shrimp for the bottom. Add some small plants like Anubias Nana's or some Water sprite/Wysteria or Hornwort or Cabomba. Then the shrimp would have somewhere to go hide. HTH

Thanks for your input as always, Shane
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