Suggestions?

I'm getting ready to re-establish an old 10 gallon tank. Over the years I've come to appreciate behaviors or appearance when it comes to fish. Now I'm unsure what to do with this itty bitty tank. I was thinking of doing a pair(trio?) of rams, but they're a bit finicky for my time restrictions. I can't have anything that is particularly sensitive in that size tank right now because I'm alone caring for all the kids and pets for 6 months out of the year. Not to mention the road trips we take every chance we get between deployments. So, needless to say it's not uncommon for the water to not get changed every week. Yes, I'll admit it. I generally set my tanks up to where they are very very low maintanence but it's still just too risky in that size tank. Anywho, any ideas for an interesting fish to keep in there? I was also thinking of a school of serpae tetras. I'm open to pretty much anything.

Have you thought of an invert tank like cherry red shrimp? Maybe with a couple of Endlers.

I will just keep it with some snails and plattys and also a couple of plants, thats how i have my little 10gl.. Good luck!!

I hadn't thought of inverts yet but I like the idea. My "feeder guppies" are actually Endler's, I believe. If I can get a pic I'll post it. They're tiny little things, males topping out at less than an inch and females just over an inch. The males appear to be solid gray from afar but when you look at them closer they have these amazing color "splashes" on their sides. Kind of like someone took watercolor paints and just splashed their sides. Predominant colors are orange and yellow with a bit of red and blue mixed in and almost all have at least one black dot in there. My camera phone is my only camera right now so I'm not sure if I'll be able to get a pic or how great it will be. Before realizing what they were I had a betta in their for population control but pulled him as soon as I saw they appeared to be Endler's. It was right in time too. I've got two males and two females left right now. I'm sure they'll come back quickly and I can always get a few more to replenish the population if I need to. Yes, I'll be quarantining them first. These are descendents from having bred them several years ago for a finicky lionfish.

As far as platies go, I hadn't really thought of them. I can see what's available here. For whatever reason we don't get very good stock around here and they tend to be pretty prone to disease. We also don't get much variation in stock. White, red, and occasionally blue either standard or mickey mouse. And the mickey mouse's very rarely have good markings. It's worth a look around though.

FishVixen, I've decided to start an Amano-style nano plant tank in my 5.5 gallon and stock it with the cherry shrimp. It's the tank with the Endler's in it so I'll have to move them to another tank for now while I over haul it. Do you happen to know how much light I'd have to run on there for glossostigma? I haven't had success with it before but I was using much deeper tanks that were much more heavily planted than I'm intending for this one to be. After that it'll be just trying to maintain CO2 balance in such a small tank. This will end up being an ongoing process but it should be nice by the time it's ready for shrimp. Still don't know what I'm doing with that 10 gallon. Someone told me to try a pair of kribs but it seems a bit small for that.

I like that idea jeep. I love my shrimps probley one of the tanks I watch the most b/c of all the activity. Keep us updated!

KMX wrote:

I like that idea jeep. I love my shrimps probley one of the tanks I watch the most b/c of all the activity. Keep us updated!

they are yummy!

KMX, I sure will! I can't wait to get started. That tank has been established for years so, while I'm sure overhauling it will reset it a bit, I'm going to try to keep as much of the bacterial balance in place as possible. I'm not anticipating more than a week for it to reach equilibrium again. Maybe a bit more because I'll be tinkering with trying to stabilize the pH a bit. It falls very rapidly. I think I may mix in just a few pieces of crushed coral or toss a bag with a bit in the filter just to help buffer it a little. Hopefully I don't skyrocket it but that's why the fish will be moved to a quarantine tank for a while. I'm weird about not cross contaminating my tanks.



Ewwww, Sal! Lol. I don't eat anything that lives in water. No idea why, just been this way since I was a kid.

I think they are pretty hardy so you will be fine with some crushed coral. I started with about 20 or so now I have so many I cant count them all. In the 100's

Is that shrimp or Endler's, KMX? Will the shrimp breed in there? That would be awesome because they are very hard to find around here and run $10-20 each when you do find them. That's the main reason I'm going with a tiny tank. Just easier to stock it. I'll always have the option of upgrading should I need to.

Dang for some Red chery shrimp? I need to move over to VA! LOL

Yeah They breed like rabbits.

Looks like you should! I just google'd the price for them and they run $5+/- online. Ugh. That's how it goes around here. That's why no one carries them often anymore, I'd bet. People have started discovering they're half(or even a quarter) the price online! Talk about a markup. I should open an LFS...

Yes a LFS! I've Seen CRS for $1 each on aquabid. Put up a wanted post here maybe someone will sell you some cheap. Lighting is really a hit or miss on anything 10 gal or smaller. I have a 100 watt CF screw in 6500K bulb in a clamp on construction fixture and in a west window that gets full sun (10 gal). Plants grow like crazy and have never had algae in the tank. Endlers will breed with guppies so you probably have hybrids.

I thought about seeing someone would part with some but I'm worried about shipping costs. I know that has to be an arm and a leg. I figure I have time to figure it out though since I don't want to add inverts until I'm sure the tank is stable. I'd hate to add them and then have the tank crash from me tinkering with plant foods and CO2 levels. I figure I'll wait till I'm pretty sure I've hit equilibrium with it.

They can use flat rate shipping in a small box that isn't to bad usually under $6 to ship shrimp

That's safe for the shrimp? I figured it'd be too stressful and they'd have to be shipped with special measures. I can only imagine how much they toss those boxes around.

I've had many shipped that way without injury.

There is a group of 20 coming up in the acution. Ship those for like 15-20$

There ya go! They my even hold them till the tank is ready. Just a thought. BTW shrimp love java moss.

A standard 1 bulb fixture with a plant bulb and some ambient or direct light from a window and you should be set.

Have you checked out aquabid for ideas for the 10 gal?