Good tropical community fish?
by Aquaboy on Sunday, April 4th, 2010 | 5 Comments
Hello,
I have a 10 gallon tank and plan to get a heater soon, first off what kind of heater (brand name) would you suggest? Second, I would like some pretty, colorful, and compatible tropical fish that I can fit in my tank, I was thinking of Corycats, Neons, guppies, etc. I like the smaller fish so I can have a lot of them, someday I plan to get a bigger tank (29 gallon perhaps).
Thanks in advance, and please try to be nice. 
Thanks everyone. You’ve given some great answers, so I am thinking about this combo…
5 neon tetras
3 cory cats
A couple of guppies
I don’t think I have enough room but MAYBE a female betta.
Thoughts?
Advice?
Tips?
Thanks
Other articles you might like;
- Is These Pellets Healthy + More Qs-?
- Would This Hurt The Guppy Fry?
- 90g Reef Aquarium Setup Day 5
- Ideas On Fish For Freshwater Community Aquarium?
- Work Experience Melbourne 2011?
Some great community fish for this size tank would be your livebearers like guppies, swordtails and platties. As far as heaters go i personally like Aqua One and Weipro heaters and have never had a problem with them.
Just make sure whatever fish you add like the same type of pH etc so that you can watch healthy active fish.
You can even add a few corys in a tank with livebearers if you wish but it is best to have at least 4 corys
Good starter fish that are hardy: danios, tetras, mollies, platys, swordtails, guppies. Guppies, swordtails, mollies, and platys are fun because they have lots of babies (fry).
For groundswimmers: corydoras are a good choice. I think the albino corys are so cute! Plecs get VERY big and Chinese Algae-eaters get big AND aggressive, so avoid those.
Prepare your tank and have it running for a week or so before you introduce fish into it. You will need some biological starter. If you buy plants, rinse them in water to get off any snails. NEVER use soap on anything that goes into the fishtank.
I know it’s tempting to want lots of different fish at first, but you should not have more than 1 inch of fish per gallon of water, which means a good ratio would be: 3 albino corys, 3 livebearers (2 female: 1 male), and 4-5 neons or small danios.
I gave up on using heaters because they never seem to stay in place. Hardy fish seem to adjust to room temperature, which is usually about 67 to 79 degrees depending on the season.
Penguin filters are great for tropical tanks. Most heaters are made by the same manufacturer, so get one sufficient for the tank size, but not the cheapest. You don’t want to skimp on an electrical device that will be submerged in water!!
Here is my favorite 10 gallon tropical community tank stocking:
10-12 neon tetras
a single male betta or dwarf gourami
5-6 corydora cats
Favorite peaceful small fish
Endlers live bearers…….males only.
I have six that have been moved around 3 times and there buddies for life, entertaining active, easy to feed and help clean your tank (They love to pick micro algea off oramments) with a black background there colours are unreal and frankily can’t be beat for there size)
Panda cories
you can get away with 3-4 in that tank, they stay really small less than an inch and will parade around together there entire lives.
Ember Tetras 3-4
You buy them clear and in a couple months turn into shiny copper fish.
Rainbow thread fins. male/female pair.
he will flare his plumes for her when she passes.. extremily peaceful fish aswell with beatiful colours.
Single honey gourami
he will feel like king of the tank but won’t harm a soul but maybe a little big for that tank you if u want to add alot of smaller fishes
white and gold cloud minnows
beatiful fish but they do establish a pecking order sometimes (chase each other around the tank)but wow are they nice and stay small. buy them all together. never add some later.
Remeber 10 inches of fish total for a tank that small.
Fish to stay away from
Mollies, platies, sword tales, long finned zebra danois, barbs.
all aggressive eaters and poop machines who will foul your tiny tank in no time.
enjoy..i’m so excited
“Tetra” (brand name) Submersible Heaters have been good to me. A 50 Watt for a 10 gallon will do. Place it in the middle back panel of the tank, slightly slanted to one the side or horizonal. Fully submersible, so dont worry. Most are preset at 78 Degrees…so no worries there either.
I would go with about 5 Neon Tetra, about 3 Albino Cory Cats, and a Dwarf Gourami.
I know I will get a little flack for this, the whole 1 inch per 1 Gallon of tank, just add a bubble wand acoss the bottom of the back panel of your tank resting on the gravel with your filter.
I have heard a rule for neon tetra is 1/2 gallon per neon. So in this case with 5 at 2 1/2 gallons of space used, and 3 albino corys with another 3 gallons of space used, and the Dwarf Gourami who usually max at about 2.5 inches. You would fall within the right amount of fish.
Yesterday just added bigger tank but before then, I had 7 Black Light Tetra with 1 Dwarf Gourami and 1 Female Betta in a 10 gallon tank.
Also have had a 10 gallon tank with 5 Platy(3 female 2 males), 3 Loaches, and 1 Male Betta, with heater, filter, bubble wand, stump and about 5 medium plants for cover. Had them in there for 6 months with no problems with the 2 tanks…and all fish thrived and coexsisted with no problems.
The babies from the platties became many and I fished them out and placed them in another tank to grow and adopted them to others. If you dont care about the babies, some will survive regardless of the loaches, adult platties, and betta. So be prepared to upgrade if ya wanna keep them or have another tank for them to be by themselves.
Good Luck!