Fish people! :) I need help

[MonkeyZero]

So, I have an old ten gallon running with 2 guppies and a turtle(yeah, dont ask).
I sold all of my guppies and have only these two left, and i plan on giving them to a friend(breeding guppies became a larger responsibility, so I decied to give them someone who has time on their hands.
The turtle will be moved to a pond shortly after all this rain stops
Which means, I will have a fully cycled tank on my hands, with nothing inside.

So, I plan on going back to the basics. Neon tetras.

However, I have a new questions

I plan on adding in 7-8 neons to this tank.

What else can I keep in this tank(besides other fish)? I plan on adding some live plants. Would ghost shrimp be fine without being eaten?
I guess, you can say, i want all the things living in this tank to be of smaller size).

ANd can I mix shrimp breeds, if i do shrimp?


Thanks

 

[featherbaby]

Other small tetras like red serpae will be fine with neons. Also zebra danios, dwarf gouramis, rosy barbs, chinese algae eaters, catfish scavengers, weather loaches, kuhli loaches, I have found that live plants are a lot of trouble and pollute the tank quickly. It makes the Ph hard to control and takes a lot of light to grow properly. When you have that amount of light then you get an algae problem. I use plastic realistic looking plants and have great water quality. Fish benefit the plants WAY more than plants benefit the fish. I am too busy to do a lot of maintenance so I recommend an undergravel filter with powerheads on the lift tubes. Outside hanging filters are good if you keep them changed and running well. Rule number one with me is don't overfeed. Hope this helps

 

[bagendhens]

ive never had luck with neons and cardinals, they are not captive bred and because of that tend to be incredibly stressy and delicate little fish by the time they get to the home aquarium...

do NOT mix neons with serpeas, serpeas are well known as fin nippers and tend to be too agressive for neons, and chinese algea eaters can also become incredibly agressive with maturity...

you might want to look into black neons and glowlights if you like the small flashy brightl colored tetras, there not as delicate as neons and cardinals (i LOVE neons and cardinals, but unless your params are perfect, there just very delicate)
i would also suggest adding a small group of corydora and/or ottos corydora are a great bottom dwelling tiny clean up crew, playfull but wont bother your other fish, they like to be in larger groups though so minimum would be 3, and 5 would be better.
ottos are one of THE best algea clean up crews ever, they will eat the kinds of algea most other "algea eaters" wont touch, and they continue to consume algea through their lives, small peacefull and wont bother the other fish (and cute too lol)
shrimp SHOULD be fine with the smaller tetras, the tetra might eat any babies the shrimp produce, but generally should be fine...ive never personally had any of the shrimp, but ive a couple of friends that have kept them very sicessfully.
snails might be another option, but they can breed like crazy...good for algea control though.

given your looking into the smaller tetra you might want to look into adding 1 slightly larger fish, a dwarf gourami would be a nice choice for a 10 gal (only one, there related to betta and need about 10 gals of teritory per gourami) beautiful, generally peacefull with none agressive smaller fish. adding a larger CALM fish will help your tetra feel more relazed and youll see them more.

i personally prefer going fake with the plants, simply because of the types of fish ive kept, id LOVE to do a planted tank one day, but the cichlids would destroy it with digging and the pond fish just eat them lol.
live plants if properly taken care of will NOT foul your water or mess with your ph, infact they work well to keep parameters stable...again in the right set up.
plants tend to need a higher powered full spectrum light to thrive, and even going as far as adding a CO2 pump...
when they thrive they require frequent aquascaping, much like tending bonsai plants...if they start to die however they need to be removed because a deteriorating plant will mess with your water just as leaving a dead fish in there would...decaying matter of any kind isnt good.
so plants would realy depend on what kind of upkeep your planning on doing.
"caves" are always good, untreated teracotta pots and NEW clean untreated PVC pipe make good caves, i personally like terracotta, go to your local craft or garden center and ask the manager if they give a discount for the pots with chipps and cracks ect, i got 8 terracotta pots for my cichlid tank for $1.00 total at joanns because they had cracks in them lol.
i prefer terracotta because they are pourous and will support some algea growth which is great for fish that "graze" (ottos, shrimp, snails ect), i also like the look of the plain red terracotta in the tank compared to pvc.

i think some of the nicest tanks are Natural tanks, pick a focus fish and then base your tank to match that fishs natural envoronment...if you want neons (or most of the tetra) they are amazon river fish, so do some reserch into natural companions, plants in the area ect.

NEVER mix small tetra, particularly neons with angels...the angel fish's natural diet is the neon tetra LOL!

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Some people don't put any fish in shrimp tanks, but I've been sucessful with neons, otos and cories. I also have mystery snails in mine. It's a 46 gallon, I think, so I have a lot of room in mine. You wouldn't be able to pack all of those into a ten gallon at the same time. I have a piece of driftwood that has hiding places and lots of live plants. I put a sponge block from an Aquaclear power filter over the intake for my canister filter, to keep the shrimp from being sucked up.

Shrimp don't put much of a bio load on a tank, compared to fish or large snails. They'll eat algae on live plant leaves, as well as scavenging. I also drop various sinking foods for the snails and shrimps at bedtime. I have cherry shrimp at the moment. They are easy keepers, like ghost shrimp, but the females are very colorful, which I love. They are much easier to find and cheaper than they used to be. Mine breed well for me. I would be happy with a little planted tank that only had cherry shrimp and a gold mystery snail in it, too. They are that cool to watch, for me.

Another thing I like is a beautifully planted ten gallon with a single betta in it. They really are gorgeous. Or maybe a single betta and a few of the really small species of cories, if he's okay with that arrangement. The best choice is always something that works for you and your set-up, that you really like.

 

[Mak]

As far as plants go, it depends on the plant. Some are really fussy- high light, CO2 and all that. Some are fine with whatever. I currently have my 10 gallon tank on the bottom of my 75 gallon stand, with no light on, no heater and a small HOT filter running. The cryptocorynes and Java fern in there are doing quite well. Not growing quickly, but growing. No algae issues at all. And I could pop a few fish in there anytime and not worry about cycling the tank. The plants take care of that.

In my experience, plastic plants are worse. They don't use up any of the nutrients that can cause algae to grow and just give it a surface to cling to. I was always pulling them out and cleaning them off before I added real plants. The most important thing to control algae is not to overcrowd the tank, don't overfeed and do regular water changes. And that goes whether you have live or fake plants.

In a 10 gallon with 7 or 8 neons (and I agree with the poster who said they are delicate and stressy and often don't do well. Same actually goes for otos- they are all wild caught as well and tend to come into the store half starved. Can be hard to keep as well unless you have a good algae cover. They don't take to algae tabs well for the most part.), I'd add maybe a couple small corydoras for bottom clean up, and one or two other small fish.

 

[tazcat70]

Lots of good options on here. I have live plants in all my tanks and I love it. Also with live plants you can get away with having a few more fish than the "rules" state because they take care of the waste.

 

[patandchickens]

Neon tetras in pet/fish stores have been almost entirely captive-bred for decades and decades and decades, in ponds, used to be in FLorida but these days I believe most are shipped from Asia as with much of the aquarium trade. Wild caught may be available sometimes, but they are not MOST of what you're seeing.

I don't know about cardinals, a quick google suggests that what's in pet/fish stores is a mixture of wild and captive bred ones with the captive breds being usually more expensive and with more 'mint-condition' fins.

I've not usually had much trouble with neons -- BUT note that I am extremely picky about what stores I will buy from, and what tanks and lots of fish I will buy from.

They do well with anything else small-mouthed, calm and not chase-y -- kuhli loaches and corydoras catfish, any of the small *calm* tetras, a *calm* pair of dwarf gouramis, that sort of thing. A well-vegetated tank helps a lot .

The plain-vanilla glass shrimp you see everywhere in pet/fish stores are pretty easy to keep alive for at least a few months BUT many were raised in brackish-water ponds and don't do well longterm in fresh water, so while I've had them live for 18 months I'd say that's the exception. Also they can have various parasitic problems when you buy them, which can shorten their lifespan. They are quite cute though, and with a well-planted non-nippy-fish tank they are quite decorative. The fancier colored shrimps are trickier by reputation but I have no personal experience with them.

For plants, the main thing is "how much light is your tank going to get". If it will have only a normal 1-light fish-type hood, I would suggest sticking with Anubias or the small cheap Cryptocorynes (unreliable though) or java fern or java moss, period. If you will put on a plant hood with higher intensity lights, you can keep more things alive and growing, BUT do your research well first, a lot of the things sold as aquarium plants are not even aquatic plants to begin with (they can just survive underwater for a while in the right conditions) and even of the true aquatics some have insanely high light or stringent water-quality requirements.

Also if you are going to have live plants remember they are more work, as you must remove any dying-back material promptly before it starts to mess up your water chemistry.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[babyblue]

Quote:

best way to get a betta to accept corys better is to have the corys first, give them time to settle in and then add the betta, so they are already a part of his territory. pending on the betta though he may still get nasty, but adding the betta first and then the corys is a recipe for disaster, because he will not like the new things invading his space.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

That's really good advice.

 

[Akane]

zebra danios-way too active for that size tank, dwarf gouramis-would work, rosy barbs-too nippy for the neons and not enough space for 2 schools in a 10gallon, chinese algae eaters-get huge and aggressive when they get older, catfish scavengers-might be too much for the tank since they prefer schools of 5-6, weather loaches-way too active and big for a 10gallon, kuhli loaches-would work fine,

A single small gourami or betta could be added. Aside from kuhlis as bottom feeders very small plecos like bushynose, golden, etc... could also be added but do not add standard plecos/algae eaters because they will get way too big. Shrimp would be fine with most schooling fish like neons and bottom feeders except for larger loaches, which don't fit anyway. If you really want the shrimp don't add a gourami or betta though. They sometimes will eat shrimp. You can mix most shrimp species just fine. I've had wood, rainbow, and ghost shrimp all in one tank. When buying ghost shrimp make sure the shrimp are active and some in the tank should be carrying green eggs cause really these things breed like rabbits if you can get the young to survive. If none have eggs and they are not very active you are probably looking at saltwater ghost shrimp instead. Most stores don't know there is a difference and the distributors don't say anything.​