newbie with 10 gal tank

[CLEDAN]

I recently got a 10 gal tank from my brother. i am going to start cycling it this weekend. i wanted to know what kind of fish i can stock in the tank, i know not much. my girlfriend likes neon tetras, so we are pretty much getting a school of those. i guess my question is if we get a small school say 6ish, i have read they do well with that many, what else can i put in the tank with them? some fancy guppies? i dont really want a betta. i really want some cool colorful fish. we also kinda like ghost or amano shrimp. any suggestions are appreciated.

part 2? live plants? some easy to care for like java moss or java fern? any others that would do well without too much fussing? do you put em in while tank cycles or after before the fish?

[troy]

Crypts are also easy to care for. You can plants in as soon as you setup the tank if you want to. For fish you can have 6 neon tetras and 6 dwarf corydoras.

[W_Oz]

You might also look at Celestial Pearl Danios (which I guess have been renamed in some places to Red Galaxy Rasboras). Though in light of your current stocking choice, something of a bottom dweller would be a better choice (such as the Cory cats).

You can't go wrong with the Java Moss and Fern, really... ya just can't. Also might look into a Dwarf Val (unless you like pruning your plants then you can get just about any Val you wanted I suppose) which should stay a nice size for that tank. Just beware of things with reddish leaves, they'll need a lot of light to keep happy.

Then lastly, shrimp... wonderful little beasts. I'd recommend the Amano over the Ghost, though if you put Amanos in after you have Ghosts the Amanos can kill the Ghosts if the Amanos are big enough and vice versa so keeping one species is strongly recommended. I say the Amano because they'll be keeping your plants and anything else they can get to algae free. You'll need to have some sort of other critter to clean your glass though such as a Ramshorn Snail or similar.

Ghost shrimp won't really go after algae and will actually swim after food put in the tank for the fish... or at least mine do. Anyway, Ghosts are more of a scavenger/cleanup crew critter (and why I have them).

[FordForever]

I recommend one platy or molly, you can get them in a lot of different colors. I really like the dalmatian molly myself.

[W_Oz]

I forgot, your plants will likely want to be put in either at the same time or before your fish while you're doing your fishless cylce.

[CAllain]

If you just had 6 neons in there, you could also get a male dwarf gourami, or if you wanted guppies instead you could just go for a few males. With females there'd be a risk of too many fry overstocking the tank.

For plants, you could also try dwarf anubias, but if planting it be careful not to bury the rhizome, just put the roots under the substrate and nothing else. I have quite a few dwarf anubias planted like this growing quite well, but if the rhizome gets covered it will start to rot.

[NickFish]

I find corkscrew vals and wisteria to be great easy to care for plants as well.

[whitelavender]

Hi There,
I also have a 10G tank. I have 10 neon tetras, 1 dwarf gourami & 1 male guppies. They look great!!