Your thoughts? Fish types for 10G

[sscf]

Yes, another one of those threads

Anywho, i've recently started up a tank for myself and son as some know already , and have introduced some Zebra Danios , and one female black molley.... But now i'm kind of in the train of thought as to what I want the overall outcome to be, and needing some help from those who know tropical species fairly well, I've researched some sites on types of fish , but most either provide picture, no details , or details but no picture... Links would help if you have a nice site....

Overall I'm trying to find a specific "type" of fish that is generally small, Active, plenty of colors/patterns to look for , especially schoolers... Is tetra going to be my best bet? I'd like to choose a species that have maybe a few rarer types that I can work towards... At the moment I only have a 10Gallon , but once the market stabilizes I'll be going up to a 50Gish when I have more room. Thanks for any and all help ahead of time...

Would also like to introduce maybe one "eel" type being into my tank that would do well with other fish, if anyone has suggestions, I remember my brother a long time ago having a red/orange striped worm looking thing in his tank, and I thought it was simply awesome, never seemed to bother other fish either, just kinda hid out and came out now and again.

Edit : I just noticed this site has amazing articles for fish types, one problem solved, still open to suggestions though :P

[Mvjnz]

The only eel type fish I can think of for a 10G would be kuhlii loaches. You'd need a group of at least 6, and lots of hiding places, as they are rather shy, but if kept in groups and provided with hiding places they usually come out and play.

If you don't want kuhliis, some pygmy cories or salt and pepper cories for the bottom would be good.

Tetras are good if you like that kind of fish, there's also some types of rasboras which are colourful and small, such as galaxy rasboras and harlequin rasboras.

But seeing as you already have a school of danios, the tank will look much tidier and better if you add more danios to that school, rather than adding another school in a rather small tank. Or you can get some more mollies which have similar colours to the one you already have.

[sscf]

Yeah, I'm thinking Danios may be the route, i'm just kinda sitting here watching them play around with each other atm, they seem to be very active for sure... Will differant types of danios actively school with each other?

Ugh yeah, I'm having second thoughts on buying a 10G , should have at least went for the 20G , but alas, it's for our "activity" room, and being so, it's already got 2 computers, t.v. and the kids toys in it, so not a whole lot of room to work with till we move next year.

Aye, I think Cories are the type that my wife likes, they help maintain the bottom of the tank aye?

[Lady Hobbs]

Did you cycle your tank? You need to be very careful stocking a small tank as the toxic levels can get very high in those small tanks and kill your fish.

Obviously, you need small fish and would be better off, IMO, to get several of one species with the corys and danios. Some type of tetra perhaps.

[Mvjnz]

With cories you need a fine sand substrate, as they like to dig around in it, and they are unable to do that with gravel, and if there are any sharp rocks it will hurt their barbels.

They do maintain the bottom to a certain extent - they'll eat leftover fish food and stir up the sand, but they also need their own food, and they don't eat any algae.

And what Lady Hobbs said about cycling.

[teach]

Im trying to do the same thing and I was looking at the lfs and saw some threadfin rainbows. You would have to get rid of the danios probably tho. But threadfins are really beautiful fish.

[Wild Turkey]

Im right with hobbs on this one. Corys + danios is a great combo full of overflowing cuteness. Just make sure you have sand or something else soft for the corys.

[Northernguy]

I think dwarf corys or an apple snail.Pepper corys get too large for a 10gal.

[Wild Turkey]

Good eye NG i didnt even see that, yea Peppered Corys get too big at like 3.5"+ but heres some that are okay:

Any dwarf type (there are 3 as far as i know)
Pandas
Skunks
Sterbai
Schwartz
there are others as well

[sscf]

Aye, I think i'm cycling my tank, since there are so many differant opinions on the web, and from my LFS, I kinda took what I thought was logical and am doing that.... I'm doing a 20% water change daily now for 4 days , have 3 Zebra danios , and my black molly.. Also Adding small ammounts of Biozyme once daily , keeping temp around 78 ... Don't plan on adding anymore fish for at least another week and a half after monitoring the current fish... Danios are doing great so far, actively swimming around the tank, I had a problem with my molly not swimming around at all the first 2 days, but now she is exploring her new home..

My parents are urging me to take the few fish from her tank, and any ornaments from it I want, would this help the cycle of my tank along? Theirs has been going strong for at least 10 years.