10 gallon almost cycled, need stocking help

Mating Slinkys

In my small tank I've got a small school of Pygmy Corys and a couple of Dwarf African Frogs, which go nicely together. The frogs are a bit unusual and the corys are really active and fun to watch. Just like regular ones but tiny! Just a thought.

abcdefghi

Those are exactly the kind I had been looking at, I think I found 3 diff species that are about that size.

Correct, I realize most fry would probably not survive. But I don't want to take the chance that some would and lead me to an overstocking problem.

At the moment I am thinking:
7 x glowlight tetras
2 x pygmy (or) albino cory
1 x Dwarf Gourami

I have read a few times that cory cats are schooling fish, will 2 of them be happy? or could I possibly stretch to 3? And are there any issues of the gourami and the tetras going together? (one compatability chart I looked at listed caution).

Just waiting on my nitrite and ammonia to fall now.

fish_4_all

Well in my "planted" tank I have 16 neon tetras and 1 albino Glow lite tetra so by the inch/gallon rule it massively overstocked but for this tank, the plants keep everything down and normal and I have not lost a single tetra in more than 6 months. I even just recently added 2 skunk botia loaches to eat the snails and have not had any problems with anything. Now this I a heavily planted tank so I wouldn't recommend it without plants.

That being said, I have seen many times that neons, glow lites and other small schooling fish can be kept in groups of 10-15 in a 10 gallon tank with little worries of the fish stressing or parameters going wacky. This is where the one inch rule kinda fails. But remember that any true bottom feeder, especially plecos are huge waste producers and the rule should be 1 inch per 2 gallons for them.

For a new tank I would stick with 5-8 of a schooling species and then 3-4 otos. The otos are really active if they are with smaller fish and the tetras always have some character especially if you mix compatable ones. The albino I have sets of the neon group really well and adds atouch of mystic to the tank. If everything goes well with the lower numbers you could bump up the number a little to get more action form them.

NeonJulie

I think most profiles are of the opinion that cory fish are schoolers and should be kept in groups of 5-6.

Otos seem to prefer companionship, but do great in a smaller number of usually 3. (When I had 2, they didn't come out much especially during the day, but when I put back my 3rd, all three of them are always out now, even during the day.)

mHeinitz57

I noticed that you said you got a 10 gallon kit from petsmart. The Hang on back filter that comes in those is the Topfin 10 gallon filter. It is much like the whisper filter but without the extra sponge for bacterial growth. There lies the downfall. While you have been doing your fishless cycling, bacteria has been growing on the white filter cartridge in the filter. Some bacteria will reside in the gravel and in the water but the majority of it colonizes in the filter where there is an abundance of water flow and oxygen. That means then that when you go to change your filter cartridge, you will throw away all of that beneficial bacteria that you worked so hard to build. When you change the cartridge, the best thing to do is actually to cut the foam off of the old one (or take out the plastic skeleton of it) and place it behind the new filter. This will let the bacteria from the old filter transfer to the new, cleaner filter. It's kind of a pain in the butt though so you may consider getting a new filter in the near future.

As far as stocking the tank, get an idea of all of the fish you will want in there once it is fully stocked. Then start off with the strongest and least aggressive fish you can get. Putting aggressive fish in last makes sure that they do not establish total dominance of the tank. Corydoras catfish are great and a pair of them will do an awesome job of cleaning excess food off the gravel. Gourami's are a great colorful addition but can sometimes be aggressive, though i have had good luck with them. Fuller bodied fish are great to look at too but keep in mind, the fuller the body, the higher the matabolism and the more waste output they have. Thats why Goldfish (very full bodied fish) are so messy