Ten gallon stocking question

miniflea84

I've currently got 6 smallish tiger barbs in my ten gallon tank, but after being advised elsewhere on these boards I'm thinking about buying a larger tank and moving them there. I'd been planning on doing this eventually when they started to grow larger (despite this being my first ever fishtank I'm planning on them living a full and long life ) but I'd kind of like an excuse to buy a new tank sooner rather than later. I'm sure most of you can relate.

The question then becomes, what do I do with the ten gallon I've already got? I'd like to get a pair of angels, but I know I can't keep them with the tigers. I've talked to some people at my lfs who seem to be a whole lot more knowledgeable than people working at chain pet stores, and they say that two angels in a tell gallon would be just fine, but in my other thread here I've been advised against it. Perhaps a betta and one or two other carefully chosen fish? How large do bettas get? My local water is fairly hard with a pH in the high sevens, which tempts me into considering african cichlids, but I'm not sure I'm experienced enough at this point to care for them.

Alternativly, I could use it as a quarantine tank I suppose. Anyway, any thoughts would be welcome. Thanks!

akoblitz

Quarantie tank would be good.
I love dwarf puffers though, and you could put a few in there :)
I wouldn't go with cichilds in a 10 gallon IMHO, you'll run into many problems, same goes for the Angel.

iamntbatman

Angels get far too large for a 10g tank (10" tall and 8" long) so they're definitely not an option.

Dwarf puffers would be great - 3 of them would work perfectly. You'd need to have plenty of plants (real or fake) to break up their lines of sight and they need a diet of live foods like pond snails and live blackworms, but they're really cute and very interesting little fish.

There are some African cichlids that would work well in a 10g: the dwarf shelldwellers. Neolamprologus multifaciatus or Lamprologus ocellatus would work in a ten gallon tank and are very cool fish.

Male bettas can get up to three inches long, with females usually staying slightly smaller. In a 10g, you could house one with a school of 5 or 6 corydoras catfish or up to 10 or 12 pygmy corydoras.

miniflea84

Good news. I was browsing 30 gal tanks and my girlfriend actually suggested I buy a 55 (only $150 for a kit at walmart, woo) instead. I'll need to shuffle some furniture around and my tiny room will now be dominated by the thing, but I'm exited.

I was kind of iffy on puffers until I actually saw them. Cute little buggers. Do they go well with bettas? I may put that off for a while though, and use the ten gallon as a quarantine tank while I'm building up the population in the 55 gallons.

iamntbatman

Puffers don't go well with very much, least of all bettas. The puffers can be aggressive and are very prone to fin-nipping. If you keep a betta with puffers, you'll have a betta that's been liberated of his fins in no time flat.

miniflea84

Ah. Scratch that then. What DO puffers get along with?

Kim

I don't have any experience with them, but I have heard that they do best in a species only tank. Anyone else feel free to correct me if I am wrong however.

iamntbatman

Species only is always safest, but I've successfully kept mine with otocinclus, clown plecos and tiger barbs. The otos and pleco were too "under the radar" to be noticed, and the barbs are big, aggressive and fast and ignore the puffers because they basically have no visible finnage. It was a bit of an experiment, to be honest, but it worked out for me. I wouldn't guarantee success for someone who tried it themselves, though.