New fish, please help me decide :)

I had a beautiful betta, unfortunately he died a little while ago. Over time I've lost some shrimp and a catfish or two as well, so the population has dwindled to nearly nothing. The tank is looking very empty and I'm not sure what to do with it - I could use a little help!

Here's the setup:
10g tank
30W PC lighting (two 15W screw-in bulbs)
driftwood, java fern, java moss, Anubias
black gravel (1mm fine grade)

Inhabitants:
2 otocinclus catfish
4 Amano plant shrimp

I've got a few options in mind:

a) turn it into a fun 'tacky' tank with a pearlscale goldfish, a castle/statue and a bubble wall
b) add a dwarf gourami and a few neons/cardinals to the existing setup
c) add a few 'show' guppies and some panda corys to the existing setup
d) get another betta to replace the one I lost and add some kuhli loaches, corys or large snails
e) convert my last FW tank to marine
f) shut the tank down and concentrate on the other three

and I'm open to suggestions as well - that's why I'm posting! Feel free to offer up opinions

flyfly said:

But Blinky, why do you ask? You know you know nearly all the common 10g combos by now

Click to expand...

I could come up with seventeen thousand combos for this little tank... I'm asking because I genuinely can't decide. Part of me wants to add something I haven't tried before (like guppies), part of me wants to replace the betta with another betta, and then there's the other option of tearing the thing down and making a completely different setup (goldfish, marine) or shutting it down all together. Help!

A hospital tank? Now that's just no fun at all Seriously, I thought about it but most of the fish I keep would be miserable in a 10g - I really need to get a 20g to use as a QT/HT and even that's a bit small.

Yes, 10g is a little on the small side for goldfish but I was considering keeping a single pearlscale - we get them in around 1" at work. I don't want to start a goldfish debate here, but I work at a LFS and realistically most of these guys live lousy lives; an established 10g with nothing else in it wouldn't be half bad for a baby goldfish and there's nothing saying I can't upgrade in a year (I do have MTS afterall )

There's an old pic of the setup in my sig. link, the only thing that's changed is the plants have grown a bit.

Yo-yos aren't a bad idea but they get around 4" long and are too active for a 10g IMO - I had a small group in my 65g and they used every inch of that tank.

You guys have got me thinking though, thanks for the feedback. Anyone else who has ideas, feel free to keep 'em coming