Stocking a 10g tank

First off, I am sorry if this is in the wrong section of your forums. I am new and only have one thread about my tanks.

Hello, I have a 10g aquarium that will be done cycling in a couple weeks if all goes well. I am gong to move my two fancy guppies and 3 neon tetras over to this tank so the betta can have the 5g for himself. While talking to a guy at a local petstore below, I have decided to up the neons to 6. He also suggested 1 or 2 of some sort of shrimp for the bottom after the tank has been running for a couple months. I asked about small catfish and he suggested cories specifically the panda cories. I have read that these do not do well with a gravel tank and they like sand more. They seemed fine at the store with gravel but I dont know any signs. I have gravel in my tank and I dont want to get a fish that will get hurt or not like the gravel.

http://www.birdsandbeastspetshop.com/44953/index.html

Ok, interesting on corries. hasbrosus cories look cool. But would 4 of them and 6 neons, and 2 guppies all be comfortable in a 10g tank? That is a total of 12 fish. I dont know much about stocking so that is the point of this thread. Open to any suggestions. The pet store guy said they have different types of corries spread through half of their tanks so they probably have these.

What are ottos? I dont know about the gravel, it looks to be much more rounded than what I have in the hex 5 but it does look like a small percentage of them look a little sharp. I can go and move sharper pieces. It will be tedious but probably worth it.

I looked up the ottos, but most of what I found look like those things that cling to the side of the tank and clean it. Cool but boring, the point of wanting a catfish is to look cool and be active (although most are nocturnal most people wont look at the tank until later at night anyway)