10 gallon tank stocking question

[LunchBox]

so once i get my 29 finished (several weeks away probably) I have been wanting to do a 10 gallon medium-heavy planted tank. was going to use a DIY CO2 system and see if I could get somewhere around 2 watts /gallon.

as far as critters I have been thinking of this:
2 dwarf gouramis
1 shrimp of some kind (cherry shrimp maybe?)

the question is am I planning on too many critters? it's been a long time since I tried a small (well smaller than a 29 anyway) tank and want to make sure I do it right

 

[hurricanejedi]

Heh I'm no expert but you would be fine with a couple dwarfs and you could have more than 1 shrimp (or did you mean one type?). Maybe you could do a little breeder tank of shrimp...that would be kind of cool... I don't think they have a huge bio-impact.

 

[VTwinFanatic]

that amount of fish in a 10gal would be fine, especially if youre going medium/heavy planted. I've got a 10 that is heavily planted right now and i spent about $20-$30 on lights...but that was because i didnt have an incadescnet hood. I put the "daylight" scew-in CF that Wal-Mart sells (Its not for fish so its okay to buy it from there) then a DIY CO2 system and I love it...I also have a 30 gal, but thats a different story. I'd go for about 3-4 wpg and then you can put any plant in there that you want in there. Ive grown everything from low light cabomba to dwarf hairgrass (that some have told me is almost impossible to grow). I would suggest though to get a few more than just one shrimp...id go with about 5-10 min for a 10gal planted tank....and if i were you i'd go with ghost shrimp, my Dwarf Gourami's used to eat them from time to time...and they are cheaper than cherry shrimp. GOOD LUCk and happy planting.

 

[LunchBox]

hmm interesting ideas I had thought of only 1 shrimp since I think the cherry shrimp get to be like 1.5" long and I didn't want to crowd the tank. I'll have to see how much tank the shrimp need and maybe I could do a couple dwarf gouramis and a small horde of shrimp

thanks for the input guys!

 

[hurricanejedi]

Shrimp do well in groups. I didn't know that about the dwarf gourami!! I hope I won't have any problems... I'll have to make sure he gets well fed.

 

[LunchBox]

haha yeah hopefully yours doens't go after the bamboos I also didn't realize how small the cherry shrimp were. I looked them up again and I tihnk I was thinking of a different one like an amano shrimp or something. but, if ghost shrip should get the job done and are cheaper then maybe that's the way to go (especially if the gouramis eat them)

 

[hurricanejedi]

I forgot that 2 of teh dwarfs might be territorial in a small tank. I've heard some people keep males together fine but they are usually larger tanks...not sure about a small tank. Its impossible to find females too.

 

[VTwinFanatic]

Well thats just my experiecnce. They seemed to wait until they molted then when they were soft they'd eat them, they thought that the darkness of night would conceal their activities...I watched them one night and saw their hunting techniques, but it could have been just a fluke fish. HURRICANE they should be fine with the bamboos...they are much larger than the ghost.

 

[LunchBox]

yeah I was thinkign I would get a male/female pair, and had read that their dorsal fins are different from one to the other, so I was hopign to do that. However, I was in the LFS yesterday during my lunchbreak and checked some out.... and I only saw like 1 that really looked definitely male, and the rest were all kind of ambiguous looking. well at least I have plenty of time before i get them so maybe the plan will change by then :joke:

I could go for a solitary non-dwarf one and see how that goes... maybe an opaline or something.

plus on the "eating shrimp" note, I just read that they need places to hide when they molt. perhaps they didn't know where to run when it was molting time and the gouramis hunted them down easily

 

[hurricanejedi]

^^Yah but I have cherries on the way...

^Females have practically no color. If they are colored blue or red or striped then they are males. You will be hard pressed to find females and usually people have to special order. Unless you are lucky enough to have a store that carries then... Now I don't think thats the case with the larger varieties of gouramis but I haven't researched them as much.