10 gallon recomendations

jiffy

jiffy

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#1
Feb 29, 2004
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Hey everyone - so after a long long long fight with the fishless cycle in my 10 gallon, I am almost finished. I am going to go with 1 dwarf gourami, 5 or 6 neon tetras, and some kind of bottom feeder.

I have fake plants, so I think ottos are out. What type of fish and how many of them would you recomend? I have heard dwarf pygmy cories are good.
 

J

JWright

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#2
Oct 22, 2002
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#2
Wow...sounds lmost exactly like the 10 I'm setting up in my room right now...insta-cycled it with media from my display tank and I'll be stocking it on Wednesday... Planning on a Dwarf Gourami, half a dozen neons, and several otos. Fake plants are no problem for oto, you'll have to feed them algae tablets anyway.

~JW

(We're both talking about slightly overstocked tanks here...so I'll promise to be extra-diligent with my water changes if you promise to be with yours ;) )
 

Angelfish

Angelfish

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#3
Apr 14, 2003
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I too have a simmilar set-up in one of my 10 gal.s Its full of fake plants and the two ottos have been doing great for all the months Ive had them (roughly 5 - 6). I fed them algae wafers for a while but they never ate them (the dwarf gourami ate them instead ;)). Ive seen the ottos eat flakes a few times.
Anyway the point of this post was to display how ottos are fine in non-planted tanks :)
 

jiffy

jiffy

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#5
Feb 29, 2004
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JW - extra dilligent I will be. After all the time I have spent trying to get my tank to cycle (2 months) I plan on taking very good care of it. I have heard the ottos like to be in groups of 3, so that is probably what I will need to get.

angelfish - I have heard about ottos not always eating the alge discs. Do you only give your tank the flakes, and let the ottos go off of that?
 

FroggyFox

FroggyFox

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#6
May 16, 2003
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#6
Ottos are awesome...and I have no live plants. I've never seen mine eat algae wafers...but they sure love cucumber and brown algae!

Mine also did fine by themselves in tanks...but now I have them back together in the 10G and they're happy campers.

(ps. dont look at my 10 as far as stocking levels go hehe its a lil over the top until I get the 15 set back up)
 

Leopardess

Leopardess

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#7
May 3, 2003
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pygmy cories actually like to be in groups a bit larger than 3's. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that they're smaller and feel a greater need for "protection." 4 would be better, but I wouldn't get less than 5, personally - which is heavily stocking the tank, but with no otos and good maintenance you can do it. One of my 10gs has a betta, 9 pygmy cories, 2 adfs (will have 4 again) and 6 ghost shrimp...granted it is heavily planted...
 

Angelfish

Angelfish

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#8
Apr 14, 2003
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#8
Originally posted by jiffy
angelfish - I have heard about ottos not always eating the alge discs. Do you only give your tank the flakes, and let the ottos go off of that?
Click to expand...
Pritty much. I used to put algae wafers in each day, but would always end up taking them out a few hours later because the ottos wouldnt touch them (any bits nibbled off were from the dwarf gourami). So for a while I didnt put any algae wafers in and the ottos were fine - I even saw them nibbling on flakes a couple of times. Now at night I still drop an algae wafer in but thats more for my rubber-lipped pleco, Im pritty sure the ottos dont touch it.
 

jiffy

jiffy

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#11
Feb 29, 2004
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Thanks for the tips everyone. Looks like its going to be Ottos :) I will probably go with 3 which would bring my 10g to the following:

1 Dwarf Gourami
5 - 6 Neon Tetras
3 Ottos

This should make for a nice interesting community tank.
 

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