The Puffer Forum

Guys i have a 10g tank hanging out looking all sad and empty in my room with nothing in it. and I have no idea what to do with it. any suggestions I love weird awesome animated fish with personalitys unfortunaly I dont know what to put in there and all the ones i like require way above a little 10g. I thought about making it a SW nano but then I talked to some guys at a LFS and told me its alot of work and I should totally start off bigger and If i want fish in there it is very limited to what I could put it in there. SOOOOO here i am I know i can do a few DP's in here but what else is out there not in the puffer world since i know thats the only one i can keep in it any suggestions?

invert tank ... maybe a blue cray?

or a fishless reef tank?

I dunno I heard Reef tank in Nano's are way harder then just a FOWLR.

I just recently got some Vampire crabs, they are cool, don't need much space, don't need all water, mostly land with a little water dish maybe. I fed them an earthworm tonight and one jumped out from underneath the bogwood and attacked the worm!

Or, you could go with just little aquatic crabs, like red-claws. I have both red claws and a Matano, both are interesting. Crabs are more intelligent than people give them credit for. I love watching them eating and doing things.

I personally think 10-gallons is too small for a blue crayfish, they can get quite large with very long antennae.

Planted with dwarf shrimp and sparkling gourami.

http://www.theshrimpfarm.com
http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/gourami/sparkling.php

How can you deny two of these little guys a good home?



And a few otos or shrimp.

DO IT!

Cherry shrimp with rummy nose tetra

BC, I like the idea of crabs... but if you might be interested in breeding food - you could also do some marble crays. They clone themselves, so you would only need one to start. You could also go for an invert tank, get some pretty shrimp (maybe like a flower shrimp?) or start up a snail breeder?

Bettas can be quite beautiful, and fun to keep...

i keep shrimp tanks, so i vote shrimp.

red cherries are really easy to keep and reproduce quickly. i do not really recomend any fish with red cherries other that maybe otocinclus. pretty much any other fish will eat anything it can fit into its mouth. if they have small mouths they will eat the babies.

and if you are interested i sell red cherries too

What about a Tanganyikan biotype tank with a single pair of Neolamprologus brevis shell dwelling cichlids? A pair can breed in a 5g and they have personality in bags.

I need to do some reading around these - I'm interested in these myself because they have the 'quirk' factor! I've kept Malawi's before but not anything from Tanganyika. Sort of like mini Oscars. You can make the tank look a bit like a marine set up with the coral sand, shells and maybe fake coral or tufa rock...

Not as much personality as a puffer of course...

I'm actually debating on making a shell dweller tank out of the 10g. My boyfriend is fond of the cichlids, and I think that would be a great option for him! (and I wouldn't have to get rid of a tank probably!)

I normally walk straight past the 'rift valley' section of my lfs but there are all sorts there. Maybe I'll take a closer look because I have mature fw power filters available and two small tanks of 10g ish

Ironic, the sailfin/sphenops molly fry are in the Clarius cat's old 36 by 12 by 15 inch tank which would have been ideal for small Tanganyikans. Never mind, the baby mollies need the space to grow And every one goes in to see 'the baby fish'....

Now if I can just get 50 kilo's of salt (for setting up another marine tank)...

Roman soldiers used to be paid in salt and there's the bathroom ceiling to be painted. Partner is scared of heights so I was going to offer anyway, even if I'm rubbish at painting. I'll just make a joke of it...

High five to the shell dweller lovers out there! Those are such fun fish!!

Hi Adria,

do you keep shell dwellers? Any tips?

The small Indian mudskippers, the Everglades pigmy sunfish (2"), for you in the US or African killifish might be other options for oddballs in a 10g.

Again, this is an often asked question and I'm interested myself