I have set up a 10 gallon tank about a month ago. Have been testing the water and I have gone through the cycles. I have had neon’s in the tank since the second week of setting it up. I had 3 and I lost one about a week ago to NTD. I do weekly water changes and I watch my levels closely. I’ve been talking to my local pet stores here and they talked me into buying 3 Dwarf Honey Sunset Gouramis. They are really small fish and they are very pretty.
Now what was Ideal for me was to only have 1 gourami and 3 balloon mollies and the neons and I really want some red cherry shrimp. Do the shrimp count towards my stocking count? (That may be a dumb question.)
Could I add the balloon mollies and some red cherry shrimp without overstocking my tank? I would really like both but if I was in danger of overstocking I would reconsider my purchases. Could someone help me out?
I already have the 3 gouramis and they are very small no larger than an inch. The two neons are fine together and i prob should get some more. I will prob. do 3 mollies but i just wanted to know if the shrimp would over load the biofilter or not.
You can add 20+ inch fish in there if you do frequent water changes!
And you must have a thorough filter and plenty of efficient bottom feeders like Corys and Ottos
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Try 5 Bullheads , you can eat them once you get tired of raisign them
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1 dwarf gourami,I think neons should be kept in schools of at least 5,and 3 mollies would be fine.Just don’t add all the fish at once as it will overwhelm the bio filter.As far as the shrimp go,unless there are a very large amount of them(50 or more),they will not count toward you final stocking.They do need a densely planted tank to hide and feed in however.So unless you have a lot of live plants,don’t bother with them.They will end up becoming fish food with out places to hide.
EDIT: 3 dwarf gourami are too many for a 10 gallon tank.When the grow and mature,they will become aggressive toward each other and fight.Only 1 is suitable for a 10 gallon.I would take 2 of them back to where you got them from and get more neons.Unless you have lots of live plants,getting shrimp would be a waste.They will either die,or be eaten with out plants.Like I said,unless you have a very large number of them,they do not count toward your stocking list.
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No, do not add anything more, you are already overstocked. A ten gallon tank can only house about 10 inches worth of fish. Thats not ten inches worth of fish NOW thats ten inches of FULLY GROWN fish- IE you estimate how big your fish will grow to become and go by THAT number. So:
-Dwarf gourami- grows to be 2-3 inches x 3 that you have = 6 to 9 inches
-neon tetra 1.25 inches x 2 that you have is = 2.5 inches
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Your current tank total is 8.5 to 11.5 inches total, or in other words, you are at maximum load, do not add anymore.
The inches rule is a good rule of thumb to go by because it’s not how much space you can physically fit the fish, its how much of a certain size fish can survive in a certain space because of the waste they produce. You COULD physically fit more fish in your tank without much of a problem (except that gourami’s get aggressive and its generally a bad idea to have more than one in a tank) BUT they would die very quickly because of the toxic waste buildup from their own excretions. Lots of water changes would not be good because it would ruin your biological filter and make the tank fluctuate badly (thus stressing and killing your fish) and small tanks like 10 gallons fluctuate badly enough without too soon water changes. Shrimp also are included in the fish inches to gallon calculation because, like all animals, they excrete waste, too. The 1 inch fish to 1 gallon rule tends to not count toward fish like goldfish (which are REALLY dirty fish and produce lots of waste, therefore needing a bigger tank, more than 1 inch fish per gallon, and unable to survive in a fishbowl without poisoning themselves.)
Don’t add any more fish.
Personal experience
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