[Valkyrie291]

hello!!
I have a 10 gallon tank with a single angelfish, a mm platy (the other 2 died) and a clown pleco. I was looking at possibly adding in rams, Corey doras, or something else. What would be my best course of action? I am in college so 10 gallons is all I have. Maybe 15 if I wanted to upgrade my tank

 

[Plinkploop]

Your angelfish alone will not be okay in the 10 gallon. How long have you had the tank set up? What are your water parameters? How did your platies die? I'd honestly try to rehome the angel before anything else. Is this your first tank ever?

 

[Ewest]

I was only ever "supposed to have" a 10 gallon in college as well. Luckily most dorm staff have no idea what a 10 gallon looks like and I got away with a 20 gallon no problem. Either way you will need to get rid of the angel as suggested, they get way to large and need closer to 40-50 gallons min. Assuming you dont wanna push your luck tho, and you wanna keep the 10-15 gallon: first if this is your first tank read up on the nitrogen cycle and how to cycle a tank.

Totally get always wanting more and/or bigger fish but really in a 10 gallon that is not much of an option. Instead I would focus on getting some really cool fish that are fun to watch despite being small. If you go to this website and enter your tank dimensions you can play around with stocking ideas and it will tell you if it would work in your tank size or not. Its not 100% so take it with a grain of salt (always be conservative and dont push it when your a beginner) but it is a good tool IMO:

https://aqadvisor.com/

Id suggest any of the following:

Option 1:
12x Celestial Pearl Danios
6x amano srimps
a handful of clithon snails

Option 2:
1 High End Male Beta (get it online they are gorgeous and blow the ones you see in the store away)
6x amano srimps
a handful of clithon snails

Option 3:
3-4x Dwarf Pea Puffers
6x amano srimps
a handful of clithon snails

 

[Plinkploop]

Option 1 would be my strongest suggestion as you wouldn't need to worry about a heater at all. Another simple option is 3-5 male endlers/ guppies (no females) and a couple nerite snails (I think they're the same as clithon). You can always throw a few amano shrimp in just about any tank (just make sure your water isn't too soft) and they do their thing, you're just going to want to let some algae and biofilm build up for them before you add. Rereading my last comment it comes acrossed as kinda mean and I apologize. Was just trying to get a feel for your understanding of the nitrogen cycle by asking questions.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Addendum to option 1: I'd get 8 cpds, and either 6 rosy loaches or 6 goldring danios (danio tinwini).

That being said, I get the feeling you're mostly looking at Petsmart fish. Nothing wrong with that, but you're not going to find half the fish we just listed at Petsmart of all places. Here's what I'd do (as a former college student who broke the rules):

Rehome that angelfish. Yes, it's pretty. But a 10 gallon simply isn't tall enough, not to mention large enough to maintain an angelfish long term. Most books would recommend a 29 gallon minimum tank for angels going forward...I agree that a 29 gallon tank would make a good fit for one angel. But only one angel. They really do get huge. A suitable alternative though, would be a dwarf gourami, or honey gourami.

After doing so, I really think you have two options: rehome the platy, or rehome the clown pleco. Platies, like most livebearers, do best in a hardwater aquarium (lots of minerals in the water). Plecos on the other hand, prefer softwater; clown plecos in particular need driftwood to chew on for a healthy diet, which can lower the pH of the water.

Option 1: rehome the platy) If you rehome the platy, you still have the clown pleco. You could keep the pleco (remember to give it driftwod!) along with rams OR corydoras catfish. Not both, there's just not enough space in a 10 to feel comfortable with 3 different species of non-nano fish in there. For the rams, you'd be better off either buying 1, or buyin a group (like, 4) and giving the remaining fish back after pairs form. For the Cory cats, just buy 6. You might be able to get away with a school of like, glowlight tetras (Hemigrammus erythrozonus, NOT the glofish), but only if you're really good at your water changes.

Option 2: Rehome the clown pleco) If you rehome the pleco, you still have the platy. Unlike with the clown pleco, there's not nearly enough fish that are suited for a 10 gallon that enjoy hard water and that you can find at petsmart. What you can do, is buy multiple varieties of platies, and have a tank of like 8 platies. That being said: only buy males (they have a gonopodium, which is a modified anal fin that looks like a "rod"). Platyfish are prolific, and unless you have a livebearer predator, you will be overrun. And you don't have space for a livebearer predator.

 

[Savetheplants]

They make a "ten tall" that's actually a fifteen. It has the same footprint as a ten. I think the Clown Pleco with Ram combination woud be awsome. However, my Bolivian Ram was a finicky eater. It refused dry food.

You're pushing the carrying capacity of your tank to the limit not that all of us haven't done that. Don't lose your filtration. In an emergency you can use a battery airpump to save your filter.