Livestock for a 10 gallon

[New Fishy Boy 612]

Theoretically, if I had a 10 gallon tank, but didn’t put any clean up crew, such as snails, shrimp, urchins, etc., how many fish would i be able to fit. Most people say 2, but that’s WITH the clean up crew, so what if you took away that crew???

[A.m.P]

Cleanup crew doesn't count towards bioload. The number of fish depends on the type of fish.

This is useful, but a bit outdated and/or generous at times.

 

[michael_cb_125]

There are many factors that play into how many fish will work in a tank. As stated above your inverts add negligible amounts of bio-load, and should not really be considered.

 

As for a ten gallon tank, you could easily house several tiny gobies.

 

I had a 7 gallon cube dedicated to Trimma cana. They did phenomenal in that little tank, and I had 8 of them. That said the tank was very mature and as stable as you could ask for.....

[New Fishy Boy 612]

2 hours ago, michael_cb_125 said:

There are many factors that play into how many fish will work in a tank. As stated above your inverts add negligible amounts of bio-load, and should not really be considered.

 

As for a ten gallon tank, you could easily house several tiny gobies.

 

I had a 7 gallon cube dedicated to Trimma cana. They did phenomenal in that little tank, and I had 8 of them. That said the tank was very mature and as stable as you could ask for.....

So do you think i could possibly fit 3 or 4 in a 10 gallon. I’m planning on small fish, like a royal gramma, watchmen goby, or a tail spot blenny.

[A.m.P]

59 minutes ago, New Fishy Boy 612 said:

So do you think i could possibly fit 3 or 4 in a 10 gallon. I’m planning on small fish, like a royal gramma, watchmen goby, or a tail spot blenny.

10 is too small for a gramma unless it's basically by itself. A watchman gets pretty big and you'd need to keep up with waterchanges (it would be best to pair it with a shrimp and leave it at that imo), tail spots have great personalities and one would be *okay* in a 10 gallon provided you see it eating at the LFS beforehand.

You could try a pair of barnacle blennies, but they might fight each other, trimma gobies can have more in terms of number, but there aren't really any saltwater equivalents to neon tetras or "community fish", everything is -or can be- quite aggressive and otherwise tends to get large.

My advice is; with all these fish you should be researching everything you possibly can beforehand.

[New Fishy Boy 612]

2 minutes ago, A.m.P said:

10 is too small for a gramma unless it's basically by itself. A watchman gets pretty big and you'd need to keep up with waterchanges -it would be best to pair it with a shrimp and leave it at thatimo-, tail spots have great personalities and one would be *okay* in a 10 gallon provided you see it eating at the LFS beforehand.

You could try a pair of barnacle blennies, but they might fight each other, trimma gobies can have more in terms of number, but there aren't really any saltwater equivalents to neon tetras or "community fish", everything is -or can be- quite aggressive and otherwise tends to get large.

My advice is; with all these fish you should be researching everything you possibly can beforehand.

Could i do a yellow watchman goby and a tailspot blenny?

[A.m.P]

21 minutes ago, New Fishy Boy 612 said:

Could i do a yellow watchman goby and a tailspot blenny?

That would probably be better suited to a 20, as they both occupy the same space in the water column and there may be aggression, ideally a watchman shouldn't be in much smaller than a 20 itself.

[rough eye]

how to add fish to a tank (according to me):

add one fish. 
wait a few weeks for it to become accustomed to its new environment.
decide if the tank is too busy or crowded.
if not too crowded yet you could add another (well researched) fish.

follow this and you will hopefully know what the tank can support. 

[New Fishy Boy 612]

33 minutes ago, rough eye said:

how to add fish to a tank (according to me):

add one fish. 
wait a few weeks for it to become accustomed to its new environment.
decide if the tank is too busy or crowded.
if not too crowded yet you could add another (well researched) fish.

follow this and you will hopefully know what the tank can support. 

Thanks, I’m thinking of starting off with the tailspot blenny. Do you think that’s a good fish, or do you think otherwise. I’ve studied a lot on the blennys

[blasterman]

A watchman will be fine in a 10. They like a lot rockwork to hide in.

 

I've found with having many 10gal tanks a single small damsel is enough to keep nitrate well above 10 even with conservative feedings. Im also not a fan of clean up crews unless they are solving a specific problem. Xenia and other easy soft corals are a better investment because they eat nitrate. That guy on youtube with about a dozen nano tanks full of soft coral is worth watching. Im not into softies anymore, but he shows how to set up simple nanos that anybody would be proud to have.

[New Fishy Boy 612]

34 minutes ago, blasterman said:

A watchman will be fine in a 10. They like a lot rockwork to hide in.

 

I've found with having many 10gal tanks a single small damsel is enough to keep nitrate well above 10 even with conservative feedings. Im also not a fan of clean up crews unless they are solving a specific problem. Xenia and other easy soft corals are a better investment because they eat nitrate. That guy on youtube with about a dozen nano tanks full of soft coral is worth watching. Im not into softies anymore, but he shows how to set up simple nanos that anybody would be proud to have.

Who is “that guy”???

[rough eye]

9 hours ago, New Fishy Boy 612 said:

Thanks, I’m thinking of starting off with the tailspot blenny. Do you think that’s a good fish, or do you think otherwise. I’ve studied a lot on the blennys

i think that's a good fish. but they like algae to munch on. they will eat an all carnivorous diet but i don't think that's very good for their digestive system. so if you don't have algae y the time your tank is cycled, let them have a piece of nori tied to a small rock to munch in addition to whatever fish food you give them, and that fish food should most likely be frozen rather than flakes or pellets.

[New Fishy Boy 612]

2 hours ago, rough eye said:

i think that's a good fish. but they like algae to munch on. they will eat an all carnivorous diet but i don't think that's very good for their digestive system. so if you don't have algae y the time your tank is cycled, let them have a piece of nori tied to a small rock to munch in addition to whatever fish food you give them, and that fish food should most likely be frozen rather than flakes or pellets.

Yeah, I’m thinking of making some sort of clip that goes on the bottom or side of the tank so i can put nori there. Nori is my van snack so it won’t cost me much! Thnx for the advise!

[1st reef]

23 hours ago, michael_cb_125 said:

There are many factors that play into how many fish will work in a tank. As stated above your inverts add negligible amounts of bio-load, and should not really be considered.

 

As for a ten gallon tank, you could easily house several tiny gobies.

 

I had a 7 gallon cube dedicated to Trimma cana. They did phenomenal in that little tank, and I had 8 of them. That said the tank was very mature and as stable as you could ask for.....

How long does a pico/nano tank have to run for it to be "mature"? 

[rough eye]

50 minutes ago, 1st reef said:

How long does a pico/nano tank have to run for it to be "mature"? 

2 years. maybe a little less.

[Tamberav]

On 10/17/2021 at 2:40 PM, New Fishy Boy 612 said:

Theoretically, if I had a 10 gallon tank, but didn’t put any clean up crew, such as snails, shrimp, urchins, etc., how many fish would i be able to fit. Most people say 2, but that’s WITH the clean up crew, so what if you took away that crew???

Territory is more important than bioload. Even peaceful fish will stress and fight if they don't have their own space. There really isn't much of a community tank in saltwater side. 

 

Besides, algae would become more of a problem without CUC. 

[banasophia]

I recommend this book for anyone keeping nano-tanks. It has great descriptions and tank stocking ideas for different sized tanks. 

 

[Xj reefing]

10 hours ago, Tamberav said:

Territory is more important than bioload. Even peaceful fish will stress and fight if they don't have their own space. There really isn't much of a community tank in saltwater side. 

 

Besides, algae would become more of a problem without CUC. 

In my old 20 gallon I had 1 bi colour blenny 2 clowns and a purple fire fish. The female clown ended up mauling the fire fish to the point where it just got sucked to the intake. I don’t know why the clown did what it did but Definitely agree with @Tamberav that territorie is really important for saltwater as I now have a 55 gallon display tank and I have pretty much no aggression from the female clown with other fish. She actually breaks it up

[Utahpico]

I have a bi color dotty back, and two tiny paired clowns in my 11g and things are going great! I also do 50%water changes weekly and have a 45g tank for when they get bigger. Can always trade in fish and get new ones or a backup system is a must for me. 

[trevor1189]

I had a 9.6 gallon aquamaxx tank previously that housed 2 small clowns and watchman goby. It was no problem, did a 10 percent water change once a week, but I didn't add the watchman goby until a few months in to be sure. I wouldn't add anymore than that personally, give the dudes some space (although the watchman goby I had pretty much hid in the rocks his whole life and was anti-social.)

 

I'm actually planning on doing this same stock list again in my new 15 gallon I'm setting up because I like the clowns and can relate to the watchman goby's personality (plus I find their faces hilarious).

[Kindanewtothis]

I have a YWG paired with a pistol shrimp in a 10g, really enjoying these two. There is also a neon goby in the tank. They all go well together.