How many/what type of fish for my 10 gallon aquarium?

D

Dark Lady

New member
I currently have 2 black neon tetras and 1 red serpae tetra. I did have 3 of each kind, but the other 3 didn't last very long unfortunately. I've had these 3 for approximately 4 years. The 3 of them school together. I know they're schooling fish and they should have more of their kind, but I'm not sure how many I can get and what other types of fish will go well with them. I've had them for so long now, that I'm not going to just get rid of them!
Anyway, I was wondering how many more fish I should/can get. I heard somewhere that there's a rule of 1 fish per gallon? So, could I get 3 more serpae tetras, 2 more neons and then get one bottom feeder and 1 algae eater that sticks to the glass? Would that be acceptable or is that too many?
 
If you want to stick with tetras, that'd be fine. :)
Make sure to NOT get a pleco or catfish as your bottom feeder/algae eater!

As for other tank mate species, tetras do well with:
-platies
-guppies
-mollies
-danios
Tropical fish like these.

The "basic rule" is 1 inch of fish per gallon. For tetras this is fine, but not for mollies or platies. These breeds excrete a vast amount of waste, so every inch of them should go with about 2 gallons of water.

A good school is 6 fish, so your tetras will be fine. I would stick to about 8 tetras in total with your other two cleaning fish, though. (If you have a good filter and do weekly partial water changes, you could get away with 10)
 
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