Phishies Inn

Well my 10 gallon is in need of a serious renovation. Right now there's one lone cory catfish and 2 neon tetra. The plants are however are not looking too good - I had a really bad outbreak of blue/green algae a while back, but even though it's gone now it ended up smothering a lot of them

Anyway, right now I have my 55 gallon as my "pretty display" tank, so I only wanted just a couple fish in my 10 gallon. I was thinking of moving my cory cat to the 55 gallon and maybe he'll have fun with the loaches, and then...I've always wanted a pleco A small one anyway.

Which species would you recommend that stays <= 5"? So far I've looked at clowns and the bristlenose...but I don't really want a bristlenose, not a big fan of the bristles! Heh...but clowns look cute. Does anyone know of any smaller species that have interesting patterns? I'm not really looking for an algae eater so you don't have to factor that into the equation :P

The tetra have to stay in the 10 gallon as I have angelfish in the 55 and they like to munch on neons :P But one small pleco and 2 neon tetra should be fine bio-load wise as long as I keep up on my water changes, and I do like 50% weekly simply because I have 5 gallon buckets, heh. And I'll of course get some driftwood for the pleco since they like to munch on it I hear. Any other recommendations for them?

Barbrella

I really suggest you get at least 3 more neons. Tetras are stressed when not in a school.

For the pleco, here's a huge list of species that stay under 5" so you should be able to find what you like!

Small plecos

Gargoyle

I have a couple of these... http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog...pecies_id=1275 In my 55... Very nice.

Barbrella

That little panaque is adorable. Wish I could find some around here.

COBettaCouple

Should you ever have another algae outbreak, I've found that cherry shrimp are super for cleaning algae off live plants without any damage to the plants.

Check www.planetcatfish.com for pics of all the plecos along with profiles to let you know which ones are dwarf plecos.

Phishies Inn

Aw the panaque are adorable! We don't have "special" plecos locally, just the good ol' common pleco, so I'll order one I guess. Never ordered fish online before but meh.

And wow, thanks for that list! I didn't realize planetcatfish.com had a search function like that

Oh and Brabella, do you think if I got a few more tetra they wouldn't push the bioload with a small pleco? I guess they wouldn't, neons don't get much bigger than in an inch, so 5 neon tetra and 1 tiny pleco should be okay.

Edit: Wow, this beauty is gorgeous http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/213788/product.web Apparently doesn't get much bigger than 4 or 5 inches either. Too bad they're out of stock - but who knows, whenever I finish changing up the tank maybe they'll have some!

Barbrella

I have a fully planted 10 gallon with 7 Blue-eyed dwarf rainbows and a 2" albino Sp.3 pleco (which I recommend for total algae elimination). So 5 or 6 Neons and one small pleco should work for you.

You just need to be very diligent with your water changes in such a small tank, since plecos are quite messy. I do a 30% WC plus vacuuming part of the gravel each week.