livestock for 10 gallon

IMO a 10 gallon is too small for a Mandarin. They need tons of rock to hunt and even with a fuge it would most likely not be enough pods. I recently had one I lost to Ich, it cleaned up my pods in about 3 days and wasnt finding any food. Would not eat live brine so I had to start supplementing with bottles of pods from the LFS. EXPENSIVE for just 1 fish. About 2 weeks after it died my pods where back. This was in a 75 gallon with 30 gallon sump and roughly 90lbs of LR. I dont think I will try one again.

 

if i did a 10 gallon i would do a shrimp and goby pair..just me tho..ten gallons isnt much to work with..gotta keep a real small bioload for long term..

and then cram it with coral..lol

 

I wwould thinl a scooter would work better i nthe long run mine lived for 8-9 months before ny tank fried due to a heater malfunction and it ate brine shrimp, flakes, as well as pods.

 

Do NOT put a Mandarin in a 10 gal. under any circumstances.

 

if the mandarin is eating freeze dried food i dont see a problem because it wont be relying much on the live rock and pods to feed it, the catch is to find one that does. i had one in my 16 gallon that ate cyclops that survived 2 years but then it got eaten by my carpet anemone, should have known

 

well the mandarin discouragement is just nice; thank you! XD it was mainly for future reference... but anyway im going with the purple firefish, yellow clown goby, and neon goby with a blood shrimp for now

 

i say get 2 shrimp a bottom dweller and an open swimmer. say a goby/blenny and a cardinal or a damsel or some sort. then they wont have interfiering territories. so theyll have room to roam.

 

three fish will probably be too much, for a while it would be good but as they get a little bigger it will turn our overcrowded.

 

clown goby gets up to 1 and a half, neon goby up to 2 inches, and a firefish up to 3 inches... i think it should be fine

 

its not necessarily the size its just the having 3 fish in a ten gallon. i would go with 2 fish and 2 inverts or however many inverts you would want as long as theyre small.