New 10 Gallon: Questions

[dynamic21]

Hi all!

I've been browsing and reading this forum for a good number of months now, but I think this is my first time posting here.

Anyways, I'm a bit curious about how to stock my new 10 gallon tank. First off, I've gotten the impression that there's pretty much a 2-3 fish limit in th 10-12g tank sizes. My question is, will it still be possible to keep a "good" or "healthy" sized cleaning crew with the maximum number of fish in the tank (2-3)?

I'm assuming, the bigger the cleaning crew, the heavier the bioload, and the less fish you can keep. Right? In fact, do Corals add to the bioload? If they do, then that means it's pretty much a game of give and take, right?

I guess my real question is, what are my different stocking options?

 

[dynamic21]

BTW. My tank is fully cycled, and I need to purchase a cleaning crew, and I'm just a bit cautious as to how BIG of a cleaning crew I can purchase so that I still have enough room in the future to add 2-3 fish and zoa's.

 

[skipm]

All living things added to the tank add to the bioload but the good news is that inverts like your cleaners and corals have a much smaller impact than fish do. I like to start with a smallish cleaning crew and add to it as necessary, this way none of the cleaners ends up starving due to inadequate food supply. I would start out with 6-8 snails of a couple of species including nassarious and/or cerith snails. Avoid things like abalones and conches because they are not really at all suited for nano aquaria.

 

[dynamic21]

I can add 6-8 snails!? Wow... What about shrimps or Blue legged hermits?

 

[skipm]

I would go with 4 or 5 blue legged hermits. As for the shrimp what kind are you talking about? If you mean like peppermints or cleaners then one or two would be fine. I find that with cleaner shrimp and others with long antennae they do better singly in small tanks. Others like sexy shrimp you can go as many as six with no problem.

 

[drty811]

i concur with skip's statement. i too had a ten gallon, with the numbers he stated. i found smaller hermits do a better job then the larger ones, the larger ones get lazy and wait till you feed the tank. HTH

 

[davenia7]

skip suggested sexy shrimp, lol