# Single Fish for 10 gallon



## Veritas (Aug 9, 2013)

maybe a Scarlet Badis with a small shoal of Celestial Pearl Danios?


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## sindy777 (Apr 9, 2015)

Veritas said:


> maybe a Scarlet Badis with a small shoal of Celestial Pearl Danios?


OMG That's a beautiful Idea. They are so pretty!! How big do the Scarlet Badis' get? Are they peaceful fish?


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## Veritas (Aug 9, 2013)

they're extremely peaceful. If anything they are quite shy - I feed mine frozen food.

they max out around an inch I think. they're tiny. but beautiful


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## end3r.P (Aug 31, 2015)

Veritas said:


> maybe a Scarlet Badis with a small shoal of Celestial Pearl Danios?


I think this is what I'd do with a 10 gallon too. Great setup idea.


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## nchmi28 (Feb 8, 2015)

In my 10 gal I have a Scarlet Badis and a small colony of Cherry Red Shrimp. The fish will munch on the tiniest of babies, but mostly leaves the bigger ones alone (the exception being what I saw him doing this morning). A word of caution about them, many, including mine will only take live food. I culture copepods for mine. Also if the seller tells you that it'll eat flake food, ask them to feed the fish. Watch and make sure that you get one that you witnessed eat the flake. The LFS employee told me that mine would eat flake.


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## kevmo911 (Sep 24, 2010)

Before you completely rule out bettas (if you haven't already done so), have you browsed through the betta listings on Aquabid? I just checked, and there are 800+ listings atm. I've never owned a betta, but if I was interested in single fish...

Here's a short Youtube vid of crazy colored bettas. You can quickly click through. I was trying to find a vid I saw a few years back that had pics of bettas from Aquabid, but no dice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqzM9TBCHTw


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## theatermusic87 (Jun 22, 2014)

dwarf gourami's will work as well... or a small school of honey gourami's (smaller than dwarfs, maybe 3-4), or something like a bristlenose pleco or german blue ram would also work, all of these are compatible with schools of smaller fish


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## nchmi28 (Feb 8, 2015)

Also you should checkout Peacock Gudgeons. Here is a thread about finding a single fish for a 10 gallon w/ neons in it.


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

You can get a paradise fish. They deserve to be alone.
Get the 'red' variety. It's harder to find since all you see is the blue kind.


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## Tessa (Dec 8, 2015)

I have a heavily planted 8 gallon with a single male plakat betta. Since plakats have much shorter fins they are very active and always on the move, extremely curious and bossy. And there are so many gorgeous colors to choose from.


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## leemacnyc (Dec 28, 2005)

Dwarf Puffer!


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## Grah the great (Jul 3, 2013)

mistergreen said:


> You can get a paradise fish. They deserve to be alone.
> Get the 'red' variety. It's harder to find since all you see is the blue kind.


From personal experience, paradise fish kept alone (and I've kept several alone) become reserved and skittish...not nearly as enjoyable as keeping them in communities or, at the least (if you don't want to risk finding a psychotic specimen), with their own kind (in both cases turning them into very extroverted, active fishes). I don't like seeing PF's in anything short of a 30 inch long tank for these reasons (I have 4 male PF's in a heavily planted 20 long...they get along quite well for the most part and don't bother the white clouds, danios, and platies they share the tank with, though one of them inexplicably killed a goodeid and held it in its mouth...it was a pretty small goodeid, at less than an inch, so I assume it was trying to eat it).


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

Grah the great said:


> From personal experience, paradise fish kept alone (and I've kept several alone) become reserved and skittish...not nearly as enjoyable as keeping them in communities or, at the least (if you don't want to risk finding a psychotic specimen), with their own kind (in both cases turning them into very extroverted, active fishes). I don't like seeing PF's in anything short of a 30 inch long tank for these reasons (I have 4 male PF's in a heavily planted 20 long...they get along quite well for the most part and don't bother the white clouds, danios, and platies they share the tank with, though one of them inexplicably killed a goodeid and held it in its mouth...it was a pretty small goodeid, at less than an inch, so I assume it was trying to eat it).


I didn't have one that became reserved but their colors are better with other paradise fish around.


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## Hooked on fish (Dec 15, 2015)

leemacnyc said:


> Dwarf Puffer!



Second that!

If you have multiple tanks like me and any ended up with snails... (again, like me) then a dwarf puffer is a great thing to have.

A few plants and rocks to keep it interesting and drop a few snails in every other day and some frozen blood worms once a week or so.


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## sindy777 (Apr 9, 2015)

I was reading up on the puffer and even though they are tiny it says that they might also be fun nippers. Have any of you experienced this?


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## mootay (Feb 16, 2015)

I recently bought a scarlet badis and while its an interesting fish it can be shy and 10g is a lot of extra space for this species, you may never see it.


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## sindy777 (Apr 9, 2015)

kevmo911 said:


> Before you completely rule out bettas (if you haven't already done so), have you browsed through the betta listings on Aquabid? I just checked, and there are 800+ listings atm. I've never owned a betta, but if I was interested in single fish...
> 
> Here's a short Youtube vid of crazy colored bettas. You can quickly click through. I was trying to find a vid I saw a few years back that had pics of bettas from Aquabid, but no dice.
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqzM9TBCHTw


Thank you! I looked at them and they are beautiful. I actually just lost my little betta after 3 years of having him so I'm a little hurt. I don't know if I want to replace him yet... Maybe later but right now I don't want to think of replacing him. I actually cried over this... I know some people think it's dumb but he was my buddy and he actually let me pet him once in a while....


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## nchmi28 (Feb 8, 2015)

mootay said:


> I recently bought a scarlet badis and while its an interesting fish it can be shy and 10g is a lot of extra space for this species, you may never see it.


I have my Scarlet Badis in a 10 gallon and he's the opposite of shy. He's the only fish in there with shrimp and snails and he runs the tank. If he was in with other fish I would worry about them out competing him for food.


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## sindy777 (Apr 9, 2015)

nchmi28 said:


> Also you should checkout Peacock Gudgeons. Here is a thread about finding a single fish for a 10 gallon w/ neons in it.


I looks through it. It brought my attention to the apistogramma fish.. They are so cute and I want them so bad for my 55 gallon now too haha.. I know, I'm going off course...


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## Hooked on fish (Dec 15, 2015)

sindy777 said:


> I was reading up on the puffer and even though they are tiny it says that they might also be fun nippers. Have any of you experienced this?


I have 3 dwarf puffers. 

1. In a tank with cichlids and tetras completely ignores anything that isn't a snail or a shrimp fry.

1. In a tank with Male guppies and Cories that will on occasion chase and nip a guppy but since there are about 30 guppies in there he tires quickly and it isn't much of a problem.

1. Is in a tank all by himself because the little bastard went after everything he saw including the other puffers.

SO....

In a nutshell my answer is... It depends on the individual fish and stocking of the tank. But, GENERALLY, dwarfs don't cause much problems in an environment that is complex and keeps them interested. (ie: plants, driftwood, rocks with caves, etc.) 

And they don't seem to mind at all being the lone wolf, er fish. :laugh2:


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## sindy777 (Apr 9, 2015)

Hooked on fish said:


> In a nutshell my answer is... It depends on the individual fish and stocking of the tank. But, GENERALLY, dwarfs don't cause much problems in an environment that is complex and keeps them interested. (ie: plants, driftwood, rocks with caves, etc.)
> 
> And they don't seem to mind at all being the lone wolf, er fish. :laugh2:


Yea. They are adorable though.. Unfortunately I don't have enough room to add a tank for one puffer in case he is a looney one lol. Thank you so much though for your reply.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I always thought a pygmy sunfish would be cool. Don't even need a heater. But from what I've read they only eat live foods. If I ever get tired of bettas, I'd stock my ten-gallon with pygmy sunfish.


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## drx (May 1, 2015)

They are really cool. They can be gotten into frozen and maybe pellet eventually. They need an extremely heavely planted tank they like dense jungles.


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## aceranch (Dec 21, 2013)

nchmi28 said:


> I have my Scarlet Badis in a 10 gallon and he's the opposite of shy. He's the only fish in there with shrimp and snails and he runs the tank. If he was in with other fish I would worry about them out competing him for food.


Now I want one in my planted 10.


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## cpwebsite (Dec 12, 2012)

For a single fish, I would recommend putting in a bristlenose pleco or potentially another larger fish that stays in the middle if you don't like the reclusive properties of bristlenose plecos. Otherwise, if you want a bit more activity, I would recommend a small shoal (6 or so) cardinal tetras. They are fun to watch and move around together.


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## SueD (Nov 20, 2010)

How about a golden dwarf cichlid

Nannacara anomala (Golden Dwarf Cichlid) ? Seriously Fish


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## RWaters (Nov 12, 2003)

SueD said:


> How about a golden dwarf cichlid
> 
> Nannacara anomala (Golden Dwarf Cichlid) ? Seriously Fish


Wow. I'd completely forgotten about this fish. I had a pair about 11 or 12 years ago. Very nice fish.


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