Cookie Cutter Setups for 10-Gallon Freshwater Aquariums

Everyone loves 10-gallon fish tanks because they are small enough to sit on a kitchen counter or kid’s bedroom dresser but big enough to give you many options to choose from. Whether you are interested in schooling fish, breeding fish, or oddball animals, there’s something for everyone. Most of these tropical fish do require a heater and filter, so review our 10-gallon aquarium checklist if you are not sure what to get. Then once your aquarium is set up and has begun the cycling process, take a look at our list of recommended combinations that you can mix and match.

10-Gallon Tank with a Centerpiece Fish

A centerpiece fish is a colorful or unusual-looking fish that really captures the attention of the viewer, and it is oftentimes paired with smaller schooling fish. We also like adding a clean-up crew consisting of some bottom dwellers and algae eaters to help keep the aquarium looking nice. Pick one bullet point from each subcategory below to put together your ideal community tank:

Centerpiece Fish (pick 1)

• Betta fish
• Female powder blue dwarf gourami
• Honey gourami

Middle-Level Fish (pick 1)

• 6-8 neon tetras
• 6-8 green neon tetras
• 6-8 ember tetras
• 8 chili rasboras
• 4-6 Endler's livebearers
• 6-8 white cloud mountain minnows
• 6-8 lambchop (or espei) rasboras
• 8 exclamation point rasboras

Bottom Dwellers (pick 1)

• 4-5 panda corydoras
• 6 pygmy corydoras
• 6 habrosus corydoras
• 6 hastatus corydoras
• 4 kuhli loaches
• Malaysian trumpet snails

Algae Eaters (pick 1)

• 2 nerite snails
• Bladder snails
• Ramshorn snails
• 2-3 amano shrimp (may not be compatible with betta fish)

For a 10-gallon aquarium, we suggest starting with approximately 6 aquatic plants to help beautify the fish tank, purify the water from toxic waste chemicals, and provide enrichment for the animals. To make sure you can see all of the plants in the aquarium, pick some short plants to put in the foreground of the tank, slightly bigger plants for the midground, and tall plants for the background. Most of the choices below are for low light tanks, but the plants marked with an asterisk (*) specifically do best in high light tanks.

Foreground Plants (pick two or more)

• Marimo moss ball
• Moss
• Cryptocoryne parva
• Cryptocoryne lucens
• Anubias nana petite
• Bucephalandra 'green wavy'
• Dwarf hairgrass*
• Dwarf baby tears*
• Monte carlo*
• Micro sword*

Midground Plants (pick two or more)

• Cryptocoryne lutea
• Dwarf aquarium lily
• Anubias nana
• Java fern
• Scarlet temple
• Anubias golden
• Staurogyne repens*
• Hydrocotyle tripartita 'Japan'*

Background Plants (pick two or more)

• Moneywort
• Water sprite
• Brazilian pennywort
• Water wisteria
• Bacopa caroliniana
• Ammannia gracilis*
• Mayaca fluviatilis*

10-Gallon Species-Only Tank

Instead of keeping a community tank with many different animals, sometimes it can be quite rewarding to set up an aquarium with only one species. It allows you to focus on breeding fish, observe unique behaviors only seen in single-species setups, and care for harder-to-keep animals that have specialty requirements. Pick one of these species for your 10-gallon aquarium:

Single Species Colony

• Breeding pair or trio of Gardneri killifish (Fundulopanchax gardneri)
• Breeding pair or trio of lyretail killifish (Aphyosemion australe)
• Breeding pair or trio of red-striped killifish (Aphyosemion striatum)
• 3 pea puffers
• Breeding pair of Apistogramma dwarf cichlids
• 5 African dwarf frogs (and maybe 1-2 larger mystery snails)
• 10 white cloud mountain minnows
• 10-20 cherry shrimp
• 6 fancy guppies (2 males and 4 females)
• 6 Neolamprologus multifasciatus shell dweller
• 6 Neolamprologus similis shell dweller
• Breeding pair of Lamprologus brevis shell dweller

Most of these animals are easy to spawn in a colony setting, but if the adults are prone to predating on the offspring, make sure to provide plenty of hiding spots. We highly recommend using live plants with dense leaves or roots as shelter for the fry. However, note that certain species like shell dwellers enjoy digging, so plants that must be rooted in substrate may not be as suitable for their aquarium. (All of the plants in the list below do not require substrate.)

Dense Plants for Breeding

• Pogostemon stellatus 'octopus'
• Guppy grass
• Java moss
• Christmas moss
• Amazon frogbit
• Water sprite
• Water wisteria
• Java fern ‘Windelov’
• Pearl weed

10-Gallon Aquascape

If you are designing a beautiful aquascape and want the emphasis to be on the plants rather than the animals, then a centerpiece fish may not be the right choice. To keep the attention on the gorgeous foliage and hardscape, let’s pick a schooling fish for the upper half of the aquarium, bottom dwellers for the lower half, and a few algae eaters to keep the plants clean.

Top to Mid-Level Schooling Fish (pick 1)

• 6 zebra, leopard, or blue danios
• 6 Endler's livebearers
• 8 green neon tetras
• 6-8 neon tetras
• 6 cardinal tetras
• 8 ember tetras
• 8-10 chili rasboras
• 8 white cloud mountain minnows
• 8 lambchop (or espei) rasboras
• 5-6 harlequin rasboras
• 3-5 Pseudomugil rainbowfish
• 3-5 fancy guppies
• 6 marbled hatchetfish
• 8 clown killifish
• 6 celestial pearl danios
• Trio of dwarf or teacup platies (1 male and 2 females)

Bottom Dwellers (pick 1)

• 2 larger mystery snails
• Malaysian trumpet snails
• 6 rosy loaches
• 4-5 panda corydoras
• 6 pygmy corydoras
• 6 habrosus corydoras
• 6 hastatus corydoras
• 4 kuhli loaches
• 2-3 scarlet badis

Algae Eaters (pick 1)

• 2 nerite snails
• Bladder snails
• Ramshorn snails
• 2-3 amano shrimp
• 3-4 otocinclus catfish

As for aquarium plants, consider the type of aquascape style you plan on using — such as Iwagumi, nature, Dutch, or jungle style. Many of these designs may require you to get more than just six plants in order to accomplish your vision. Read this article to take a look at three different kinds of easy-to-build aquascapes for your next planted tank. As before, plants intended for higher light aquariums are indicated with an asterisk (*). 

Foreground Plants

• Anubias nana petite
• Java moss
• Christmas moss
• Cryptocoryne lucens
• Micro sword*

Midground Plants

• Anubias coffeefolia
• Banana plant
• Tiger lotus
• Dwarf aquarium lily
• Baby tears
• Dwarf sagittaria
• Cryptocoryne wendtii – green and red-bronze varieties

Background Plants

• Amazon sword or flame sword
• Anubias barteri
• Moneywort
• Water sprite
• Ludwigia repens

Cookie cutter setups offer a lot of customizability so that you can pick the perfect fish, invertebrates, and plants that fit your personal preferences. However, if you’re looking for a more concrete set of stocking ideas, we have several articles to inspire your next 10-gallon aquarium.