Best Pet Fish

How many of the two fish breeds can I put together in a 10 gal tank?

We have a 10 gallon tank and we have been looking for some freshwater fish to buy. Looking online we found two breeds of similar size, temperament, and care needs. We were looking at the Painted Platy and the Neon Tetra. Both grow up to 2″, are easy to care for and recommended for beginners (like us), and live in the same temperature water. We only have 10 gallons but we would like to house both species. Can we house those in that small of a tank? If so, how many of each can we have in the tank and would having all males be alright? We don’t want any offspring right now as we haven’t had an Aquarium in years. Any other advice or tips we would be very grateful for.

First, platies and neon tetras are not two breeds, they are two separate species belonging to different zoological families. Breeds are different varieties of the same species, like Great Danes and Poodles, or like Sunset Platies and Red Wag Platies.

I’ve been looking at Tropical Fish since the 1960s, and I’ve still never seen a two-inch-long neon tetra. A 1.5-inch neon tetra is a huge neon tetra. About 1.25 inches is more typical for a full-grown adult.
Platies, on the other hand, sometimes get up to about 3 inches long, although this varies with the type of platy (besides all the domestic breeds, there are actually a number of different natural species of platies).

Nonetheless, it is quite possible to keep platies and neons together, and in fact it is very often done.
If you’re going to keep only male platies (to avoid offspring), I would keep about three platies and about eight neon tetras in the 10-gallon tank. You don’t need to worry about neon tetras overpopulating your tank, because they rarely breed in aquaria, except when people make extraordinary efforts to breed them, and sometimes not then. Almost all the neon tetras in the pet trade are wild-caught in South America and then exported to other countries.

I’m assuming that you have a filter and heater for this tank.
About 76 to 78 degrees F is the ideal temperature for both species, although they can tolerate water a little warmer or cooler than that.
Don’t put any salt in the water, no matter what some people may tell you. Both these species come from purely fresh water, and neon tetras in particular are native to soft water with no salt content.
Both species can be fed any of the normal tropical fish foods, although neon tetras are more strictly carnivorous in nature, and platies tend to have both plant and animal matter in their diets. I wouldn’t worry too much about that, though. Neither species is a picky eater.

Welcome back to fishkeeping, and have fun!

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