[MyraVan]

I think it's a good policy never to buy a fish for a tank that the fish will be too big for when it's an adult. You tell yourself that when the fish gets bigger, you'll get a bigger tank, but the problem is that while it's in the smaller tank there's a very good chance that the reason it's not getting bigger is precisely because the smaller tank is stunting its growth. This leads to ill health and an early death for the fish.

A pleco, the ordinay kind, is too big for a 10 galklon tank. Even the smaller plecos (like bristlenose)are too big for a 10 gallon. If you want algae eaters, otos are (I'm told, I don't have any) very entertaining fish for a mature tank -- you need to wait for your tank to stabilize for awhile before you put them in. And the shrimps that you like are also good algae eaters too.

The red-tailed sharks look very pretty, but I think that even our 20 gallon tank is too small for one! Also they are quite aggressive fish, and I'm not sure how well they would get along with the fish that we have.

I was recently thinking that if I had a spare 10 gallon tank, I would try to make it as colorful as possible, say with 2 female bettas (our local fish shop has several female bettas in a tank and they look very pretty) and a school of some colorful small fish, like neon tetras or cherry barbs. Add a few algae-eating snails or shrimp, and the setup is complete...

You say it will be a planted tank. Have you got plants so far? Sorry, I don't remember from your other thread if you did or not. What substrate are you using? How much light? If you haven't got a good substrate for plants, now is the time to put it in, before you have any fish, since it's alot easier to change substrate if you don't have fish to worry about.