Hi Nick,

Will it be heated? If your not going to heat it then you could stock it with coolwater tropicals such as white cloud mountain minnows, zebra danios, rosy barbs, gold china barbs, golden medakas. A small shoal of eaither of these would look good.

If you wanted to go heated I'd reccomend platys. Cheap and cheerful.

Adam

Most of the tetra and rasbora family stays small and would be ok in a 10gal. Cardinals, neons, sepra, phantom, rummynose are of few of the many good ones. Add a small cory cat or 2 and your good to go. Guppies would be a good alternative, they multiply fast and can be colorful. Don't add too many and watch the water parameters carefully, a 10 gal can go south pretty fast. Get a good filter.

Thank you for the recommendations. Yes I purchased a 100 watt heater, sorry I forgot to mention that. What filter do you recommend? I have the one that came with it, an Aqua-Tech 5/15. I'm going to purchase a master test kit when I get off work in the morning (I work graveyard), what levels should I be looking for? Also, what's the quickest way to cycle the tank? Sorry for all the questions, but the tank is for my 2 year old and I don't know how I'd explain dead fish to him so I want to do this right. Thank you for all your help.

The 5/15 that came with it is good. I think they are from petsmart? If so It is the same thing as a penguin or emporer filter minus the bio-wheel (usually) they are made by Marineland. When replacing filters, get the cartridges that are 3 part. They have a sponge that only gets a rinse as needed with a small bucket worth of aquarium water. Just swish it around in the water to remove any large debris blocking flow. This is where most of your "good" bacteria will be living. The other parts are a AC (activated carbon) pouch and floss that is actually combined together. The AC is sandwiched between the floss. This will be your mechanical and chemical filtration. Bacteria will grow there also, but thats all you want to change otherwise you will most likely have to cycle again.
A master test kit is a great purchase. A good gravel vacuum is another. STAY AWAY from "Cycle" and products that claim they speed up the cycling process with "beneficial bacteria". The safest way to prevent fish deaths in cycling a tank is a fishless cycle. You actually add household "pure" ammonia to the new tank. The ammonia supplements what the fish excrete to start the whole process. This takes patience because from beging to end it takes average 28 days to establish the cycle. If you have a freind that has an established tank that is "healthy" beg, borrow or steal some filter media, gravel or a decoration. or all 3. This will speed up things, usually. I have cycled in 3-5 days before with a good ammount of seed material from an established tank. Check the link below. This explains the cycle and how to do the fishless cycle. There are actually 5 articles total. If you decide to do a fishless cycle and need help, feel free to e-mail by clicking my user name. These articles are a bit lengthy and the first time I read them I was totally confused. The other way to do it is buy live plants, let them grow a bit and slowly add fish. Plants have everything you need to do the nitrogen cycle as long as they are healthy.

Here is a link that might be useful: biochemistry 101

Definitely go for the cory cats. (after you've cycled) We have two and love them. They like to be in a group and it's so fun watching them together. They're never far from each other and when resting are usually practically sitting on top of each other. My kids love them too. They say the corys are in love and are married. lol. We have julii corys as my kids thought the albino corys were "creepy". (JMO from a total newbie)
I actually had about ten fish die before my tank cycled. (i had a lot of bad advice from petco) So my only advice to go really, really slow. Lots of Patience. good luck.

I would go with Adam's advice or just get more of the various goldfish hybrids. I try to keep tropicals with tropicals and non-tropicals with others.

I'd stay away from ALL goldfish, they are a type of carp that can grow over a foot or more and at that size need tanks of 80 gallons or more, its a myth they do well in bowls and small tanks, ( think fancy types don't get huge- look up 'Bruce the giant goldfish' online, note this IS an rare fluke VERY few fancy ones get this big-not so with normal types, but its importent to look at it to get an idea of how big they can get) also avoid all sharks, Pacus, pretty much all plecos,most cichlids and Amazon tetras such as( rummy nose or cardnial) these tetra types are often wild caught and need acidic waters, think 6.8 or lower... many people think, oh well i'll just cheat my way to Amazon levels, if you do that in a tank as small as a 10, you are dooming your fish from PH shock as it never is stable ... I'd go for a 20 or 30 gallon not a 10 and if you do get tetras be sure to get at least 7 of them for your tank as they like to school in vast schools of hundreds or thousands in their native rivers and streams. Also remember for a child that young you cannot expect him to take on anything regaurding caring of fish, if you don't want to maintain it solely by yourself, I'd wait until the child is 8 or so and more mature. Are you going to realistically be able to clean it all by yourself after working graveyard hours, these are things to be thought of

Not trying to be rude or discourage you however... I'd subjest if you still want to do this a shoal of White clouds,( 8) corys,(5) and two pairs of plattyes in a 20 or 30 gal would be wonderful- for now

And... if your 10 or 13 year old son, (rewind a decade or so still wants to keep goldfish- if you can afford it) there's always that huge planted 100 to 200 gallon cool water tank with two or three ( 1 foot+) commons or four 9 to 8+ fancys that would make a WONDERFUL species tank and a good way to educate his friends on why goldfish are NOT beginner fish in any way, shape or form. ( note if you do this get them when they are 2 or 3 inches and let them grow on... I just guessed on how big they would hopefully grow in such a tank!, give or take a few years ) Feed them plenty of lukewarm peas,veggies and corn along with goldfish fakes and your set...

Goldfish are far easier to keep successfully outdoors in a pond than in a tank. In a pond they are easy in a tank they are "dirty" They also look prettier seen from above.

Agree with you on abut the above expect one thing I like seeing them in a tank, but a HUGE one.

Once again, thank you everyone for your input. I never intended to get goldfish, so the small tank is not an issue. I have cycled, and now have 2 Painted Platys and 5 Neon Tetras. All are thriving, and have grown a bit since I brought them home from Petco. I would post a pic of the tank but I don't know how to here. My son is thrilled and pulls me to the tank to watch them several times a day. I couldn't be happier with the outcome.

I have a 10 gal semi natural tank.It has lots of plants,snails as well as a heater and a corner filter.It is inhabited by 3 Zebras,2 White Clouds,One algae eater who doesn't seem to know his job,two white fish who seem in love,and some fry who may or may not survive.I do have a bit of an algae issue on the plants as well as on the gravel,but I just periodically remove it.It makes the tank look something less than brilliant,but I think the fish like it.So in summation,I have 8 adult fish and potentially a few more if the fry survive.
What do the experts think of my set up?
PS I would love to know what those two White Cloud sized white fish might be.Any ideas?