I need help stocking a ten gal. the fish i want to put in there are guppies 1 platy Mollies and sword tails what do you think and also hpw many of each can i put in there

I worry about your choice of fish ... If you keep guppy, I suggest you to keep ONLY guppies!! Their fins are usually long, and attractive ... very easy for other fishes to nip. In the end, you may end up with injured or sick guppies with torn fins. Quite unhealthy for the overall tank.

As for the number of fishes, many people say 1 inch of fish per gallon ... so 10 inches of fish or 10 pcs of 1 inch fish (length of adult fish). That is the rule of thumb. But really, it only depends on 2 factors ...

1. Filtration setup. If you have a HUGE filter, and change water every day, you could, in theory, fill up the tank with as many fishes as you can fit!!!

2. Territory. Cichlids are famous for being territorial. You might only fit 1 male + few females for a Cichlid tank. For peaceful fishes, you could fit in quite a lot of fishes ... if you've got a GREAT filter system.

But I'd suggest you to keep to the rule of thumb!!!

i have done a lot of research and i am pretty sure that only these types can go w?guppies 1 Platy 2 Tetra 3 Paradise fish .. now i don't know hw big guppies get for i am new to this hobby if i had 3 guppies and 1 platy how many tetras could i have or ... would that be it .. if i have 3 guppies and some tetras could i get a platty

The platys and swordtails like to be in groups and also get a little big for a group in a ten gallon. The tetras need to be in a group of at least 6, so if you got them you couldnt really have anything else. Except a trio of corys maybe.
I suggest you get 7 male guppies, if you get female as well you will end up with hundreds!

How Do you tell gender though please post back this is a bvery neat idea

The males are the really colourful ones with long tails and patterns, the females are usually duller and not much colour with short round tails.

Here are some pictures of males.
http://www.aquarist-classifieds.co.u...image/6445.jpg
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/g.skuse.../guppymale.JPG
http://www.aquariumtropicana.co.uk/I...ppy%20male.JPG

And here are some females.
http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fres...fe_guppy_s.jpg
http://www.aquariumfish.net/images_0..._from_kate.jpg
http://www.englishare.net/literature...ppy-female.jpg

They will usually have them in different tanks at the store which will be labeled, so it shouldnt be hard at all to get all males. They come in loads of different colours and patterns as you can see on those links i've provided.

Warning: PG-18

For male guppys, look for its sex organ which looks like a "stick" at the bottom. When it wants to do "it" with the female, its "stick" will actually bend forward!!!

For female guppys, the bottom fin looks like a "fan".

Take a look some pictures in the links within the previous post to see if you can identify their organ!!