Fill My 5 Gallon Tank

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absolutangel04

absolutangel04

Daphnia are People Too.
Joined
Jun 30, 2011
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Lincoln, NE
So, I apparently have a 5g tank that is not in use. Thinking about what to do..... I am a little stumped. Still heavily thinking about ADF.
Any suggestions that are not a betta, dg, rcs, or ember tetras? Any cool, but relatively inexpensive shrimp that people have experience keeping? I am also thinking about a fireblley newt, but have found VERY conflicting info about their tank size. So, staying away from them unless I know for sure that one would be ok in there. Anyway, any other thoughts? Oh, considering a dwarf puffer of some sort as well, but I am not sure how much that would cost and they are not available here.
 
absolutangel04 said:
So, I apparently have a 5g tank that is not in use. Thinking about what to do..... I am a little stumped. Still heavily thinking about ADF.
Any suggestions that are not a betta, dg, rcs, or ember tetras? Any cool, but relatively inexpensive shrimp that people have experience keeping? I am also thinking about a fireblley newt, but have found VERY conflicting info about their tank size. So, staying away from them unless I know for sure that one would be ok in there. Anyway, any other thoughts? Oh, considering a dwarf puffer of some sort as well, but I am not sure how much that would cost and they are not available here.
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Not quite sure on other fish, the only ones I can think of are the least killifish, Pygmy killifish, and the Pygmy sunfish that Jetajockey talks about... For shrimp in there I'd do some tiger shrimp, but like the red or blue ones. Also the mandarin shrimp are pretty sweet looking too! Personally I'd do bee shrimp, they're a bit harder but as long as you stay on top of you parameters you'd be fine:). Another invert to think about are CPOs. They're dwarf orange Mexican crayfish! SM and HN1 have some for sale I believe. Also they dwarf puffer would be cool too if you could find it. But it's up to you:D. Good luck!
 
Yes, cpo was another option I was thinking of. I definitely need to go research their care a bit more though. Thanks for reminding me of that!
 
If you were looking for species you could try a puffer, shellies, or those small killies.

Bumblebee, crystal reds, tawain, tiger, and mandarin shrimp all look cool IMO :)
 
I don't think a five gallon is big enough for a firebelly newt. When I had kept them (although I'll admit with little luck) I used a 20 gallon. I had much better luck with spotted newts. If you're thinking of amphibians what about African dwarf frogs? You wouldn't need a land area like you would for the firebelly newts and could keep five of them in a tank that size.
 
c_leed said:
I don't think a five gallon is big enough for a firebelly newt. When I had kept them (although I'll admit with little luck) I used a 20 gallon. I had much better luck with spotted newts. If you're thinking of amphibians what about African dwarf frogs? You wouldn't need a land area like you would for the firebelly newts and could keep five of them in a tank that size.
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Thank you! I was having such a hard time finding consistent info on them! I read everything from 3 gallons to 55 minimum. :banghead:
Considering afd. I am a little paranoid since the ones I see here do not look very healthy (skinny, off color, always dead ones in the tank), so I would probably have to order them anyway. So, I am looking into other things since I may have to pay shipping anyway.

@Bruins, I have thought about shellies, but I do not know too much about them. I read on a different thread that 2-3 would be ok in a 5 gallon, but I need to know more about them I guess. Not sure how much they are. I am trying to keep this project cheap since I have other tanks to maintain. as well. I like tons of different shrimp. Mandarins are pretty cool.
 
I would do dwarf crays and mix them with a nano fish that does good at room temp like lamp eye killies. :)
 
siva said:
I would do dwarf crays and mix them with a nano fish that does good at room temp like lamp eye killies. :)
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I was unaware of any killis who did fine at room temp. That is awesome advice! ATM, I just own the tank, no heater or filter yet. Would you still recommend having a heater just in case the tank temp plummets, or to just skip it altogether?
 
Yeah there are lots of killies that do great at room temp. If you do something like normans lampeye, least, or pygmy, I wouldn't worry about a heater unless the temp will drop below 70. Any larger killies probably wouldn't be safe for the cray. Pygmy sunfish are another great room temp choice, however, because they hang on the bottom so much, I wouldn't mix them with the cray. I do consider them fish safe, even for the small guys, but I probably wouldn't tempt fate by keeping them with small bottom dwellers. Celestial pearl danios would also do great at room temp with crays.
 
siva said:
Yeah there are lots of killies that do great at room temp. If you do something like normans lampeye, least, or pygmy, I wouldn't worry about a heater unless the temp will drop below 70. Any larger killies probably wouldn't be safe for the cray. Pygmy sunfish are another great room temp choice, however, because they hang on the bottom so much, I wouldn't mix them with the cray. I do consider them fish safe, even for the small guys, but I probably wouldn't tempt fate by keeping them with small bottom dwellers. Celestial pearl danios would also do great at room temp with crays.
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That fantastic. I really like cpd's. I have embers tetras, and they are great because they are so tiny and colorful. Cpd's might be cheaper than the killis. I will look into pygmy sunfish. That is not a species I know ANYTHING about at all. I guess I will need to google my heart out!
 
CPD's are definitely going to be more expensive. The killies are relatively cheap, I wouldn't pay more than $2-3, where as I paid $6 each for CPD's. I think bobstropicalplants.com sometimes has them for $4, and I've seen them sold in groups on aquabid for around the same, but that's about the best you can do on them, as far as I know. My local lfs actually sells them for $7.95!
 
IMO BBG's need atleast 10 gals. They get pretty territorial and just rather crabby with eachother and each needs their own space.
 
siva said:
CPD's are definitely going to be more expensive. The killies are relatively cheap, I wouldn't pay more than $2-3, where as I paid $6 each for CPD's. I think bobstropicalplants.com sometimes has them for $4, and I've seen them sold in groups on aquabid for around the same, but that's about the best you can do on them, as far as I know. My local lfs actually sells them for $7.95!
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OK. Thanks for the site! I am going to pm severum mamma too because I think her or HN1 said they had some dwarf crays in qt. But, maybe I am crazy and just imagining posts....

Side note, didn't you say you bred white/albino afd's in a different thread?
 
Im thinking guppies. U could have 3-5 and they are really beautiful
 
My bumblebee gobies have been fine in the 5.5 gallon. No territorial or aggression issues. Although it is heavily planted with DW and shells.
But that's just from my experience ;)
 
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