Re-stocking a 17 litre tank

[Welsh]

I woke this morning to have yet another betta die, from being in this tank! I checked the water parameters and all were perfect, I guess it was just down to them being bought from a pet store, and potentially being a bit old.

Anyway... I have decided not to have another betta, as I have gone through about 8 in the last 2 years. Basically, I was just wondering what I could have in this tank, other than a betta? At the moment there is a tiny, 1'' bristlenose pleco chewing its way through a lot of algae, that the Excel refuses to get rid of and eventually, when he's bigger, he will move in to my other tank.

I know the tank is on the tiny side for a group of fish, but other than shrimp and snails, is there anything I could get away with in this tank? I would like a dwarf puffer, but I hear not only do they need around 10 gallons, they are also quite aggressive. Is this true?

Thanks

 

[librarygirl]

That's about 5 gals US. You could have a single dwarf puffer in a 5 gal but not with the pleco. Dwarfs can be aggressive to other fish so a 5 gal would pretty much just stock one dwarf. They benefit from eating snails and would like hiding places and things to keep it interested like plants, caves, etc. OR a group of 4-5 endler's livebearers might work, but males only (if you get females they'll breed a lot and you'l lbe overstocked very fast).

Scarlet Badis are small fish; they can be hard to feed though. A small group of nano fish like celestial pearl danio, ember tetra or chili rasbora would work too. The CPDs can be shy so make sure it's heavily decorated to give them sufficient hiding spots to make them feel secure. I think some of the smaller killfish would work too. I'd move the pleco though if you're going to add anything else to the tank.

8 Bettas in 2 years is a lot; you might want to figure out why they're dying though before you spend money on more fish. What is your water change schedule? Feeding? Temperature? What are your parameters (ammonai, nitrite, nitrate)? The Betta could have been stressed from the Pleco maybe. Are you changing your filter media out regularly (you shouldn't as it'll cause the tank to continuously recycle). Just some thoughts.