friends for a snail in a 5.5 gal?

[Tostada]

I've got a 5.5 gal that I'm putting a bunch of dwarf sag plants in. Right now it only has a mystery snail in it. The snail was in my 30 gal, and he doesn't seem to eat plants much.

I wanted to put something else in there. This is going to be on my nightstand in my bedroom, so I probably don't want really zippy fish.

I thought I might put my betta in there and a couple shrimp, but I'm not sure if the shrimp eating the sag would be a problem. They like to eat the anacharis in my main tank.

I thought about putting a few dwarf platies in there, but platies are pretty similar to swords, and the swords in my main tank were constantly picking on my snail (which is why he's in the 5.5 gal now).

I thought of lemon tetras or rasboras, but the tank is too small for a good-sized school of them.

I thought of cories (I really like my panda cories), but pandas are pretty sensitive, and other cories get bigger. Also, I probably shouldn't put more than 3 in a 5.5 gal.

I could always put guppies in there. I guess my only concern with the guppies is that they wouldn't get along with my betta. In that case I can just leave my betta in my main tank, but that would prevent me from temporarily moving the guppies to my main tank if I wanted to use the 5.5 gal as a quarantine tank.

My problem seems to be that most of the cool small fish I'd want to stick in a 5.5 gal. might not be happy in small numbers.

 

[hc8719]

really, i wouldnt put anything in a 5 gal, i dont know much about them, but a beta possibly, or a small adf

 

[Purrbox]

How about some shrimp or a really small fish. There are quite a few different varieties of FW Shrimp that are becoming increasingly available. Cherry Red Shrimp are very attractive and could form a nice little breeding colony in that size tank. Mosquito Rasbora stay well under an inch so you could have a nice little school. Perhaps some Pseudomugil gertrudae, they are a beautiful little Rainbowfish that maxes out at an 1". A pair of one of the smaller varieties of Killifish could be really nice. Any of the Dwarf Cories would be really nice too (Hastatus, Habrosus, or Pygmeaus).

 

[Tostada]

really, i wouldnt put anything in a 5 gal, i dont know much about them, but a beta possibly, or a small adf

That's ... well ... a ridiculous thing to say. You might want to look around at the types of things people put in 5.5 gal tanks. I'm not saying bettas are happy in cups, but nothing but 1 betta in a 5.5 gal is really understocked even by the generic 1" per 1 gal rule.

Check out the kinds of things people put in small tanks here (5.5 gal is 21 litres):

http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2005.cgi?&Scale=2&op=ishowcase&category=0&vol=0

Plenty people have a decent school of tetras or rasbora hengelis in tanks that size, and they absolutely don't look overstocked (well, maybe overstocked with plants, but that's their intention).

Anyway...

The cherry red shrimp sound cool. Are they pretty easy to breed? Do they eat plants? Are they sensitive? Everybody says it's a lot harder to keep your parameters stable on a small tank, so I'm a little worried about really sensitive fish.

I suppose if I was breeding shrimp it might get pretty full in there, though.

 

[CaysE]

How about a small school of Endlers?

 

[Tostada]

How about a small school of Endlers?

That would be nice, but I haven't seen them for sale anywhere.

 

[Jchillin]

How about a small school of Endlers?

That would be nice, but I haven't seen them for sale anywhere.

CaysE has a good suggestion, the only source I've seen is Aquabid. Try Endlers page and see if anything hits your fancy.

Also, let's not get over personal regarding posted material.

 

[Purrbox]

Cherry Red Shrimp like any other type of shrimp can be sensitive, but they are one of the hardiest shrimp available. You just need to keep things as stable as possible, low Nitrates, and avoid copper. They are perfect for a planted tank and will graze on algae and decaying plant matter, but leave healthy plants alone. In fact they will be much healthier in a planted tank. Basically if you've got enough Cherry Shrimp in your tank to start a good breeding colony (both males and females) and keep them in good water conditions, the trick is getting them not to breed.