Jumping in with a 5.5 gallon... advice needed on fish!

[anna0219]

Hello all -

My name is Anna and I'm brand-new to this site. Here goes my story -

I hope nobody yells at me for this - I know it wasn't ideal, but I am a college student with a very limited space and budget and I wanted a pet fish. So I got a male betta and put him in a 1-gallon fish bowl. I researched extensively the best way to possibly care for him, and followed all the directions. I changed all of the water and treated it carefully once a week, I only fed him a small pinch of food per day, and I kept him out of sunlight, things like that.

I bought him at the beginning of November or so, and lately he had been acting sluggish and his colors seemed duller. I knew his water wasn't as warm as it should have been, so I marched to the pet store this weekend and bought a 5.5 gallon tank. My dad, a bit of an ex-aquarium keeper himself, gave me a great water-heater that we tested carefully and got it all ready to go for Louie, my beautiful blue and red crowntail betta. We got rocks, plants, and a thermometer all ready to go.

I eagerly headed back to my university - and found Louie dead at the bottom of my bowl.

What can I say? I cried about it. No joke.

But when I was buying the new tank at Petco, the girl working there gave me a great big lecture about how I was killing my fish by changing the water once a week because no "good" bacteria was growing. This of course, makes sense to me, but all the betta care websites I intently read all said to change it once a week, NO EXCEPTIONS. So I was very frustrated to hear such contradictory advice. She also told me the five-gallon was too big and he would just sit in the corner of it. I bought it anyway, determined to mediate between different advice-givers.

So now here I am, a beautiful new tank without a fish.

I'm sorry to make this post so long, but I wanted to really spell out my situation and get some help. I thoguht I was doing Louie good by buying him a bigger tank, making sure his water was warmer. What do you think - was I wrong to change the water? If so, that makes me nervous about other things I read.

So now I am thinking that I might like to have a handful of small fish in this tank since it's somewhat-big enough to be not just limited to one betta. I saw someone else post about having a betta with a couple of tetras - I didn't realize this was possible.

So after hearing my long sob-story, here is my slew of questions. Feel free to answer one or any!

What are the likelihoods of a betta getting along well with those fish? Could I possibly try a betta and three tetras in a tank like that? What other fish combinations would be ideal? What kind of filter would you best recommend (that is the new addition I hadn't made yet since everyone seemed to tell me I didn't need a filter for a betta)? DO I need a filter for a betta? Or a betta with small tetras?

Thanks so much. Be kind to my newbie-ness, please. I promise that I tried to be a great fish-mommy to Louie. Thank you for your help! Sorry this was somewhat of a novel.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Hi Anna, welcome to AA... Well I'm a newbie too but done some research. Don't mean to sound like the blind leading the blind, but I'm sure everyone here is going to recommend that you properly cycle your tank before adding any new fish. You can read about fishless cycling from this site at ::LINK:: 5 gallons is pretty small for a tank so I'm thinking the Betta might be good by itself. However, if you're really intent on adding more fish, you might get away with adding some tetras if you're good with partial water changes (not full water changes)....If I'm wrong I'm sure someone can correct me

 

[dkpate]

In tanks 5G or smaller, the water needs to be changed 20-50%, twice a week. I don't care what the girl at the pet store thinks she is talking about, the good bacteria (nitrate) lives on the decor, substrate, walls, fake plants and in the filter. Hardly any lives in the water column, so changing the water in the tank is not harming anything, unless you are taking it all out, and the stuff inside is drying out.
5G is not too big for a betta, I have 2 of mine in a split 10G, so they each have 5 apiece. They are just fine, and love all of their room!
When you found Louie, he was still in the bowl? And the water was cold? The water needs to be between 78-80*, and you need to acclimate them to their new homes, because of pH and water temp.
In the 5G, I would just stick with the betta, until you get the hang of the whole biological process. You could even get a divider and another betta! That's what I do! HAHA!
I would put a filter in there, bettas DO need filters. The reason people don't think they do, is because they are labrynth breathers, and they come from rice paddies. Well, they also have gills, and they came from rice paddies a long time ago. We don't live in caves anymore right? Same type of deal.
Feel free to ask any more questions! We are here to help!

 

[Aquarium1]

+1. If you wanted to keep other fish you would need a ten gallon because tetras are schooling fish and need to be in groups of at least 5 which would be a little too much bio load for your tank. Good luck .

 

[FastFly67]

I currently keep a halfmoon in a planted 5.5. Trust me, this is not too much room. I used to keep a veil in a 55g community. They love the swimming room. Here's a few things to watch out for.
1. Make sure the current is not too strong. Because of their extensive finnage, they are not the speediest or strongest swimmers. Too much flow and they'll "anchor" themselves as not to be pushed around.
2. They LOVE hanging out near the top. Getting floating plants such as hornwort, pennywort or even some dwarf onion plants that will trail along the top will give your betta great resting places. Don't be suprised to see him draped out there all hammock like.
3. They like it warm! Between 78-80F is where you want your betta to be.
Adding tankmates is entirely up to you and the temperment of your betta. I personally would not do any mates in a 5g. There's just not enough room. If you'd like to add more in the future, go ahead and upgrade to a 10g now. Learn the ropes of proper fish keeping and the nitrogen cycle and routine water maintenance and *most importantly* the temperment of your betta then add fish later down the road. There are lots of small fish that would be excellent in a 10g. Chili rasboras, ricefish, shrimp or snails (if they're an incredibly chill betta), otos and lord knows what else.

 

[anna0219]

Thanks for all your advice so far, everybody!

dkpate - yes, Louie was in the bowl when I found him. So he didn't jump out or anything! I have kept the bowl covered to make sure that didn't happen.

What type of filter would you all recommend? I've been doing some online reading but I'm a little worried that a HOB (right? I'm trying to learn this lingo...) filter that is mechanically powered would create too strong of a current. Should I worry about that? I also read about sponge filters, and if I can somehow figure out EXACTLY how a sponge filter would attach to an air pump effectively (I can't quite visualize it yet) I might consider that.

Would you recommend a "mechanical" filter or a sponge filter for this 5.5 gallon tank?

A neat fish I saw when buying Louie at the petstore was a tank of those really super-neon solid colored fish - I think they might be glofish danios? They were all either hot pink, orange, or yellow. How would those do in the 5.5 gallon tank?

Any chance at all that a couple of them might co-habitate with a betta okay? What about a female betta? I read some people suggest that colorful fish are bad tankmates with bettas, but others said it was okay. I would only maybe put two of them in there, especially since the tank is smaller. Would they all be miserable that way?

How about individually, w/o the betta at all, would those neon 'glofish' or whatever the correct title may be do okay in a small group in my 5.5g?

I do also like the idea of a divider with two bettas. I will look into that. I never wanted a betta originially, but now I've fallen in love with their beautiful fins and colors!

Sorry for the onslaught of questions. I'm so glad to have found a place where people can help me out!

 

[FastFly67]

What type of filter would you all recommend? I've been doing some online reading but I'm a little worried that a HOB (right? I'm trying to learn this lingo...) filter that is mechanically powered would create too strong of a current. Should I worry about that? I also read about sponge filters, and if I can somehow figure out EXACTLY how a sponge filter would attach to an air pump effectively (I can't quite visualize it yet) I might consider that.

Would you recommend a "mechanical" filter or a sponge filter for this 5.5 gallon tank?

Let me see if I can explain how a sponge filter work. There are three main components to a sponge filter. the base, the sponge and the lift tube.

the light grey part would be the base, the black part is the sponge (it wraps around the base. imagine you can see the rest of the grey running up thru the sponge) and then the piece of plastic is the lift tube.
You would run your length of hose attached to your air pump down the lift tube and attach it to the small nipple that's at the base that's part of the body. With the air pump on, the rising air creates a vaccum in the lift tube which is how the water is pulled thru the sponge and out the top of the lift tube, thus creating the filtration/water movement.
Sponge filters are GREAT biological filtration. That whole sponge will be colonized with beneficial bacteria. The perfect filter for breeding/grow out tanks because the fry can't get sucked into anything. Hope that helps

A neat fish I saw when buying Louie at the petstore was a tank of those really super-neon solid colored fish - I think they might be glofish danios? They were all either hot pink, orange, or yellow. How would those do in the 5.5 gallon tank?

glofish are neat little fish. BUT they are still danios and danios like loooong tanks. They're incredibly active fish and deserve at least (in my opinion) a 30 inch tank to be happy. They don't do up and down much, just lots of side to side.[/quote]

Any chance at all that a couple of them might co-habitate with a betta okay? What about a female betta? I read some people suggest that colorful fish are bad tankmates with bettas, but others said it was okay. I would only maybe put two of them in there, especially since the tank is smaller. Would they all be miserable that way?

How about individually, w/o the betta at all, would those neon 'glofish' or whatever the correct title may be do okay in a small group in my 5.5g?

I do also like the idea of a divider with two bettas. I will look into that. I never wanted a betta originially, but now I've fallen in love with their beautiful fins and colors!

Sorry for the onslaught of questions. I'm so glad to have found a place where people can help me out!

They'd do perfectly fine with a single or even a sorority of bettas given adequate space which a 5.5g just isn't. AND danios are schoaling fish which means at MINIMUM, 6 for them to be comfortable. And that's even a really low number. In my experience, you don't get to see a schoaling fish's true behavior until you get at least a dozen of them, if not more.

 

[anna0219]

FastFly - thank you so much for your very detailed post. You gave me some really good info - I think I could handle the sponge filter now!

 

[FastFly67]

FastFly - thank you so much for your very detailed post. You gave me some really good info - I think I could handle the sponge filter now!

Happy to help. I never understood sponge filters either until someone took the time to show me in detail and explain WHY they work.

 

[dkpate]

I would recommend the Aquaclear HOB filter. It is adjustable, and doesn't bother my divider 10G betta tank. In the 5G, I have these little Whisper internal filters, but I have one on each side. I prefer the Aquaclear, only because it does have an adjustable flow.
For right now, I would just go with the betta, until you know what his temperment is. Some are fine with other fish, and some are not. I wouldn't think that colors would be bad for bettas, it's more if the other fish can get away so the betta doesn't kill them. And you would need to make sure they are not fin nippers, because the betta is not all that fast of a swimmer, and he has the long flowy fins. You might be able to get away with about 3 female bettas in there too. Female bettas might look ugly and boring in the store, but once you get them home and give them some TLC, they become beautiful!

 

[Jason7894561230]

Going on to fish the Tetras i have some are probably like you know schooling fish so you need atleat 5-6 of them the more the better but make sure you get some tertas that wont eat the tail of the betta. Get some small ones like the glow light tetra and the cardinal tetra or maybe even the Black phantim tetra which is what i have

 

[ampa one]

welcome to AA. R.I.P. LOUIE

 

[ampa one]

welcome to AA.

 

[anna0219]

Thanks for the welcome, everybody!

About the three female betta - I do sort of like that idea. To be honest, I was a bit hopeful about having multiple fish in the 5.5 gallon, so I was trying to figure out a good way to do that.

So you all think that a few of those glofish danios are out of the question? Even on their own without a betta?

What about any other non-betta combinations for the tank? Anybody have a handful of fish in a different combination that would work in the tank? I really want to explore all my options and figure out what I want to do most of all!

This weekend I plan to go buy a filter (I am addicted to AA now and I want to go RIGHT NOW and get started on this fun project... but being in college means I can hardly take time to breathe between now and Friday... darn English essays) and learn about/start cycling the tank. I also want to check out the fish available there.

You all don't think that an HOB filter would be too strong for bettas? What power-level would you recommend? Like, would an up-to-10g be too strong for betta in a 5.5g?

Also, should I be worried about the filter sucking up my fish? I've read some online horror stories about that.

You guys rock for being so helpful! Now I must tear myself away from AA and dash off to my British Literature class... much less exciting!

 

[dkpate]

If you get an Aquaclear filter, rated for a 10G, you will be fine, since you can adjust it to have hardly any flow at all. That way, if you decide to go with something besides bettas, you will have the filter capacity. Most people on here get filters rated for more than their tanks.

Fish will only get stuck to the filter intake if they are sick in the first place.

I hope someone else will answer your question about the glofish, because I am so far from a stocking exepert it's not even funny!

Hope you had fun in your Brit Lit class!

 

[Mark Hewitt]

the girl working there gave me a great big lecture about how I was killing my fish by changing the water once a week because no "good" bacteria was growing.

Well she was right and wrong. Certainly changing 100% of the water is bad because you're taking away all the fish waste at once meaning that any bacteria that has grown will then starve and die. Which is why the recommendation is you change max 50% of the water in one go, so the bacteria still have something to live off for a while.

She also told me the five-gallon was too big and he would just sit in the corner of it. I bought it anyway, determined to mediate between different advice-givers.

Completely wrong of course. Betta's like any fish will appreciate as big a tank as you can give them. But not just empty space, they like hidey holes and things to swim around and through. Certainly a betta will be fine in a 100G tank, never mind 5!

So now I am thinking that I might like to have a handful of small fish in this tank since it's somewhat-big enough to be not just limited to one betta. I saw someone else post about having a betta with a couple of tetras - I didn't realize this was possible.

You might look at having a few small fish like that. Look at Black Skirt tetras, they are a very hardy fish and survived my attempts at cycling a tank!

Keep in mind 5G is still *very* small, so your options are limited. I assume you have a filter?

DO I need a filter for a betta? Or a betta with small tetras?

You *always* need a filter.

Thanks so much. Be kind to my newbie-ness, please. I promise that I tried to be a great fish-mommy to Louie. Thank you for your help! Sorry this was somewhat of a novel.

Don't worry about it, it's happened to us all. Myself I killed three goldfish in a row

 

[Mark Hewitt]

You all don't think that an HOB filter would be too strong for bettas? What power-level would you recommend? Like, would an up-to-10g be too strong for betta in a 5.5g?

Should be ok, it's generally recommended you get a filter for more than the capacity of the tank.

Also, should I be worried about the filter sucking up my fish? I've read some online horror stories about that.

I've read about putting socks over the filter intake. I've had guppies have their tails sucked into the filter and ripped to bits, not nice

British Literature class.

Ah, we called that English literature! Because it was written in English I suppose.

 

[Jason7894561230]

I would recommend the Aquaclear HOB filter. It is adjustable, and doesn't bother my divider 10G betta tank. In the 5G, I have these little Whisper internal filters, but I have one on each side. I prefer the Aquaclear, only because it does have an adjustable flow.
For right now, I would just go with the betta, until you know what his temperment is. Some are fine with other fish, and some are not. I wouldn't think that colors would be bad for bettas, it's more if the other fish can get away so the betta doesn't kill them. And you would need to make sure they are not fin nippers, because the betta is not all that fast of a swimmer, and he has the long flowy fins. You might be able to get away with about 3 female bettas in there too. Female bettas might look ugly and boring in the store, but once you get them home and give them some TLC, they become beautiful!

i sooooo agree!!!!!!! some neon tetras would be fine. like every said though they are schooling fish i think dk is right (like akways) they female will become beautiful!

 

[dkpate]

I was talking about female bettas LOL

 

[sieski]

Thanks for the welcome, everybody!

About the three female betta - I do sort of like that idea. To be honest, I was a bit hopeful about having multiple fish in the 5.5 gallon, so I was trying to figure out a good way to do that.

So you all think that a few of those glofish danios are out of the question? Even on their own without a betta?

What about any other non-betta combinations for the tank? Anybody have a handful of fish in a different combination that would work in the tank? I really want to explore all my options and figure out what I want to do most of all!

This weekend I plan to go buy a filter (I am addicted to AA now and I want to go RIGHT NOW and get started on this fun project... but being in college means I can hardly take time to breathe between now and Friday... darn English essays) and learn about/start cycling the tank. I also want to check out the fish available there.

You all don't think that an HOB filter would be too strong for bettas? What power-level would you recommend? Like, would an up-to-10g be too strong for betta in a 5.5g?

Also, should I be worried about the filter sucking up my fish? I've read some online horror stories about that.

You guys rock for being so helpful! Now I must tear myself away from AA and dash off to my British Literature class... much less exciting!

My betta loves swimming against the flow of my filter lol but as a rule they don't like strong currents. 20g rated hob in my 15 g that the betta is in and he gets around fine doesn;t sit at the bottom to stop himself fromf loating off. Bettas have one problem though.Any personal advice on bettas are usually useless to the next bloke. This because every betta has such a different personality from the lastone. This is what makes them brilliant.I've had 2 so far.One was a mass murderer the current one isl ovely.Enjoy