Salty wants some help!

[MACATUA]

So I have a spare 2.5 gallon laying around, and just so happens some empty space to put it in. I don't want to set up a small saltwater, so I figured I would just set me up a happy little freshwater tank. I like freshwater shrimp, (can you tell I am a salty), but was wondering, what could i put in a 2.5 gallon with ghost shrimp? Would a beta work? Any other small, singular fish that may go well in a small tank?

 

[tkos]

Generally a betta will work fine with some shrimp. Just make sure to put some live plants in there for the shrimp to hide in if things go bad. The good thing is that they don't really affect the bioload to any great degree so you can put quite a few in there (say 5 or 6 to start). As long as the betta is fed he won't worry about those little guys.

If you are a salty then you might want a snail or 2 as well. That will make a really cool little setup.

 

[Solid Snake]

You could put a non agro Dwarf Gourami in the tank with the shrimp. You MIGHT be able to put a Ram in there.

 

[tkos]

While those fish will technically fit in that small of a tank I wouldn't put them in as they need more swimming room. A betta is really the only fish that can go in a 2.5 gallon tank and not be stunted by it.

 

[Madame_X]

I second that... I have rams and dwarf gouramis and a 2.5 gallon tank would not be sufficient for these fish.

I have a 2.5 gallon tank as well that I'm reserving for a future betta.

I wonder, how much do dwarf puffers move around?

 

[Allivymar]

You could also just go FW shrimp. You could add an interesting mix of the smaller shrimp (ghost, cherry, bumblebee) and maybe a couple bamboo shrimp as well. Bamboos (aka wood shrimp aka singapore shrimp), get about 3 inches long and are filter feeders. You'd want some live plants and possibly may need special foods (artemia for example) if there is no algae or other microscopic organisms to support em, but they are really neat.

 

[tkos]

I wouldn't put the dwarf puffers in there. Ideally you want a few in the tank but they need a lot of room for their size. 2 in a 5 gallon is sort of minimum. Plus since they eat mostly live food a small tank will foul up quite quickly.