5 gallon

[Newfishlover]

So I just bought a five gallon for my dorm since I couldn't bring my tanks from home. I bought it used and it came with a hood and a few other things. Now I have a couple questions. One is 15 watts considered low lighting? I want to do planted but I don't want to upgrade the hood that came with it. Also I've always wanted a banana plant but could never find them at home and they have some here where my college is. Also I have no clue how to stock it. I needs to be something easily found because I wouldn't trust shipping it here since it has to go to the residence life center then they email us to pick it up. Also I know about cycling and I've chose fish in because I've been without my fish too long and would rather be changing water then not looking at any fish. Thanks in advance! Hope this isn't too long.

 

[shellyx]

For that size of tank I would use it for a betta

 

[tamtam]

Depending on the type of light that is it should be able to sustain low light plants. That's 3 watts per gallon which is usually ok for low lights. Good low light plants are Anubias, java moss and java fern and water sprite is a good one too. You may or may not need to add ferts. Often people can get off without using ferts on low light plants

For stocking I would suggest a single betta maybe a snail or 2.
Another idea would be a shrimp tank
hmmm.. may be a challange to come across but you could do a dwarf puffer if you can track one down

I can't say for certain as I do not know a lot about them but I've heard of people keeping sparkling gourami in a 5 gallon. You could only do a single. Hopefully someone can say for sure as I had originally thought a 10 gallon was a min but I've been reading more often that people have been doing 5 gals.

I know nothing about banana plants and can't say anything on that front. If you want easily available a betta would be your best bet.

 

[Chiroptera]

I'd say, if you can go home on a weekend or something similar, there are micro rasboras that are .5 of an inch max size, they'll fit in a 5 gallon, they're maybe 1/2 or 3/4 the size of a neon tetra and not nearly as active. They'd be decent. But not very readily available, so I'd just say shrimp and maybe a female betta, so she doesn't eat them.

 

[hellaasian]

Licorice gourmai or scarlet badis or blue colbalt goby or even red cherry shrimp that is what i have. In my 5 gallon

 

[Newfishlover]

Ya I thought about a betta but I have one at home. But if it comes down to not finding it the lfs here has some cool bettas(all black or white and one with orange) which is better then the petsmart selection at home. And I've been looking at things but it just comes down to finding them. Like would chili rasbora, endler, scarlet badis, white cloud, and red cherry shrimp work. Obviously not all of those but like one and the shrimp if I can find them. Whatever one of those I find will be what I do. I've been wanting to do a shrimp tank but the lfs doesn't carry them or at least I didn't see any. And I've never seen anything but ghost shrimp at petsmart.

 

[hellaasian]

Yea those would work try finding a better pet store around only specializing in fish

 

[azmodan]

A well-planted single dwarf puffer tank is always fun.

Edit: Nevermind, not a good choice for a fish-in cycle.

 

[hcourts]

I ordered my shrimp off the classifieds here. Check them out. They may be a better choice in terms of shipping.

 

[Newfishlover]

Well I found this one store but they have everything else too. But the reviews say its the best fish store around and there isn't anything better. but they don't have a lot of exotic types. And I would ship but like I said before its going to a dorm which means it goes through another building then they send me an email then I after to go pick it up somewhere.