suggestions for keeping a small desk tank at work

Hi

I was wondering if anyone could give me a suggested setup for a 2.5 gal tank for work...


If you have a tank at work, what do you have? How would you do this? How hard is it to keep up?


Thanks
P.

[WaterPond]

Here is some info about a fish that people recommeneded to me when i was thinking about setting up a 3gal aquarium.

http://www.tfhmagazine.com/default.aspx?pageid=98

Some other fish you could keep are some guppies or something like that. A pair of guppies might be ok. The absolute best thing would be a male betta, or even a female betta. There arent many more possiblilities, i keep 5 feeder guppies in my 2gal and they do fine with some live plants, A smaller tank would be harder to maintain, but you could do it if you do regular water changes. Add some very hardy live plants like java fern and java moss to clean up some of the fish waste so the water wouldnt get as polluted. you could pull it off.

What do you think?

I was thinking about guppies and a few live plants.

My main concerns are:

Water quality at work...can i trust it?
Lighting...I only work 8-10 hrs a day. Without a timer, will this be enough light?
Feeding...I am not here on the weekends to feed the fishies....

[crazyred]

I keep two male bettas in two seperate desktop aquariums at work. Both tanks are roughly 2 gallons. I keep a dedicated 1 gallon water jug for water changes and I have a little bottle of Aquasafe in my desk drawer. My tanks aren't planted, so light isn't much of a concern. I keep their fish food next to the tanks....they don't get fed on the weekends (even if it's a four day) and they do fine! I've had them for quite a while in this set-up. As to water quality at work, the water out of the tap is the same water coming out of my tap at home....if it's good enough for my 10, 29, and 55 then it's good enough for my tanks at work. No problems to date.

[plecoperson]

How 'bout Heterandria formosa? A very tiny, plain but cute livebearer.

EDIT: Ooops, sorry, that's the link waterpond sent you.

[joannde]

I have a 2.5 gallon with a male betta in the kitchen. The light is NOT on all day, but he does get normal daylight. the light is very dim as my windows are all coated with UV protection. He has a HUGH wad of java moss in with him. I change his water every 2 days. Yesterday I tested the water before I changed it - ammonia and nitrites were both zero, which means the java moss, even at that low level of light, is removing the pollutants.
I'm sure the 8 - 10 hours of office lights will be fine.
I'd suggest the betta instead of the guppies - betta's are like dogs with fins - so much personality

[WaterPond]

If you get some java moss and java fern, they would do fin because they can survive in the crappiest light conditions

[fishfairy]

As for the weekend feeding question, the fish should be fine over the weekend with no food. I have a betta on my desk at work and he gets fed everyday except for Saturday and Sunday with no problems.

[Fishyfanatic]

I have a 150 gal tank full of African Cichlids at work. Not exactly small, but it's my tank. We can't put it in our apt building since it is so old and we don't trust the floors. For a small tank, a planted tank with a betta. Or maybe a densly planted tank with shrimp and snails?

[plecoperson]

I have a 1-gallon cheapie tank at work with an undergravel filter in it; my boss gave it to me 'cause all the fish she put in it kept dying.

I set it up with tiny natural gravel from my 55, a couple stones, a java fern and some moss, and the tiny light on a timer. Boy, does it drive my co-workers crazy. First "why is it EMPTY"? Then you get to explain the nitrogen cycle. Then "where are the FISH" when all I have in there is two physa (aka 'pest') snails that I pulled out of my snail tanks at home. Then I put an MTS in there. Then a baby apple snail. Then the physa snails laid eggs, then the eggs hatched, then the MTS put out a couple babies, then.....

They are very excited that I will be adding a couple H. formosa next week, and many of them can now ID bridgesii , MT, and physa snails on sight!

It gives you a good opening to educate people on why there isn't a nice goldfish in the tank. My boss asked where the fish was...I asked her where her fish were, the former occupants of this little tank. So she got to learn about the nitrogen cycle.

It's fun to have people stop by and see what's going on in this microworld. Maybe keeps a few goldfish and bettas alive, too, when people learn what needs to be done to care for them properly.