5 gallon tank: what can I put in it?

[Megalofyia]

What is the most variety and the most number of fish I can put in a five gallon tank? I'd like to have a busy tank.

Originally I was going to try keeping just ghost shrimp so that I'd have a supply of food for the 20 gallon tank. Well, that plan fell through as I discovered HOW fragile ghost shrimp are.

I already have neon tetras in another tank and would like to not have another tank with the same fish. I also have betas.

What are some other small fish that get along with each other?

 

[tkos]

You could keep a few chocolate gouramis if you can find them. A group of three would work in a 5 gallon tank, though they are on th efragile side and need an established tank.

Or else a fancy guppy tank would be okay.

 

[madasafish]

How about a pair of Dwarf or Neon Blue Gouramis (but make sure you're really getting a female--they don't often sell them). They're very pretty!

Or how about a school of endler's livebearers. Oh, actually this is a VERY good idea. I had a school of 8 in a small tank a while back--they are beautiful fish, and no picture captures their luminescence. Check out this link for a pic:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?siteid=21&pCatId=1584

They only get to be about 1 inch long, and they will reproduce a lot if you get the females, too. They're sooooo pretty! You can google them for a better picture...

But I'd recommend a max number of 6. Don't go too far over the 1 inch per gallon rule if possible, unless you have a really good filter.

OK, oops. Variety--not much in a 5-gallon... You could get one small, non-aggressive gourami and a few livebearers... But in a tank that small, variety would be tough.

 

[tkos]

A nice school of white cloud mountain minnows. Though up to 2 inches in size they do well in smaller tanks. Maybe 5 of them. They do like it colder though so not much above 70F for a long life.

You really can't get much variety in that small of a tank and still keep the fish healthy. I think you will be really stuck with a species tank.

How about just some cory catfish. That could be cool as well. The pygmies would be nice.

 

[Cherry Barb]

Yeah, variety in a tank that small may be hard, but if you go with the fancy guppies, you can get breeding pairs that are different and colorful. They are beautiful and busy.

 

[tkos]

Don't forget that just because a fish is small they don't always like small tanks. Try reading about fish you are interested in first to see their space requirements.

 

[madasafish]

Yeah, generally I think keeping fish in small tanks is a little unfair to them... They get kinda listless and even if they're small, have little room to roam. Have you already bought the 5G?

 

[Megalofyia]

Yes. It was originally going to be a tank just to keep feeder fish for the 20 gallon tank. I had guppies but they multiplied too fast and the fish in the 20 gallon decided they were not interest in eating guppies.

Then I traded the guppies for ghost shrimp. Put most of the ghost shrimp in the 20 gallon where they lasted about a week before they were all eaten. But before I did that I put all the pregnant ghost shrimp in the 5 gallon tank. Well with in about 3 hours they were all dead. I don't know why -- the water perimeters were fine. Zero amonia etc.
All I can think is that possibly the tank water was too warm for the ghost shrimp, although the guppies had been happy in the tank.

 

[AtodaJ]

For a variety of active fish I'd go for fancy guppies. Be sure to only have males though. That way you don't have to worry about babies and you'll get the best color options... lots of color/pattern options available with fancy male guppies.

Of course it would be better to have a larger tank, have females in the tank, etc. but you can only work with what you got.