So I work the aquatics/reptile department at a petstore to be unnamed. I keep fish and a bearded dragon. I’m away aat school however and only have room for a small tank. I dont want a Betta or else Id have gotten a big vase or jar for one. I want actual fish, so I got a 5 gallon, filtere, heater, and flourescent light. Its now cycled and ready for fish. It can hold a decent amount beyond a few fish, so what do I put in it?
1)2 Florida Flagfish, 2 Cory Catfish
2)2 Dwarf Puffers, 2 Corys
3)3 Apistogrammas
4)5 White Clouds, 2 Dwarf Gouramis
5)5 Whiteclouds, dwarf frog
6)Any other ideas?
I realize it’s not alot to work with, and would yell at any customer attempting it, but I feel I know my stuff well enough to attempt it.
Guppies do well in a small tank. My brother kept about 10 generations in a 5 gallon a while back.
If you want to get exotic, you could try sea horses. I kept them in a 5 gallon before with only an air filter and heater.
The frog is a good idea. I had an albino one named Fang for years. He got huge.
Water. Water is always good in an aquarium.
I bought a small aquarium for my niece’s b-day in July and stocked it with 5 White Cloud Minnows and 5 ghost shrimp and they are doing great. ( it’s a 5 gallon tank as well.)
Tell me more about seahorses. Im not necessarily bored with standard community fish, but, seeing as how i work in a fish store I think I should at least attempt something a little different.
I will second that.
Actually, before I even opened this thread, it was my first thought.
OK, scratch the interest in Seahorses, I was under the impression they could handle brackish. Weve never sold them, so I honetly know very little. Unless you have other ideas?
A small tank like that, with some light planting, would look awesome inhabited by a population of neons or cardinals.
(I know, I’ve done it.)
I’m partial to the apistogrammas, especially if you can get cacatuoides. I also like the suggestion of cardinals and maybe some pygmy corys.
If you are not averse to marine, a few pieces of live rock with some mushrooms and button polyps could be cool. Maybe throw in a catalina goby. My SO had this same set up for a few years, before bumping the entire set-up into a 10.
White cloud tetras are a good choice, guppies, or just about any livebearer (except maybe swordtails, they like to jump). If you get corydoras get the pygmy kind.
I worked in a petstore that specialized in herps and fish, and it was my understanding that you wanted a very well established salt tank (preferably at least 30 gals) before you attempted seahorses.
My personal favorites are the australian rainbows, gouramis, and smaller cichlids (like lamprolongus brichardi)…but they all need larger tanks.
I’ve kept conventional freshwater tanks in the past. My favorite fish to watch were the clown loaches and various catfish. The hardest to keep alive were neon tetras.
BUT, I’ve long wanted to do this: set up a tank with a black-and-white chessboard pattern backdrop against the bottom and three sides. Using no gravel or plants, supply tank with 32 apple snails, which you pre-prepare, uh, by somehow marking their shells with the requisite symbols (is there a quick-drying, waterproof, snail-safe paint?), prior to release. Et voila, dadaist chess!
It would be cruel to the snails, though, to force them to live like that, and the tank would require virtually daily cleanup.
I kept a 5-gallon in my office with a few dwarf gouramis. THey were very attractive.
StG
How about some barbs? They’re small and pretty hardy, and there are all sorts of varieties to choose from. We’ve got a black background in ours, with hot pink and purple plants and rocks, with some albino cherry barbs. It’s quite striking.
I second the Clown Loaches. Make sure you get 2, very active, like to play around like dolphins. They are orange with black stripes. A pretty Angel Fish and a Beta add some variety along with a small pocostumous. He’ll clean up the tank for you.
I have a 30 gallon tank set up at a friends house. I went out of state to work, she bought a house… She’s got it looking so nice I don’t have the heart to ask for it back even tho I miss it. I should get a 10 gallon tank, too.
A cool thing she did was picked different grasses from the local lake last summer. They work wonders for a natural setting. Tho CrazyCatLady’s tank does sound striking and I might have to be a copycat!