I wasn’t suggesting the OP try to do that. Instead, I was responding to what I still consider an ignorant blanket statement - that a 5 gallon tank is “so small it is cruel.” Hell, a 75 gal would probably be “so small it is cruel” for an arrowana.
If I had a pic on-line of my office tank which I’m looking at right now, I would have posted it. I’m not sure if it is a 2 or 3 gal hex, but I got for free from someone who was throwing it out. It has a 7 watt PC bulb ($4) and a HOB filter ($9). No heater, no ferts. Very low-tech and low maintenance. The tank is fully planted, and a community of Endler’s and cherries are doing great (as demonstrated by their reproduction.)
I feed them 3x a week - which takes maybe 10 seconds each time. Once a week I take out a couple of coffee cups of water (which I pour into my plants) and replace it with untreated tap water. Time required - maybe 2 minutes at the most. Every couple of weeks when I have the water level down, I’ll scrub a little green algae off the sides - which might take 30 seconds. Every couple of months I’ll pull the media out of the filter and rinse it out - maybe 20 seconds. Then, maybe once or twice a year, I’ll siphon some mulm off of the substrate during a water change. That massive endeavor might add half a minute to the water change.
So I call bullshit to anyone who claims a tank under 5 gallons is inherently cruel to its inhabitants, or that maintaining an attractive healthy small tank requires too much time and money.
I think she would love havinf a frog in with a fish. COuld I get a Betta and two frogs, or is my tank too small? maybe one frog? I will get a little heater to keep the water warmish as I understand both the Bettas and the froggies like warmer water.
I hope she likes it, she really seems taken with fish and stuff and I think she will like having a “pet”.
The guide I learned back in my aquarium days was - 1 inch of fish per gallon. So a single betta and 2 dwarf frogs would be cutting it close for a newbie. One frog would be better. Start small and build up (if you wish) rather than overstocking right away.
Doesn’t take long to move from a 5 or 10 gallon with a few guppies to a pair of 20’s and a 55…
I might have missed someone mentioning it, but if this is a fresh setup in a fish-free house, you might want to cycle the tank first. Betta’s aren’t that expensive, but it can be discouraging to see your shiny new setup kill off the first thing you put in.
I’ve been out of the hobby for a while, so take the advice of the people upthread first.
I’ve got a small tank (7 hex) with a betta, two frogs, and a snail (plus some plants and stuff.) It’s a great tank. A kid would love the frogs (you want the dwarf African ones) - they’re so cool! When they go up to breathe they shoot up like little rockets. Never had the first problem with the betta nipping the frogs or anything. I don’t think he realizes they’re even alive. Bettas aren’t very bright.
I would start off with one betta and one frog. That’s what I did with my five gallon, actually. I think you could probably get away with two frogs, but I’d wait and see how it goes with just one first. One reason it’s probably best to start off with just one frog is that sometimes the frogs take a while to catch on to how to find food in the tank on their own, so you may have to hand feed it at first. The way I did that was to break a chunk off a cube of freeze-dried tubifex worms, put my hand in the tank and hold it in front of my frog’s nose until he gulped it down. Hey, your daughter might enjoy doing that, actually.
Oh, and one more thing: Beware of any advice you get from a pet store employee!
Pet stores are notorious for giving out incorrect info about fish, either because they don’t know any better or because they want to make a sale.
Even if you see a fish that looks really cool, and even if the pet store employee claims the fish will be fine in your tank, don’t buy it without doing some research online about it first. Some of the fish sold in pet stores are truly NOT suitable for normal home aquariums.
For example, you’ll often see the red-bellied Pacu for sale in pet stores as a baby fish. Most pet stores don’t warn the people who buy those tiny baby pacus that a pacu will eventually grow so large that it will eventually need an aquarium of about 1000 gallons (no, that wasn’t a typo) as a full-grown adult.
Good luck with your fish.
Guppies and Neon tetras will stay small. Guppies are a bit hardier, and live bearers. Neons tend to die sooner. There are some other tetras with only a different color scheme. I would recomend the Fantail Guppy for the tank. The males have a large decrative tail and the females just have the samll regular tail. Buy a pair. You can get more than two guppies for that tank, Start with 2 until your child can take care of them and get 2 more as an incintive in a month if they are taken care of.
Do’nt get a goldfish, they get huge over a few years , though a small tank retards their growth, it doesn’t stop it. The smallest mature gold fish I owned was 6 inches long. Think of the size of those fish in the ponds in the park. It’s not a fish for a 5 gallon tank. Mine always died after sexual maturity, and laying eggs. They are a bottom feeder, so they tear up the bottom all the time.
That reminds me. One of the newspapers around here ran a story about a woman who died an in her house they found a “50 pound piranha!” And then the story went on to describe the horrors of piranha. It was a Pacu. We laughed about that one for a while.
If you get guppies of mixed sexes they will breed, they will have babies, and they will eat the babies. If you aren’t ready to handle that, don’t get guppies. If you are ready to handle that, get two females for every male. That’s true of all livebearers (mollies, swordtails, platies, etc.)
(If you ever get a bigger tank and want to watch fish with babies, get Kribensis. They are beautiful and good parents!)
Guppies have small mouths and won’t eat frogs. Tadpoles eat anything smaller then themselves. Frogs eat lots of meat protein, so I don’t know about it coexisting with a guppy. I really would recommend starting with two guppies, because you can get used to mantaining a tank, and don’t have to deal with species interaction, such as the frog ate the guppy. I had a frog leap from the ground once and get caught on my fishing hook that had a worm on it. I was still ten feet from the shore and not even fishing yet.
You would have the opposite problem there. A frog will eat anything that is smaller than its head (and may even give larger stuff a shot)! That’s important to remember.
I had an African water frog in a 5-gal. tank for its whole life - lived about 10 years (the literature I got with it said I could expect a life span of 5-8 years, so I guess we did OK). He needed a filter, but not a heater. Also, you need to use marbles on the bottom of the tank instead of gravel because they’ll try to eat the gravel (see the ‘eating stuff smaller than its head’ thing above). You would also need a lid for the tank because a frog can - and will - jump out if you don’t have one. And you don’t want your kid to find a crispy frog on the floor 2 days later. They dehydrate pretty quickly once they are out of the water.
They do make nice low-maintenance pets. I had a male who would sing at night. It was neat.
Bettas can also get along with small fish without trailing fins. The one I had in college shared his tank with an albino cory cat. The cat was far less interactive than the betta was (Hobbes would chase your finger around and around the sides of the tank, or puff up at you if you made faces at him), but it was still very entertaining to watch him frisk about the bottom of the tank.
If you get a betta, though, make sure you keep a lid on the tank. They can and will jump out on you. I once found Hobbes in my bed, him having made a kamikazi leap from his tank while I was changing the water.
Dinsdale– Any chance of you shooting me an e-mail with a quick “How to” on your office tank? Sounds like it might be what I’m looking for for my office.
I’m Tristan over on theplantedtank.com as well, but don’t have much to offer, so I mostly just lurk.
I wanted you all to know that after reading this thread, and knowing precisely zero about aquariums/fish keeping, I’ve made a trip to PetCo for a 5 gal. tank. (Yes, I know, don’t go to a pet store, but the closest aquarium store is like 30 miles away.) I got a 5 gal. tank, two plants (one sort of feathery thing and one bamboo, which I didn’t know would grow totally submerged in water – will it really?). I’ve been assured by the PetCo person that they will grow, or at least not die, just by being shoved down into the gravel – true? Anyway – tank, gravel, a couple decorative rocks, a few seashells – 98 bucks. :eek: I’ve got the tank set up and cycling. Tomorrow or Sunday I’ll go back for a betta. God help it.
I should clarify that for the $98 (actually, $50) I got an aquarium kit, that includes the filter, lid with lamp – everything you need. Except gravel, decorations, plants, and fish.
Look for a straight body and intact fins. Some stores don’t treat Bettas very well, and their flowy fins can start to shred or rot.
If they have lots of Bettas, move them around in their little cups so they can see each other. You can then see them (usually) flare out their gills and fins. That’s a good, easy way to make sure their fins look intact and that they are alert. Well, as alert as a rather silly fish can be!
At home, you can put up a mirror next to the tank and watch your Betta puff up and try to intimidate himself. Don’t leave the mirror up all the time.
Not true. My betta suffered an injury to his tail somehow (no idea), and it grew back in a few weeks. You can still tell where the injury was beause the fin grew back reddish, instead of the original blue/green.
I think you could probably get away with two frogs, but I’d wait and see how it goes with just one first. One reason it’s probably best to start off with just one frog is that sometimes the frogs take a while to catch on to how to find food in the tank on their own, so you may have to hand feed it at first. The way I did that was to break a chunk off a cube of freeze-dried tubifex worms, put my hand in the tank and hold it in front of my frog’s nose until he gulped it down. Hey, your daughter might enjoy doing that, actually. 