# Fish For 5 Gallon Tank, Help!! No Luck Here!



## joey322534 (Mar 31, 2005)

MY DAUGHTER GOT A 5 GALLON TANK ABOUT A YEAR AGO...NOT MUCH LUCK WITH THE FISH, THEY SEEM TO COME AND GO..CAN ANYONE TELL ME THE RIGHT FISH FOR A TANK THIS SMALL AND ABOUT HOW MANY...HAVENT HAD ANY FISH IN IT FOR ABOUT 2 MONTHS, JUST TODAY BOUGHT 5 TIGER BARBS, AND ONE WAS DEAD WITHIN 4 HOURS...NOW I HAVE BEEN READING THEY SHOULD HAVE A 20 GALLON TANK, SO I GUESS WE SCREWED UP AGAIN!! HELP!!


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

what about a betta and 2 guppies?
mouse


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## shev (Jan 18, 2005)

bettas don't like guppies, but one betta would be fine. I'd take back the tiger barbs.


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## maxpayne_lhp (Jan 19, 2005)

Well, you should keep 1 guppy only. Try refunding the tiger barbs. You'll have them for the next tank, maybe!


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## Lexus (Jan 19, 2005)

Tiger barbs should not be kept in a 5g as they need swimming room. I would suggest 3 Guppies or 1 betta, or 1-2 blue paradise gouramis.


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## Mr Aquarium (Jan 18, 2005)

Well it would be my guess, the tank is not cycled sence it;s been empty to 2 months,
Can we start over and find out what we can that you are doing or maybe not doing, 
Do you know about cycling a tank?
What filter do you have on it?
Do you do water changes ever week?
Do you declorinate the water?
Take it from the top and tell us everything from the time you put the water in the tank,
then we all can understand what is happening.


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## fishfreaks (Jan 19, 2005)

i also suggest bettas or guppies


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## joey322534 (Mar 31, 2005)

o.k...gonna take back the tiger barbs...as far as the cycleing tank and stuff...my daughters aunt bought it for her in another state i dont know what they did she just came home with it, fish and all...since then in the past year i have taken half the water out a few times, maybe once a month and added fresh....all i can tell you on the filter is what i have on the filter cartridges replacement box it is a whisper medium, hooks on the side of the tank, seems to work fine...that is really all i have done other then buy more and more little fish...she feeds them flakes once a day but they dont seem to last very long, they go one by one in a matter of a couple months, we have had a few different kinds, small ones like neons and guppies etc, now the tiger barbs.....another tiger barb was dead today so only three left and just got them yesturday...help us please


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## fishfreaks (Jan 19, 2005)

you need to do more water changes to keep your nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia levels down. for a smaller tank, the water can change badly very quickly. i suggest to do a small water change atleast once a week from now one. have you heard of the gravel vaccum? if so, I suggest if you dont have one, go get yourself one. theyre cheap for the smaller ones. this will help keep your levels down and water safer for your daughters fish. also you may want to get your water tested, you should be able to take a water sample to your lfs, and they will test your water for free, or they may charge you, around here its a $1.00


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## joey322534 (Mar 31, 2005)

she also has no real vegation in the tank, just a fake plant and shells etc....does this also limit which fish we should get??


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## fishfreaks (Jan 19, 2005)

no the decorations will be just fine


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## Guest (Mar 31, 2005)

you should research what fish you are interested in and plan ahead before buying anything.


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## fishboy (Feb 26, 2005)

there are kribs(shelldwellers)
ember teras (if you can find them)
killifish
rainbow fish (i don't really know about these)
bettas
guppies
african dwarf frogs
white clouds
a blue paradise gourami
apple snails
ghost shrimp
guppies
endlers livebearers
i may have missed some thats all i know


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

I would go with a betta, or a couple guppies. ghost shrimp and maybe an apple snail too. thats about it for fish and inverts, although I'm partial to African Dwarf Frogs and Fire Belly Newts.


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## Lexus (Jan 19, 2005)

But before adding fish again, make sure you do a good water change. Also make sure that you change the filter pad when it gets icky, I usually do mine every 2-3 weeks.


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## joey322534 (Mar 31, 2005)

o.k...get more confused, haha...i was told to do a search on the blue paradise gouramis...but when i did it said should have at least a 10 gallon tank..my daughter likes the beta, can i have that and 2 corycats?? some else recommended that....what else might i put in with the beta other then shrimp and snails...dont what that kind of stuff?? I gave the barbs to a friend with a huge tank today...so ours is empty should i do anything to it to get it ready for any new fish?? My daughter is driving me nuts with it empty again..haha. And by the way, thank you all so very much for you replys..i sit in front of my computer every second i can in hopes of new answers...again thank you all!!!!


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## joey322534 (Mar 31, 2005)

i did do a hole cleaning of the tank...fresh water and new filter right before we got the tiger barbs and we only had those over night before we found them a new home.


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## Lexus (Jan 19, 2005)

Do a 10-20% water change, leave the filter pad for another day. 
If she wants a betta you could get a betta and 3 cories. Panda cories and pygmy cories stay smaller so that would be my choice but I am sure what you will find will be albino, bronze and spotted.


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

I think if you did a whole cleaning of the tank, your five gallon will need to go through a brand new cycle. That means you need to add an ammonia source(like a peice of cocktail shrimp, then let the tank sit until your water parameters are 
Nitrates: 10-30
Nitrites: 0
Ammonia: 0

also since its such a small tank, I would do 20%-30% water changes every week to keep those nitrates down. Betta and pigmy cories would work good.


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## joey322534 (Mar 31, 2005)

ok... you mean aregular piece of shrimp...like you eat, cause i actually have some left over from dinnerr....do i buy some kind of kit to test the water for all this stuff??


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

if its raw its fine. A test kit would be the best solution to test for Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate... but you can go to the LFS every few days to get it tested also if they do it for free.


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## joey322534 (Mar 31, 2005)

lexus...you said leave the filter pad for another day....i just put that one on new yesturday....do i have to replace it already??


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## joey322534 (Mar 31, 2005)

no the shrimp wasnt raw...was precooked frozen shrimp...so what else do i do other then using the shrimp?


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

no, the filter pad is fine... they can be in a tank for a good two months before needing replacement. I would just get your tank up and running with a peice of raw shrimp and the filter going... thats all you need for now. See, ammonia and nitrite are the #1 killer of aquarium fish. A tank that is not cycled is prone to have spikes of ammonia, and nitrite because the bacteria that breaks these two down is not abundant in the tank. Nitrosomas is the bacteria the breaks down ammonia(toxic) to nitrite(toxic), and Nitro bacter is the bacteria that breaks down nitrite (toxic) to nitrate (not toxic in lower levels). Both these bacteria live in the air, and will actually colonize the water in your tank if there is an available food source (which you are supplying as the peice of shrimp breaks down) They will mainly reside in your gravel and in your filter media. Once their population is able to handle the ammonia source you produced, you get readings like the above. Introducing a fish or two after that is completely fine.


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## osteoporoosi (Jan 27, 2005)

I wouldn't put any fish in a 5 gallon tank. A betta would go, but the corys are a bad idea.
Corys are schooling fish, they prefer to be kept in groups of 6 or more. They also need fine sand for substrate.


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## Lexus (Jan 19, 2005)

osteoporoosi @ Fri Apr 01 said:


> I wouldn't put any fish in a 5 gallon tank. A betta would go, but the corys are a bad idea.
> Corys are schooling fish, they prefer to be kept in groups of 6 or more. They also need fine sand for substrate.


Corys DO NOT NEED sand, I have kept mine with gravel for years and their barbels are fine. 
Corys in 3's are also fine. 3 is better than 1. Of course 6 is preferred but not necessary. 
Work with what you've got... 1 betta and 3 corys is fine, make sure you buy small cories and keep up with water changes.


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## osteoporoosi (Jan 27, 2005)

In my opinion it is bad to get any kind of fish, if you can't give them the best possible conditions.
Corys love fine sand, and in the wild they live in areas that have fine sand for substrate. And if the tank is too small to keep a proper group of corys, why to get any?


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## Pac-Man (Mar 18, 2005)

yah osteo i strongly disagree. Cories can do well in groups of 3-4, and they do not need sand. How can u know if they need sand if youve never had them with anything else??? I used to have cories with gravel too and they did fine.


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## wannagofishin (Jan 22, 2005)

A good fish for a 5 gallon tank would be a shellie. A pair of Gold Ocellatus would be fun to watch and they are also hardy if you have hard water. There are many shellies that would work providing you have hard water. Neons are peaceful, but require more water changes.


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## Mery (Mar 9, 2005)

Pac-Man @ Sun Apr 03 said:


> yah osteo i strongly disagree. Cories can do well in groups of 3-4, and they do not need sand. How can u know if they need sand if youve never had them with anything else??? I used to have cories with gravel too and they did fine.


Well I have had Corys with gravel AND with sand, and I really see the difference. In the gravel they just loll around on the gravel, but when I changed it to the sand, they burrowed in ecstasy into it. And of course, as Osteoporoosi already said, it's more natural to them.


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## MyraVan (Jan 19, 2005)

For my 5 gallon tank at work I will have 3 white cloud mountain minnows and 2 snails (one apple snail and one nerite algae eating snail). The two snails have been in there for a more than month, and I'll add the white cloud mountain minnows this weekend. These critters can live happily without a heater, as long as your room temperature is reasonable (65 degrees or more).

The nerite snails are hard to find but are great at keeping the glass clean. The apple snail is really cool to look at. My 2-year old daughter really liked the snails (I kept them in a bucket at home, with a filter, until I had the tank in the office set up for them). She occasionally says "snails back", meaning she wants the snails back home, and she enjoys going inside to look at them when I drop by work on a weekend (I work right next to a little shopping mall, so if we go to the mall we stop by my office to say hello to the snails).

For a colorful, interesting little tank, I think that white cloud mountain minnows + apple snail would be hard to beat. 

Warning: pay great heed to what FishFirst says about cycling the tank. You are highly likely to lose some of your critters if you simply put 3 white cloud mountain minnows and a snail into your tank (or any other full load). You really should do the fishless cycling thing that he recomends. I didn't do a fishless cycle for my little tank, but I put only the snails in initially, and I put in shedloads of floating plants to absorb ammonia produced by the snails, until the good bacteria had a chance to grow. The result is that the concentrations of the nasty chemicals stayed low through the cycle. Now that the tank is stable, I'm ready to add the fish. (I would have added them a couple of weeks ago, actually, but I was on vacation.)

Keeping fish successfully requires lots of patience, and quite a bit of knowledge. I do highly recommend getting a test kit. They aren't cheap, but you can only take good care of your fish if you can monitor the concentrations of nasty chemicals, both during the cycle, and afterwards.


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## Lydia (Feb 6, 2005)

i agree with pac_man....cories are fine in gravel....i have mine in fine gravel (just because i dont have the patience for sand) and they are "happy"


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## Mery (Mar 9, 2005)

Lydia @ Tue Apr 05 said:


> i agree with pac_man....cories are fine in gravel....i have mine in fine gravel (just because i dont have the patience for sand) and they are "happy"


What do you mean? Sand doesn't need any patience, it's even easier than gravel. Plants like it too.


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## UgLy_eLf (Feb 26, 2005)

I dont know much about cories, but here's my two cents. 5 gallon tank, with 3 cories vs 55 gallon tank with 6. It is rare that the cories will actually even see eachother in a 55 gallon, whereas in a 5 gallon the three of them will most likely swim together without losing eachother in the tank, I think they'd be fine.

My cories constantly break up in my 28 gallon and I have 6 of them, I rarely see more than two swimming together.


Anyway, dont bother thinking about fish now anyway, you have weeks to wait for your tank to cycle. If you cant get shrimp ask your friend with an established tank for some fish poop 

Can anyone tell that I am a fan of fish poo for cycling? Hah!


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## Pac-Man (Mar 18, 2005)

whoopee for mery.. shes had cories with sand and gravel.... They do fine in gravel too. so  there


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

who said bettas don't like guppies??
I have bettas and guppies in all my tanks and there doesn't seem to be too much problem.occasionally the guppies bug the betta.
mouse


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## osteoporoosi (Jan 27, 2005)

The one thing to remember with corys and gravel is that gravel is not the natural substrate where they live in the wild. So sand is easier and better for the fish and plants!


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## Mery (Mar 9, 2005)

Pac-Man @ Wed Apr 06 said:


> whoopee for mery.. shes had cories with sand and gravel.... They do fine in gravel too. so there


Argh. :wink: But they were so much happier with sand, and they were not able to behave their natural way with gravel. So actually I can't say that they didn't do fine in gravel (because I can't know it), but I can say that they did better with sand. Doesn't that matter? :?

_Edit: Whoops I can't write... _


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## aquariumguy (Apr 5, 2005)

about the cory in sand/gravel debate....i use flourite in my tanks, it's farely small, but soft and plants absolutely love it. but as far as stocking your tank, it's pretty small, you could do a little mini community tank with maybe some tetras or live bearers.....also you could do a species tank for some smaller types of fish...check out endler's live bearers, they're kinda like guppies. and don't forget to get a couple of "cleaner" fish, such as the cories and if you get any algae problems i'd try a few octocinclus, but only after you have visible algae or they will starve.


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## osteoporoosi (Jan 27, 2005)

5 gallons is too small for otos. Even a group of corys won't fit. Endlers could be a good idea. or dwarf rasboras.


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## Lydia (Feb 6, 2005)

i also would go with guppies....just make sure you only get males, because otherwise they will breed and you will have a lot of little guppy babies to get rid of....or you could get a betta....either way, good luck!


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## MyraVan (Jan 19, 2005)

I agree with osteoporoosi about the cleaner s. Don't use cleaner fish, there simply isn't enough space. Shrimp would work well, though, and they are very cool animals.


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## Lydia (Feb 6, 2005)

osteoporoosi @ Sun Apr 03 said:


> In my opinion it is bad to get any kind of fish, if you can't give them the best possible conditions.
> Corys love fine sand, and in the wild they live in areas that have fine sand for substrate. And if the tank is too small to keep a proper group of corys, why to get any?



i completely disagree....mine are fine in gravel....their barbells arent hurt at all....and i think a group of 3 is fine


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## Lydia (Feb 6, 2005)

Mery @ Tue Apr 05 said:


> Lydia @ Tue Apr 05 said:
> 
> 
> > i agree with pac_man....cories are fine in gravel....i have mine in fine gravel (just because i dont have the patience for sand) and they are "happy"
> ...



i dont have the patience to try to keep it clean....ive heard its hard to keep clean....i also add plants some what often and that would stir it up really bad, wouldnt it? it plants like it that is a good thing....i sometimes have trouble with plants, lol


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