# 5.5 Gallon.



## Sevat (Oct 5, 2009)

Hello everyone,

I have a 5.5 gallon Eclipse tank.

It has one male betta, 4 snails and a clam. Two live plants and a piece of driftwood.

Any ideas to spice it up or any additions?


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

It has a clam in it?


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## Sevat (Oct 5, 2009)

Yep. It's been quite happy!


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

Interesting, mind taking a picture of that? I don't think i've seen a clam in a home aquarium. Also, 5 gallons is pretty small. Not much you can do with it. Most small fish are schoolers so you couldn't add more fish. 

Take a picture and we can see what we have for suggestions on decoration/design.


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## StripesAndFins (Dec 31, 2008)

i don't know< but you might be able to add a trio of otos or pygmy cories, but i'm not sure. never kept pygmies before. 

And i would like to see your clam as well


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## Toshogu (Apr 24, 2009)

clam.... dude I've never seen a freshwater clam before.


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## Sevat (Oct 5, 2009)

Unfortunately, my clam is buried in the sand for now.

I had just pebbles in there for a week or so, so he wasn't able to burrow down. Within minutes of having a sand substrate, he was gone. He comes out at night it seems. I'll try to get a pic.

Anyway, here's a pic of my tank:


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## StripesAndFins (Dec 31, 2008)

Nice tank. betta looks beautiful


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

i used to have about 15 freshwater clams that i collected from a local river..they were doing very nicely in my 240..then i found out that around here they are protected species..
i quickly returned them to the river..


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## Sevat (Oct 5, 2009)

lohachata said:


> i used to have about 15 freshwater clams that i collected from a local river..they were doing very nicely in my 240..then i found out that around here they are protected species..
> i quickly returned them to the river..


Mine, luckily, was purchased legally and is legal in my state!


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

I saw some clams at the LFS yesterday. I want some now. I would figure that they would be good with most fish since they have their shell. Can anyone tell me if I could put one in one of my tanks (see signature).


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

sevat...i think that a few microrasboras would work well in your tank..even a few threadfin rainbows would be great..

bml..a clam would be fine in any of your tanks..but understand hat they need a sandy substrate....or a very fine gravel..most freshwater clams like cooler water...so ; make sure you check on that..knew a guy that was keeping a 125 gallon tank full of clams..probably 40 or 50 of them..native fish like darters and gobies and shiners..a number of plants anf java moss;rocks and driftwood..absolutely amazing..i think he got the clams from new england somewhere..


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## Sevat (Oct 5, 2009)

lohachata said:


> sevat...i think that a few microrasboras would work well in your tank..even a few threadfin rainbows would be great..


One male betta, 4 snails and a clam in a 5.5 gallon is pushing it as it is, isn't it?

Adding a few Microrasboras or Rainbows would be far too crowded, wouldn't it?


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

depends on how good one is at keepin fish...i kept over 200 common plecos in a 20 long..started out with about 800 eggs..hatched them in the 20L..a week later i split them up into 4 tanks..sold 600 of them at about 8 weeks old..sold the other 200 at about 2-3 inches in length...
the rasboras and threadfins put so little on the bioload that they would barely register on the tests...


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## Sevat (Oct 5, 2009)

lohachata said:


> depends on how good one is at keepin fish...i kept over 200 common plecos in a 20 long..started out with about 800 eggs..hatched them in the 20L..a week later i split them up into 4 tanks..sold 600 of them at about 8 weeks old..sold the other 200 at about 2-3 inches in length...
> the rasboras and threadfins put so little on the bioload that they would barely register on the tests...


Aside from water chemistry, wouldn't the new fish as well as the betta feel quite cramped leading to "depressed" fish?


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

When one talks about the happiness of fish, they are not referring to the emotion of happiness. Rather, a happy fish is a healthy fish that lives a full life. Therefore it does not make sense to refer to a fish as "depressed". 

Depending on the size of the snails, they will most likely not add a bioload to the tank. Since the snails and the clams both do not swim, the only animal taking up any of the swimming space is the betta. It seems like you could put a few small fish in there, but not too many. 

Also, Lohachata definitely knows what he is doing. I would listen to him


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