Balloon Molly 5 Gal?

[CKutz]

I saw the index page says the minimum is 10 gallons..but I want to see what people think anyways.

I have two tanks right now, a 5 gallon and a 10 gallon. I have nothing in the 5 gallon and have just kept it as a hospital tank. I have a balloon molly in my 10 gallon along with some other fish. I am thinking about getting a bumblebee goby to add to my 10 gallon. i love bottom dwelling fish and have none right now as I can't really find any for a 10 gal that wouldn't overstock my tank because of needing to be in groups.

So i've been thinking i'll get a bumble bee goby or two. I know about the big debate between brackish and freshwater. but it seems like many people are having success with freshwater. and i read that the species i will be getting is the one that handles freshwater better than others. however if this doesn't seem to be working for the gobies I was thinking i could put them in the 5 gallon and make it brackish, and since the balloon molly would like a low level brackish tank I'd like to put it in there also. the tank is an eclipse hexagonal 5 gallon, so it's taller than wide.

any thoughts? I don't want the balloon molly to be cramped, it had ich when i first got it and I had it in the 5 gallon for about a week, it came out healthy and fine. and this is all just incase the bbgs dont' seem to be handling freshwater well.

 

[OldMan47]

A 5 gallon is smaller than I would use for any molly. They get to be quite large fish and would be cramped in a 5 gallon. For bottom fish for a 5 gallon, you could get one of the pygmy cories. The pygmies are pygmaeus, hastatus and habrosus. Of the 3, I think I like the habrosus best. You could keep 5 in a 5 gallon if they were alone or almost alone.

Corydoras habrosus

Corydoras hastatus

Corydoras pygmaeus on the left

These are all pictures from my own tanks so they don't have that professional appearance.

 

[CKutz]

it's a balloon molly though, they only get to like 1" or 2". I don't need anything for the 5 gallon, it is just incase it turns out the bbgs don't do well in freshwater, but if i were to put them in the 5 gallon, i would want some other kind of mid/top dwelling fish. but there aren't any for a brackish 5 gallon, that's why i'm curious about if the balloon molly would be ok.

i would love to get pygmy cories, but i can't find any around here. there's not many good lfs around, only franchises.

 

[OldMan47]

Since you are in the US, you could easily get whichever ones you want where I did. Mine came from floridaguppiesplus. It has always been a pleasure for me to work with Luis at that shop. He is quite accommodating and often throws in a little something extra on an order just for good measure. If you don't see what you want in his ads on aquabid, send him a message using their messaging service to "ask a question" about what he is selling. I got my hastatus from him by writing him about his pygmaeus that were for sale. Yes he had them and would sell them at a very good price was the response I got. When I ordered a dozen hastatus, I got 13 all in good condition a few days later. The down side to on line orders is that the shipping will eat you up on small orders so I never buy 1 or 2 of anything by mail.

 

[CKutz]

shipping. that's exactly my problem. i'm a college student, very strapped for cash. i looked at liveaquaria.com before for fish and they wanted like $35 minimum to ship something (i think). that is wayyyy out of my budget. i could probably spend like $20 as a maximum for more fish.

besides that...are pygmy's really ok for a 10 gallon? i know how active many bottom dwellers are and i would almost feel bad for getting like 5 or 6 pygmys.
I currently have 4 rasbora (going to put that up to 6) 1 balloon molly, 1 dwarf gourami, 1 cherry barb. the bottom of my tank is pretty much unclaimed, but i feel like 1 or 2 fish would easily have it covered.

 

[LauraFrog]

There are several different species sold as 'bumblebee gobies' and they're hard to tell apart. The one you want for a freshwater tank is Brachygobius xanthozonus. It's not a matter of that one handling freshwater better, xanthozonus is a true freshwater fish and if you have problems with it in freshwater it's likely to be the diet rather than the water. Xanthozonus has a broken first anal stripe, so the black stripe in the region of the anal fin should not band all the way round the body. If you can't get xanthozonus the other species may survive in freshwater, especially if they have been raised in freshwater, it's really a matter of trying. But if you can get xanthozonus you're set.

I second pygmy cories.... I have habrosus and they are beautiful, playful little fish that are quite at home in small tanks. I've kept pygmy cories and bbg in five gallon tanks (well the pygmies are in a six, but still) and they seemed very happy there provided you're up to the maintenance.

5 gals is definitely too small for a balloon molly though... tbh what I'd do if you need to move the gobies is get some guppies (with SHORT FINS, gobies may nip) or dwarf platys which will also do fine in brackish water, and use those. Or you could get glassfish (Chanda ranga) if you can find ones that haven't been dyed. If they have been dyed, don't bother, because there is no point rescuing such abused fish, they just won't survive no matter what you do to them.

 

[OldMan47]

I am keeping 8 Corydoras pygmaeus in a 10 gallon tank along with a breeding colony of Heterandria formosa. It is plenty of room for those little guys to stretch out and swim.

 

[CKutz]

thank you laura and oldman for your replies, you've been very helpful.

I'll keep the pygmies in mind for the future..but i want to try the bbgs first. i'm pretty hopeful about it because the lfs is a good one (but it's back home) and they had their species name and it did start with an x, so i think it is the right species. i just went on fish base to see if there were any others that started with an x and there is one, but that one is very spotty, the fish they had were much more solid banded. i'm pretty sure they are kept in bracksih water though, they are in a "brackish water" section, with archer fish and some others, could that be a problem if i switch them to freshwater?

 

[LauraFrog]

Xanthozonus will tolerate brackish water easily but is more at home in freshwater, kind of like platys (I'm keeping mine in brackish at the moment). If you keep those in brackish water, they will be fine. If you keep the other BBG species in fresh water they often aren't. So mostly the advice is just to keep all BBG in brackish, especially by a good LFS, because it's hard to tell them apart.

If they have fish that have actually been sold by the wholesaler as Brachygobius xanthozonus and not just bumblebee gobies, these are the freshwater ones that will adapt to freshwater very well if you give them a bit of time. What I'd do is set up the five gallon tank with the same amount of salt as the tank they've been in, put them in it, and then do 10% water changes with freshwater every day (maybe 5% morning and 5% afternoon if you can manage it) until you can't taste salt in the tank. Then net them out and put them in the ten gallon.

Bumblebees can be nervous, especially when they are new to a tank and they will feel more secure and show themselves more if they have a lot of caves and places to hide. Also, has anybody warned you they are picky eaters? They will not take flakes, pellets or anything of the sort. A lot of people say you can't keep them at all without live food but I had no trouble feeding frozen bloodworms to mine - defrost them in some water and suck a few up into an eyedropper with a wide mouth, put it in the tank and squirt them near the gobies. This is enough movement to make the gobies lunge at them (they won't take anything that doesn't move, but a frozen worm twisting through a slight current is close enough to a live worm to convince them to eat it). You could also tweezer feed them if you're REALLY patient - this would mean less waste, but if they dont' get every worm the other fish will love you for it.

 

[CKutz]

eewwww taste the fishy water?? haha oh boy

yea i was thinking that type of gradual acclimation would be good. I will find out more when i go home again and go to the lfs that has them.
yea i've read pretty much about them. I currently have some frozen food, it's a mix, in a cube. I really like them..so i think i will give it a try once i get the chance to get them...we'll see. i'm sure if i do i'll be back with questions

Thanks for the help