Fish For A 5 Gallon

[love4aquatic]

My mom wants some fish for her 2 year old to watch but dosent want a heater or filter. she is afraid the electricity will be dangerous with the baby. i told her not to but she tried a betta and it dosent look healthy, she has marbles in the bottom. she will be getting plants. i told her gold fish, but they need at least a 20 gallon. also goldfish freak her out. rosy reds, not sure what they are, but they are sold as feeders, might live, dont know how big they get tho. there are two colors the rosy and brownish grey.

thanks.

 

[foley69]

no mater what u need a filter regardless of what fish it is due to the fact that none off the ammonia or nitriet will be broken down and this will eventually pile up and be so toxic it will kill thefish

 

[Jdubz]

And the betta needs a heater unless the house is megahot!

spose you could get a small filter and turn it off for 30 mins or less while they are watching them or teach them not to touch but look.

 

[three-fingers]

As above.

Plants wont help anything unless you have a decent light source (room lights are not enough, plants will just die slowly making it worse).

And if you use a light, you will need a pug, you may as well have a small filter.

 

[Super Dude]

Plus, it should be fairly simple to hide the cords behind the tank.

 

[Amunet]

Ditto what everyone else has said.
She could take this as a great teaching tool. Start teaching the little one on how to properly care for our fishy friends. The 2yo may not understand right now of course lol.
As the PP said, wires can be easily hidden so baby hands can't get at them.

 

[LauraFrog]

If you really don't want a heater or filter your best option for a five gallon is a single paradise fish. They are anabantids a lot like bettas but they are fine with cold water. They are also forgiving when it comes to water quality, but in a 5 gal without a filter you will need to be doing water changes of 50-75% a week. Paradise fish are not quite as belligerent as bettas, but in a five gallon tank you could only have one because it's not enough space to keep a male with females or two males. They are just as bad with other fish, if not worse because they will actually eat small tankmates. So if you go with a paradise fish that's all you could have.

Have you considered air driven filtration? There's no electricity/water combo there as the air pump does not contact the water. Most air pumps are only 5W or so, which is considerably less than the other appliances (computer/TV/toys) that the child would play with every day - the only danger would be if he/she pulled out the plug, and presumably that's no more likely than it is with any other electrical appliance. The air pump is usually hung on the wall above the tank, so it wouldn't be hard to put in a nail and tie the pump to it out of the child's reach, as long it was attached firmly enough so they couldn't pull it down by yanking on the airline. The pump can also be hidden in a cabinet or cupboard. The airline attaches to a bubbler in the tank - the rising air draws water through the filter media. It's not a particularly effective means of filtration but it would be fine for a small group of white clouds (6 or so), again with 50-75% weekly water changes.


You need to rehome the betta ASAP, they are absolutely not okay with cold water and he will be really suffering if the temperature is falling very low at night.

Rosy reds are rosy barbs, they grow to at least 10cm/4 inches with 15 reported so stay away from those. White clouds are your best option IMO, but if the bubbler really isn't feasible stick to paradise fish.

 

[Truck]

there is no electricity danger if you manually earth your tank hardware like i did. its not hard to do!

and surely a small air driven filter and heater poses no more risk than drowning in the little tank? you never no the baby might want a wet head. theyre not dangerous at all only if theyre damaged.