Good Or Bad Idea

[kpintheshed]

i have a 5 gal and i know overstocked, anyway 3 neons, 2 baloon mollys 1 male and 1 female and a black molly and 4 guppie fry. i was thinking to get rid of the black molly because it will grow massive and the 4 guppie fry they are about 1cm. i was going to do this within this week. i was thinking of swaping the 4 guppie fry and the black molly for a female baloon molly, because my female is starting to lose interest plus the ratio of 1male to 2 females so

what u think?

other advice will be welcomed.

also i notice the black molly might be bullying my male baloon molly because it is bigger, and would the male be ok with another female?

 

[PRW1988]

to tell you the truth, swaping the 4 guppy fry and the black molly for nothing would be best for your tank

 

[WILDER]

Not one of them fish should be in that tank size i'm afraid.
Neons are small but they are a shoaling fish and need room to shoal.
Livebeareres are active fish and they need no less than a 10 gallon.

 

[mommyof2bettas]

Not one of them fish should be in that tank size i'm afraid.
Neons are small but they are a shoaling fish and need room to shoal.
Livebeareres are active fish and they need no less than a 10 gallon

agreed, if we work with the inch per gallon rule:
6 neons (they need to be in groups)-6 gallons, they could stay there, but wouldn't reccomend it as they are active fish
2 balloon mollies-6 inches, would be ok, but you need to keep the tank sparkling clean if you're not adding salt with mollies. So, even if it's a little overstocked it would still be bad.
2 black mollies-about 7 inches, same as balloon molly
4 guppy fry- will be ok there for now, but later will grow too big, and they are pretty active, so I'd say 5 gallons would be able to keep maximum 3.

 

[kpintheshed]

so i will get rid of the black molly the 4 fry. should i get rid of my neons, i was reading abit about them and should i turn my fish tank into a well planted tank. i have 3 live plants and one of those were fish can go in.



maybe suggestions of what fish i could put in. what+ i don't get is the lfs i go to i told him i have this size this many gallons and he gave me the stuff i should put in, the fish and the plants and i thought this is a helpful store guess i was wrong

...... how long wuold they be ok in there? becease maybe i could convice my dad to get me a early birthday tank

 

[mommyof2bettas]

the earlier you can get them out, the better! You could keep some of the guppies there, but better yet, if you give all the fish back to the lfs, get a betta and 3 pygmy cories for the tank. maybe an apple snail or some shrimp also.

 

[kpintheshed]

i got them all out and have molly fry hopefully when they grow i'll give them away and get some shrimp

 

[dwarfgourami]

Not one of them fish should be in that tank size i'm afraid.
Neons are small but they are a shoaling fish and need room to shoal.
Livebeareres are active fish and they need no less than a 10 gallon

agreed, if we work with the inch per gallon rule:
6 neons (they need to be in groups)-6 gallons, they could stay there, but wouldn't reccomend it as they are active fish
2 balloon mollies-6 inches, would be ok, but you need to keep the tank sparkling clean if you're not adding salt with mollies. So, even if it's a little overstocked it would still be bad.
2 black mollies-about 7 inches, same as balloon molly
4 guppy fry- will be ok there for now, but later will grow too big, and they are pretty active, so I'd say 5 gallons would be able to keep maximum 3.

Is the inch/gallon rule really any help when talking about a tank that is unsuitable because of the activity levels of a particular species? If the tank is too short to give swimming space to mollies, say, then cutting down on the numbers isn't really going to help, it will be too short for even a single molly. It's not the case that one molly swims half the tank and the other molly swims the other half, they all need the space.

IMO these tanks should be reserved for very small fish and/or fish with modest activity levels, like heterandrias, pygmy corys, endlers, bettas, possibly neons if you keep a school of them on their own.

But I agree that the tank would have ended up overstocked according to the inch/gallon rule, i.e. as regards filtration. However, kpintheshed has now dealt with the issue, so no worries about this tank, more some general thoughts.