my 3 gallon aquarium

WhispTech · Mar 16, 2005

Ok nothing special like some of teh aquariums I have seen floating around this forum but besically biggest I could have to fit in the amount of room i have. Anyways I had 4 tiger barb but the evil ich came along and totally wiped them out. I tested the water and was having problems with ph and nitrate and nitrite. Anywyas I have cleaned it all out and have fresh water that I have all the stuff needed to clean it up and tested it for amonia and all the other stuff and everyting is good. I am going to run it for an other couple weeks and then i am going to get a new fish or two .

It is only a 3 gallon and I have that rock formation in there with real gravel for the bottom. thin it looks a lot better then that painted gravel stuff.

Anywys i was thinking of putting two small plants like one in each corner and I have two snails in there which are an apple snail and a black mystery snail. What would be a good plant to put in that wont take uyp too uch room and easy to maintain?

How many fish should i put in. I heard one fish per gallon but wouldnt this be dependent on size?

Anyways i would at least like to have two fish and I dont want an agressive fish. Seems I always get fish that like to attack each other like the tiger barb and whatever the fish I had before lol.

Dont want anything too expensive but something that is colourful, easy to maintain.

Also its fresh water tank.

Mr Miagi · Mar 16, 2005

Nice, try researching ur fish, that way u wont end up with dead or fighting fish!

Anyways :hi:

littlefishie · Mar 16, 2005

Can't go wrong with a male betta!

Very, very colourful and gorgeous. I'll show you what my crowntail bettas look like so you can see for yourself.

WhispTech · Mar 16, 2005

Yeah those are nice. But I thought you cant have two betas together or is that teh wrong fish?

littlefishie · Mar 16, 2005

They're in two different bowls.

CajunKactus · Mar 16, 2005

Nice tank.. maybe add some live plants

WhispTech · Mar 16, 2005

yeah. Sorry about that since that what i meant. I was wondering what small plants that are easy to maintain that are alive.

I also want at least two fish.

I want friendly fish too hahaha. Something that likes to go in caves alongs as swim around and is colourful and not to big but a fish that is easy to maintain. i was doing the tiger barb since they supposively can take a lot of stress but they are a bunch of tail nippers and you need at least 4 or 5 of them or just one.

kenneth_kpe · Mar 17, 2005

for the small plants i suggest looking into tropica and looking at the potential sizes for the plants.

I would suggest lets say, cryptocorne wendtii, just dont move it around
and maybe java moss on your wood

dwarf sags and anubias NANA, but basically if you only have a lil lighting, java moss would be a good option also the sags

fish fish fish.... neon tetras ? but they arent that hardy i think ?
... dwarf gouramis ?

in a 3 gal tank i dont think you can keep a lot of fish

how about a couple of cories and shrimps ?

bunjiweb · Mar 17, 2005

in a 3 gallon tank you are VERY limited.

I wouldnt go for more than 3 very small fish. And remember to pick carefuly, a tank this small increases aggression between fish.

If you like barbs, cherry barbs are colourful and much smaller/more peacful.

Another fish that I would suggest are platies. You could have 3 females at a push.

Just remember, the filtration on these tanks are crap, so realistically any fish you put in there wont be at its best, so really you should just look into getting 1 fish like a betta.

Ben

Yenko · Mar 17, 2005

A betta is all you can really keep in a 3 gallon aquarium.

WhispTech · Mar 17, 2005

kenneth_kpe said:
for the small plants i suggest looking into tropica and looking at the potential sizes for the plants.

I would suggest lets say, cryptocorne wendtii, just dont move it around
and maybe java moss on your wood
dwarf sags and anubias NANA, but basically if you only have a lil lighting, java moss would be a good option also the sags

fish fish fish.... neon tetras ? but they arent that hardy i think ?
... dwarf gouramis ?

in a 3 gal tank i dont think you can keep a lot of fish how about a couple of cories and shrimps ?

Its not wood

Its a fake rock formation with a cave lol.

Think moss would be good on that too?

sylvia · Mar 17, 2005

The 'fish per gallon rule' is actualy supposed to be the 'inch of fish per gallon guideline'

This states that for every gallon you can keep one inch of ADULT fish (you consider adult sizes). However, many small fish are schoolers and need o be in a group of at least 5-7 and others are aggressive (like bettas) and cannot be kept in pairs.

My suggestion for your tank would be (at most) 3 MALE guppies OR a couple of MALE platies. You MUST stick to males or you'll end up over-stocked with fry. Even females alone can and often will produce fry as they can store sperm for several months and might already be pregnant from the LFS - remember, these are livebearers. Other possible livebearers you could keep is 3-4 mosquito fish (these are very small) or endler's livebearers - agian, stick to males only. You can sex liveabearers by looking at the 'gonopodium'. This is a tube-like anal fin that only males have. Females have a fan-shaped, full anal fin. At most, you should have 3 of any of these or 4 mosquito fish. Male platies are slightly larger than male guppies or endler's though so don't over-stock.

These fish are all very easy to care for and hardy - something you deffinately need in such a small, potentialy unstable tank, where missing out a single water change can have drastic concequences.

If you preffer, a single betta (either male or female) would also work with maybe a couple of shrimp or a small snail.

Honey gouramies might also work. A single one is safest but you MIGHT be able to keep to FEMALES (males are territorial and would not have room in such a small tank to establish their territories and would fight). Another option would be a SINGLE dwarf gourami - again, a few shrimp or a small snail would work as companions.

Bettas and honey gouramies are quite easy to care for. Dwarfs are ok too.

You also have the option of killifish but these would require you do a bit more research as there are so many different species I couldn't possibly list them all and not all lFSs carry suitable ones. Google.com is a great place to start searching

Some of these, however, have quite specific requirements and are not as readily available as the bettas, livebearers or gouramies.

I would advise against schooling fish like tetras or rasboras because there would be no room to keep a school comfortably.

Sorry I can't realy help with the plant

but you have a nice little tank there so good luck with it whatever you choose.

WhispTech · Mar 17, 2005

Thanks for the info.

I have two snails in there. they are my cleanup crew lol.

Seems there insnt much that I can get for such a small tank. I know I at least want two fish.

Might get me some nice betta.

I figure it this way. I have that rock in there that takes up space and then if i add two plants one for each coner that really reduces teh size too 2 gallons.

Then i have two snails.

I consider snails just to be like a rock though hahaha.

So I was thinking one fair size beta or two to three small tiny fish like tiny oners haha.

If I didnt have the two snails I might have gotten a crab and a betta but not sure how rough a beta would be on a crab and a snail can shrink up lol.

Anywyas sometime next week ill go get something.

I think for the one corner by the filter I am going to put a leafy style plant.

and then by the rock in the front corner a bushy small plant.

I might put three plants in and sort of cover the back.

The temnps while the day are pretty good but should I put a heater in this tank too for the night time when it gets chilly in my place?