Some Ideas For The Boys Tank Please

[meandmykribs]

Hi,
 
My son has asked me for a Nemo tank for his bedroom

I will however be adding tropical and not marine fish to his tank but as he is only little I'm hoping he wont be able to tell the difference haha
 
His room is the boxroom and there is not loads of space left so the tank will need to be relatively small I have been looking at some 25ltrs and think I have found one that would be perfect was going to get some nemo and friends ornaments for it but then I am uncertain as to which fish I should put in it??
Maybe a betta and some tetra??
I am totally open to any stocking ideas anybody may have and even other tank ideas this is a xmas present project so plenty of time to sort it out and fiddle with ideas etc
 
Thanks in advance Karen.

 

[DerpPH]

Deffo a betta!!! 25 litres is about 5 gallons? try checking the nano fish thread in the nano section

 

[meandmykribs]

Think its there and there abouts hahaha oh my I'm useless at converting

 

[DerpPH]

Think its there and there abouts hahaha oh my I'm useless at converting

 
dont worry. Its a 6.7? gallon. so what would be suitable??? hm... Dwarf puffer for the saltwater feel???  or scarlet badis for the color or maybe steel blue killifish???

 

[meandmykribs]

Just checked and yes it's 5.5 gallons

I like the killifish but have never heard of a badis??

 

[DerpPH]

Just checked and yes it's 5.5 gallons

I like the killifish but have never heard of a badis??

 
 
They are colorful and they are a member of the family badidae

 

[meandmykribs]

think I have found them they are very beautiful
 
do they require the same water parameters etc as the betta?

 

[DRB]

Ho-Lee-Carp... A dwarf puffer!? I didn't even know they exist.. Perfect for the Nemo tank Karen! Shark bait hoo ha ha!!!

Now to find someone who sells them in Australia, thats my mission.

 

[meandmykribs]

They are gorgeous but I prefer the figure eights

 

[Chad]

You don't say how old your son is, but your comments about Nemo make me think he's pretty young. So my recommendations are partly based on that assumption.
 
6.6 gallons would be perfect for a betta. That's also a fish well suited for a young boy's room. Care is easy enough that with a little supervision even a small child of 4 or 5 years old could carry it out. Water changes, for example, are a simple matter dipping a cup into the tank and removing a cupful and replacing it with another each day (if the tank has a filter). I help kids learn to feed fish by using a pill container. The kind that has the days of the week. Put the amount of food the fish will eat that day into the slot and put the rest of the food out of reach, then the child can't overfeed. This alone cuts down on maintenance.

 
Betta become friends.
 
While the other fish mentioned are wonderful fish I personally can't recommend them in this case. I'm currently keeping Scarlet Badis (Dario Dario) and while they are terrific fish they do require a more mature tank and do best with plants. Their primary food source is copepods and other small critters that can inhabit a tank. Mine have never eaten any of the non-live food I've placed in the tank. Though they could probably be weaned form live food that's not really for a little boy to do.
 
Dwarf puffers are close to being my single favorite fish but have some unique care needs, are a bit of a messy fish, and need snails in their diet to help keep their teeth in healthy condition. I used to have a 29 gallon tank with several of the little wonders in it and a tank under it for breeding snails. Great fish, but more for a 10-12 year old in my opinion.
 
The steel blue is a beautiful fish and it's not an annual killifish so it will live a couple of years, maybe three. For this one I think a tank twice the size would be more appropriate.
 
So...I'm in the betta camp on this one.

 

[meandmykribs]

Yes he is still quite young just 3 but he is very active in helping with the care of the 2 tanks that we already have
I love the idea of the pill box that's fantastic
Am I best to just keep him in there on his own then?

 

[ncguppy830]

yea you could keep him with some RCS i suppose as longg as you dont mind some gettin eaten.

 

[Ninjouzata]

You could do some snails with it, not sure if you like them or not.
I did not know I would get so much joy out of watching snails but they are really neat

 

[meandmykribs]

I have nerites in my main tank, he calls them slugs hahaha
 
NC what are RCS??

 

[fluttermoth]

Red cherry shrimp (if you hover your mouse over any abbreviation with a dotted line under it, on this board, an explanation should come up )