Your Opinion On The Best 5 Gallon Community

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HarryOtts

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I am new to tropical fish keeping and would like to know what would be the best community of fish to keep in a 5 gallon tank?
An idea of species and numbers would be most helpful, e.g. 1 Betta or only 6 Neon Tetras. Can I mix Neons with a Betta or is best to keep a single Betta? Perhaps 2 guppies and some shrimp?
 
Thank You
 
 
 
Some may say even 1 Betta is too much for a tank so small.
What about shrimp? You could have a nice selection in there.
The bigger the tank, the easier it is to maintain..small tanks can go wrong very quickly if you don't know what you're doing.
Have you thought about cycling your filter? There is an excellent link in my signature below to help you out.
Best of luck with it.
 
Terry.
 
Betta I would recommend a 7 gallon.
 
I would say shrimp is all you can really have.
 
I would say 5 gallon for a betta is fine, as they can live in any amount of water really as they are air breathers, but 5 gallons would be the minimum for long term in my eyes
 
Thanks guys. I have cycled with Nutrafin Cycle & Aquafin Plus for over 1 week. I have just added 3 Tetras to it (although will be adding 3 more very soon) I will get my water tested on the weekend too for Ammonia levels.
 
1 week is not a cycle, It's far from a cycle. Do you have a testing kit, I suggest API master kit.
 
Daily water changes too, the build up of ammonia will be damaging to the tetras you have at the moment.
 
Also in saying that, Tetras are far to big to be in a 5 gallon so I suggest looking at rehoming them.
 
techen said:
1 week is not a cycle, It's far from a cycle. Do you have a testing kit, I suggest API master kit.
 
Daily water changes too, the build up of ammonia will be damaging to the tetras you have at the moment.
 
Also in saying that, Tetras are far to big to be in a 5 gallon so I suggest looking at rehoming them.
 
I have a testing Tetra testing kit, which showed it as being good; I also had the water tested by the shop before I purchased the Tetra. They tested for all the levels and it was given the green light to add fish, that included the Ammonia - hence the additon of Tetra. I have been advised by other local aquarists that Tetra can be OK in a 5 gallon, although it's preferable to have them in a 10 gallon.
 
Sadly I do not listen to fish stores because of this reason. I can tell you right now no one has cycled a tank in a week and if someone has they need to tell me. :p
 
If you do your research on these tetras you'll find they are not suitable for a 5 gallon tank
 
cambojnr said:
I would say 5 gallon for a betta is fine, as they can live in any amount of water really as they are air breathers, but 5 gallons would be the minimum for long term in my eyes
 
That isn't strictly true, they predominantly breath through their gills, as does any other fish. Yes they do have the ability to breathe air through their labyrinth organ as well, but they shouldn't really go in a tank of less than 20litres or so.
 
HarryOtts said:
Thanks guys. I have cycled with Nutrafin Cycle & Aquafin Plus for over 1 week. I have just added 3 Tetras to it (although will be adding 3 more very soon) I will get my water tested on the weekend too for Ammonia levels.
 
That's unfortunate.

HarryOtts said:
I have a testing Tetra testing kit, which showed it as being good; I also had the water tested by the shop before I purchased the Tetra. They tested for all the levels and it was given the green light to add fish, that included the Ammonia - hence the additon of Tetra. I have been advised by other local aquarists that Tetra can be OK in a 5 gallon, although it's preferable to have them in a 10 gallon.
 
With no fish, there was never going to be any ammonia. Without any ammonia, there aren't going to be any bacteria to control the ammonia that your fish produce. I strongly suggest you ahve a read of the green link in my signature area.
 
Five gallons is too small for anything but shrimp or snails, IMO. And the only way to cycle a tank in that short a time is to use already established mature filter media in your filter. There is no product out there that can cycle in a week.
 
I'm afraid you've likely sentenced your tetras to a painful death. Neons don't do well in a young tank to begin with, and in an uncycled tank will surely die.
 
The LFS (local fish shop) has one goal in mind and that's to make money by selling you stuff. Our purpose on the forum is to help you raise happy, healthy, stress-free fish.
 
If you were close to me I'd donate a 10g tank to you with supplies and mature media so you could get into this hobby the right way! But likely I'm too far away, so please heed the good folks here who have lots and lots of experience and can guide you.
 
At this moment the one thing you can do is 50% water changes every day. 
 
What is your whole setup? Filter, substrate, heater, thermometer, plants, etc.
 
Betta fish do fine in a five gallon. I've got two of mine in their own five gallons and they are thriving. Unfortunately, you already have the tetras. I would not add the extra three. You can use these tetras to do a fish-in cycle (there's a pinned post somewhere around here), but if they don't make it, you might consider getting a betta. They are beautiful and fairly easy to care for. I have five, myself. They make good beginner fish. Anyway, try to do a fish-in cycle for a while and see how that goes. You could get ghost shrimp too.
 
I used nutrafin cycle in a 3.65 gal tank once. It did seem to work and actually cycled the tank in a week.
I put  my betta in the tank.
Decided it was to small,  and upgraded to a 10- used the filter to cycle the new tank and it worked well to cycle so I would say that nutrafin does work.
That being said I agree the tank is to small for your fish choice, I would try to rehome them and find another type of fish for the tank.
 

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