What to do with 5.5 gallon?

[Aquarius0015]

Ok, I think my community tank has velvet, not ick. As soon as that clears up, I will add my male and female bettas to it. This would free up my 5.5 gallon (so far only box filter, 25 watt heater, river stone substrate, java moss, no light). I was thinking about a small puffer, but I'm afraid of having to buy live crunchy things for them all the time. I can't exactly raise snails in my dorm, either.

So my other desire is a paradise fish. Could I keep 1 paradise fish in the current conditions. I know it would be really pushing it (I love to do water changes!), but would 2 or 3 kuhli loaches or **small** (eg not bronze) cories also be added if I upgraded to a power filter? I think bottom feeders and a p-fish would get along from what I read about them, def. not other labyrinths though.

[Wippit Guud]

"Pushing it" isn't based on bioload in this case, it's based on size, they can get 4" or more.

As for the bettas, how many females and how big of a tank? Male bettas have a habit of killing females as they contantly try to mate, even if the female's not in the mood.

[Aquarius0015]

It would be 2 females and 1 male with platies in a 12 gallon. If the male gets aggressive, he goes into the 1 gallon (or he stays in the 5.5 gallon if I don't get the paradise). There are a lot of plants, plus a hollow plastic tree stump (quite large) to act as getaway places. I've kept this particular betta with females before, and he chases sometimes, but does not fin nip. Usually the female flares and he backs away.

The 5.5 gallon looks like a shrunken 10 gal to me. It is 8.5 inches deep, 10.5 inches tall, and 16" long. I had heard that they don't get above 4", but the websites I read about them conflict with each other. Some say solitary confinement, some say it's only semi-aggressive.

[Wippit Guud]

Well, my LFS just got a ship of black paradise fish in (and I'm gettng one tomorrow) and the entire tank was just one big fish fight.,

[Aquarius0015]

Between the paradise fish or between the paradise fish and other species (or both)?

Also, are the above dimensions adequate for the paradise? The only dimension I am worried about the depth, but even if he gets to 4" he still has room to turn around.

[TKOS]

I would stick with the male betta in the 5.5 gallon. Then add three khulies or cories (get spotted or peppered as they stay smallest) and do lots of water changes. I wouldn't mix the male and females in a 12 gallon if it was me.

[Aquarius0015]

Well, I could put 2 females in the 1 gallon (they are very small, maybe 1", and many prof. breeders do keep their specimens in 1/2 gal containers), the male in the 12 gallon, and still have an empty 5.5.

I really like fish with personality, and I hear p-fish has attitude to spare. I think someone on this forum a few weeks ago said it had 10 times the personality of a betta. Don't get me wrong, I love bettas, but I want something with a little more pizazz but is rather easy to keep.

Does anyone have any suggestions? My qualifications are simple: 1) relative ease of keeping 2) beautiful 3) bigger than a betta 4) can live well in a 5.5 gallon with 7.4ish pH and sort of hard water (don't have GH test so I don't know the specifics).

[dethjam316]

it's really tough to find things bigger than a betta appropriate for a 5.5g...that qualification is going to be the hardest to satisfy.

[Aquarius0015]

I'm not talking hugely bigger. Something maybe dwarf gourami-sized but not a gourami....? They are pretty enough, but don't seem to move around a lot.

[Captain Hook]

If you could find it a pair of smaller killiefish would do great in a little tank like that. They are really nice looking and probably wouldn't even need a heater.

[~*LuvMyKribs*~]

Yeah! Killies!

http://www.killi.co.uk/AfricanAnnuals.php

Some rachovii (nothobranchius?) would be awesome! One pair would do really well in a 5.5 gal. Don't they only live for a year though, and you have to raise thier fry to have them for a long time? Something like that. But are very perdy.

[Aquarius0015]

LuvMyKribs, you are right, they are gorgeous. Unfortunately, I have never seen them in a LFS in the area or back home.

Are there any cichlids that are colorful but stay small? I know a store that does have a nice selection of those, but I rarely pay it any attention.

On an unrelated topic, I will be purchasing sand for the bottom of the aquarium to be mixed in with some river rocks for an interesting effect. I also want to upgrade my top: I currently have a piece of plexi-glass, but I would like a real hood. I have only found an incandescent model so far, but I am toying with the idea of bright-light plants. I can only keep low-light plants in the Eclipse 12, and I do not want to purchase an expensive warranty-voiding DIY upgrade kit.

If only I could be sure that paradise fish played nice with platies and female bettas...

[TKOS]

I think you need at least a 10 gallon to house the smallest of cichlids. And even then that is the famous shell dwellers which I have never seen for sale.

A 5.5 gallon tank just doesn't have the capacticty to do very much safely. You could cram any fish in there but in order to keep them healthy you really need much bigger tanks. I have 3 platies in my 5.5 gallon tank and 1 betta in another with a bunch of freshwater shrimp.


Of course maybe you could keep a single crayfish. I know people keep them in 10 gallon tanks but I don't know about smaller tanks. They are pretty cool to watch, like little lobsters.

Or else frogs?

[Aquarius0015]

Ooooh, I had forgotten about frogs! They're not beautiful or large, but they are still nifty. Are they messy or hard to take care of?

[TKOS]

I haven't kept them but they shouldn't be too messy. You could easily keep 2 dwarf frogs in a 5.5 gallon. Make sure not to get the clawed african frog if you want it to have any tank mates. The regular dwarf frogs are quite peaceful and spend a lot of time on the bottom waiting for a treat then will dash to the surface for some air. At least this is what I have seen.

[Wippit Guud]

You could make the tank 3/4 full, add a piece of driftwood that sticks out, and put in a couple of crabs.

[delmore]

I have had a paradise fish in a filtered, unheated 5.5g for 6+months and it is doing great. They are tough as nails and not shy. Mine begs for food all day.

Here is an excerpt from the Wetman NY

http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/fishes/labyrinth.shtml#mopercularis

"Macropodus opercularis (Paradisefish). Don't reduce this magnificent fish to a "Paradise Gourami." This is the "Paradisefish," period! It was the first tropical fish (not a goldfish) to reach Europe, exported to France in 1869 from Canton, where it had long been a traditional fish for garden pools. Kept like goldfish in glass vases in unheated European drawing-rooms, Paradisefish survived and even spawned, before the aquarium hobby really got under way. And this is still a good way to keep them, isolated in an unheated but planted aquarium that is kept at room temperatures. My experience has been that they aren't trustworthy in a community, but Dr. Thomas Seehaus disagrees with this general reputation.

Certainly M. opercularis need no heater; they are comfortable even when water temperature dips below 60o. Males will scrap fiercely with each other, once they've reached adult size. And females kept with a male are going to need some extra space and pretty dense plant cover. I had one male who lived solo for a long while in a rectangular gallon glass vase with only a single small potted Anubias and some Water Sprite at the surface, with half an inch of gravel to encourage bacterial nitrification and regular 50% water changes. You do have to keep Macropodus covered with a glass lid at all times. Like many fish from weedy waters, they have learned that often the only way out of a constricted tangle is a good jump over the top. At my place, that's a poor gamble: Carpetfish"!

[Aquarius0015]

delmore, Wetman NY kept it for years in a 1 gallon? I trust that webpage a lot, but advice I'm getting here is conflicting with that. Anyway if his 1 gallon was truly big enough for a happy, healthy fish, then my 5.5 gallon should be fine, logically speaking. And as you said, yours in a 5.5 is doing fine for over 6 months.... How big is yours now?

I have an empty 10 gal at home (next time I go home would be March at earliest), so if I absolutely *had to* (as in, the p-fish seemed sick or miserable) I could upgrade, but I assume I would be fine at least until the summer. Is this assumption correct?

Wippit, did you get your black p-fish yet? Are the black ones more expensive? I've never seen a good quality pic of one unfortunately. As for crabs and crayfish, I'm not too fond of them, and they are not too compatible with anything else.

So the frogs are surface breathers? So far my only strong interests have been fish that can breathe air, lol. Labyrinths, cories, and frogs. Weird coincidence.

[delmore]

Originally posted by Aquarius0015
delmore, Wetman NY kept it for years in a 1 gallon? I trust that webpage a lot, but advice I'm getting here is conflicting with that. Anyway if his 1 gallon was truly big enough for a happy, healthy fish, then my 5.5 gallon should be fine, logically speaking. And as you said, yours in a 5.5 is doing fine for over 6 months.... How big is yours now?

My paradise fish, with fins, is about 3" He seams to be pretty content, and i'll keep him in the tank until (if ever) he outgrows it. I have Pearl Gouramis in a 20L. I'd like to move them into a spare 10g, but I won't, because I know that they would be bouncing off the sides of the tank. The Wetman mentions the Pearls should be kept in a 20g long at the minimum, since they need room to swim, which I agree. Paradise fish manuver differently when they swim, and from observing them, I think they can do well in a small tank, with no other fish, as long as there are plants and no other fish to cause problems.

By the way, in Wetman's article, I don't think he was reccomending that paradise fish be kept in 1gallon bowl. It worked for him at the time.

If you can get your hands on spiked tailed paradise fish, they might be even better for the 5.5.

[Aquarius0015]

I have Pearl Gouramis in a 20L

You mean 20 gallons, not liters, right?

My LFS sells spiketail p-fish as 'spiketail gouramis' for $4 a piece (when I went back to the store I looked closely for them). They are about 1" and rather ugly. They are plain brown with just a tiny rim of blue on the tail. They do not look too vigorous.

Funny story- the LFS employee told me tonight that I need to have a fully cycled tank to care for a p-fish or gourami, as they are some of the 'most sensitive' FW they sell. He thought I should buy a few feederfish to cycle with and throw them away when I finished the cycle (gasp!) or of course, shell out the $$$ for BioSpira. He seemed disapointed when I told him I already had filter media from my other tank.

[delmore]

Originally posted by Aquarius0015
You mean 20 gallons, not liters, right?


I meant 20 gallon long.

I wish I could get the spiked tailed gouramis (P. dayi) around here! They are supposed to look much better once you get them in a nice planted tank. They grow to 3" and need warmer water than the Paradise Gourami.

[Aquarius0015]

Oh, the L stands for long, not liters. Sorry, I get confused with the mixture of measuring systems on this forum. Every time someone mentions celsius, I have to plug "XX celsius to fahrenheit" in Google to convert it.

But brown spike tails be kept with lots of other fish right? I might get one for my community tank, which is down to 4 platies, 2 guppies and 1 or 2 female bettas. I say 1 or 2 b/c 1 of my female bettas isn't looking so great right now. That would still leave me with space in the 5.5 though, aargh, lol.

[Wippit Guud]

Originally posted by Aquarius0015
Wippit, did you get your black p-fish yet? Are the black ones more expensive? I've never seen a good quality pic of one unfortunately. As for crabs and crayfish, I'm not too fond of them, and they are not too compatible with anything else.

Actually, just got him yesterday... he was about $10 Canadian, the normal ones are around $7... at least at my LFS.