Tiger barbs are far too active swimmers for a 5g...and too large as previously mentioned. A school of tiger barbs needs a tank with at least 30-36" of swimming space, IMO.
Bought my Dad a 5g tank
- Thread starter mystic1
- Start date
Okay my bad. Like I said I thought I had read it on a thread posted when I first joined the site. I myself have never had tiger barbs. My best advice is go to http://www.franksaquarium.com/nanofish.htm. They have losts of micro freshwater fishies.
I suggest you make a list of likely fish and who and how many can live with who if a mix is desired, plus info about how they live, difficulty rating, etc., and let him pick and choose if he is that type of person. Go to the pet/fish store together to select likely fish. That way he can also see how they live. If he likes to do carpentry, for example, maybe he would like to research aquariums and weights and such and make his own tank table. If he's on the net, tell him about this fine site; if he's not on the net but is looking for an excuse to learn how to use it, researching aquarium fish might be the excuse he needs.
Sounds like a great Father/child project! Let us know how it goes.
Sounds like a great Father/child project! Let us know how it goes.
I would love it if that were the case. He is slowly losing his ability to walk even with a walker. I do all his errands for him, as he does not do much more than sit and watch TV. To be honest he is probably going to **** and moan so to speak when I show up with the tank but once I leave he will call my sister and tell her how much he likes it. My Mom passed away less than a year ago so it is just him and the dog that my mom got for him. The dog (a lab) is 17 now. The house definatly needs a spark of life. Thank you though, that was a very thoughtful idea.
my suggestion is to get maybe neon tetras. They're small, you can put maybe 6 - 10 in there if youre' lucky, with a kuhli loach for clean up and pleco that doesn't get more than 3 in.
That is way too much fish for a 5 gallon. :eek3: I won't even comment on some of the other suggestions...:wall:
A pair of panda cories would work nice in my opinion, being an active happy little fish which make ppl smile. Being a bottom feeder makes feeding them easy, you can use pellet or wafer type food, which'll greatly reduce the risk of overfeeding due to the ease of measuring out such food sources. I'd add a glass shrimp in also as cleanup crew and if it's reasonably well lit some java fern would be an easy plant to keep growing.
i second that idea. i had a 5 gallon tank, an eclipse 5 and i kept a small school of cardinal tetras in there for 2 years. they were happy healthy and quite active. so yes, it can be done. other suggestions:
why not get something really active like a zebra lobster! they are really alot of fun. or you could get something like a few killifish for color or even perhaps swing something exotic like a leopard ctenopoma (or whatever they're called)0 they sell those at petsmart.
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=1030
or maybe a really cool fish like a leaf fish!
the field is wide open! good luck!
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