one gallon possible?

lordosis

Registered Member
Dec 22, 2005
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I'm trying to set up a very small tank for my girlfriend. I have a one gallon glass bowl and I want to make a somewhat ecological tank with plants, snails, and 2 fish. It will not have any filtration besides the plants and the only light source will be occasional trips to the window sill (if it's not too sunny). I will also change 10% of the water once a week. Besides, a betta, what would you recommend? I was thinking about some baby platies or baby guppies. Or would 2 adults be ok too? What other tough fish could I use?
 
Dwarf Puffers? They would eat your snails though. Guppies maybe if both male. Platies are too much of waste producers IMO to be in such a small tank.
 
Dwarf Puffers? They would eat your snails though. Guppies maybe if both male. Platies are too much of waste producers IMO to be in such a small tank.

No guppies. They need more space, and you'd be doing PWC after PWC. No DPs, they need more space aswell, and a 3g is the minimum for 1. The only thing that can survive in that is a betta, and he deffinately won't be very happy in that.

My suggestion? Get a 5 or 10g.

Oh, and plants won't grow unless they have a good half of the day lighted, and lighted well, and the fish will fry if that long in the heat. Basically, a 1g planted will take some work and some $$$, and the fish still won't be very happy.
 
In all honesty I couldn't advise anyone to get a tank that small, & especially if they had "baby platies or baby guppies" in mind, simply b/c those fish don't stay babies forever & there is just too little space for most any fish that I know of, before I even consider that you won't have a filter on the tank at all.

I'd say that if you hadda put something in that tank,...I'd try SEAMONKEYS
!!
 
Agreed. What would be possible is getting one of those small clip-on lights used for some nano tanks, thats the only way you'll be able to keep real plants. A few hours of ambient sunlight is enough to grow maybe java moss and thats it. You could do some ramshorn snails and a few cherry shrimp, a small ball of java moss and a crypt or two. That would be an interesting and small tank, and wouldn't need much filtration as long as the plants were growing well. However, what you're currently asking for is too much. Hardly any water changes, no light, and fish. You can probably have 2 of those things but not all 3. If you get enough light over the tank, the plants will pretty much take care of the filtration, and 10% per week will be enough of a water change. The only other fish I could possibly recommend is the least killifish, males stay around 1/4" and females up to an inch or so, but I'm not sure what kind of temps they need, and whether they're schooling fish or not.
 
i personally think 1 betta would be your only option. The betta would be fine in a 1 gallon, as it is used to living in a puddle, so a 1 gallon bowl could very well be an upgrade.

you could maybe add a shrimp to the mix but the betta might attempt to eat it, then again ghost shrimp are like $ .25 so wouldnt be much of a loss.


plus women love bettas...
 
Some bettas ARE used to "surviving" in a puddle when that is what they are forced to do, until the season or rain & flood conditions change & they can move on. AND b/c they breath air,...they do "SURVIVE". But the betta puddle thing is a myth,...they live in rice paddies & they are HUGE!!

However it's recommended & hotly debated by many that keep bettas, that the minimum sized tank that one should be kept in is 5 gallons.

TO ME,....having my fish SURVIVE is a lofty goal & one I'm certainly shooting for on the lower end of my expectations,....but having them THRIVE is much more what I think we should all be shooting for.

JMOpinion

LJx
 
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Bettas are far removed from their natural habitat, which aren't puddles anyways.

You could try heterandria formosa if they're both male.
 
not going waste my time with THAT argument again, it happens atleast once a week.

so im jsut going to say that i think you could easily keep a betta in there.
 
not going waste my time with THAT argument again, it happens atleast once a week.

so im jsut going to say that i think you could easily keep a betta in there.

I agree,... it (the debate) DOES happen a lot,.... but obviously once a week is not enough to get the truth out there into the hobby.
 
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