BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Fish Questions about a Community Tank

Hi, all! I have been away and have missed reading your great advice! We had some family issues recently, and I haven't been able to even check in to see how everyone is faring. I hope that all of you and your finny friends are well and happy!

My question is concerning a community tank. I did it - I bought just a small 5 gallon tank, and right now have a dalmation mollie, a silver mollie, 2 platys (sp?), and a striped cory catfish. Is this too many fish? Can it take one or two more small fish? Should I have more than one catfish? They all seem to be quite compatible. My son's girlfriend named the mollies Simon and Fiona. The others don't have names - yet.

I missed you guys!

Sounds like it may be too many fish for a small 5 gallon. The corys like to be with other cories so if you're going to have those I would have at least 2 in there.

I don't think I would put any more fish in that tank. Consider the size of the fish when they are fully grown. You may want to set up another tank to move some of them into when they get larger.

If you have a planted tank....lots of healthy live plants you could push the load limit a bit. The smaller tanks are easier and less expensive to set up as planted tanks. You still need the added lighting for the plants, but the fixtures for these smaller tanks are less expensive. There are smaller strip lights for the 2 1/2 gallon tanks that only cost about 12$ at PetSmart. You could get two of those strips and put a 10watt compact flourescent bulb in each one and have plenty of light to keep the plants happy. Also, Flourish Excel is a great substitute for CO2 injection systems. It's a bit expensive but one bottle will last a long time with a 5 gallon tank.

If I were to start setting up a 5 gallon I would get a really good substrate..I like the echo-complete for planted tanks...you don't have to rinse that and it comes with all sorts of nutrients that will get the plants started off really well..(that too is a bit costly, but well worth the expense in my opinion)...Flourite is another option as well, but needs lots of rinsing.
I would pick up two of those smaller strip lights and a couple of 10watt 6700K compact flourescent bulbs...a 25watt heater and one of those mini whisper intank filters (they run really quiet and don't stir the water up hardly at all, which is important with planted tanks)..(leaving the carbon out and putting in a sponge instead)..get a bottle of that "flourish excel" and have fun !

For a tank like that I would have 2 cories, 2 otocinclus and one betta...OR one dwarf gourami...OR one german blue ram OR..one of any variety of a fish the size of any of these as the show fish for the tank.

With that start you could probably have your pick of plants and put plenty of the smaller variety in there. Could be really nice ! You would still have to do regular water changes at least once a week maybe twice with a tank that size with that many fish. Feed sparingly..like once a day.

Hi JMS! That is a lot of fish for a 5 gal, like Emg said. She is right, plants will help, as well as huge, frequent water changes.

I would like to encourage you to get a ten gallon. Those are really affordable and will serve you better, and then you can use your 5 gallon for your best betta! LOL! He would lOVE that!

Put your other fish into the ten gallon and when that is going for a few weeks, then add two more cories. Three cories is a nice number, since they don't like being "out of school". And then don't add any more fish. Then you will have a healthy tank! <img src="/images/graemlins/fish.gif" alt="" />