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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 4
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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 4
Hi all,

I rescued a Betta from a local Pet store Tueday night for my 5 year old daughter's birthday. Her name is Pretty Princess Pearson. I am now completely smitten with Pretty Princess. I have her in a 1/2 gallon tank now, she's still getting accustomed to us...she hides whenever we walk by.

Anyway...now I'm hooked. I got a GREAT DEAL on a 5 gallon aquarium, castle decoration, an anemone, bunch of gravel, food, filter, light, net, some fish flakes (there's a store going out of business and the owner didn't want to pack up these last few things they are all brand new)

I want Pretty Princess to have some friends over now. She looks so lonely. I know most fish enthusiast think that a 5 gallon tank is too small for anything to live happily in...but it's so much better than that little cube she was in - and I have a feeling that this is just the starting point for me....

I went to Petco and saw that they have little live plants for aquariums - - too cool -- I want some. I am looking at getting some tetras for looks and some kind of bottom feeder to keep the waste down in my new tank (I mean my daughters new tank..hee hee hee)

Here are my questions:

How many tetras can/should I get?
What kind and how many bottom feeders can/should I get?
What kind of live plants can/should I get?

My GREAT DEAL didn't come with a heater so I'm probably going to purchase one today.

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Chipmunk
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Chipmunk
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Hello Gayle, welcome to the forum !

Lol, I know what you mean...I got into this hobby the same way...bought a 10 gallon for my daughter for Christmas back in 2003...

When setting up a tank you want to figure on about 1 inch of fish per gallon. That doesn' leave room for much in a 5 gallon. The betta themselves get about 2 inches. Tetras are much happier in a group of at least 3 and cories are the smaller bottom feeder type fish and they get up to about 3 inches...they too prefer the company of thier own kind. I have an otocinclus in a 5 gallon with my yellow female...but the otos just eat up the algea, they aren't big on cleaning up the debris.

HHhhmmmm....you need to find a smallish fish that doesn't mind being a loner...anybody have any ideas out there?

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Chipmunk
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Chipmunk
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Oh, about the live plants...you want to make sure you have enough lighting for those. At least 2-3 watts per gallon and a full spectum flourescent bulb.

There are some plants that do ok in lower lighting...Anubias are one. They seem to do about the best in my tanks, which are seriously short in wattage by the way. I only have one 20 watt bulb in my 29 gallon. I have been trying to find a twin tube strip light that will fit my hood....that I can afford..lol. I have one small sword plant in the 5 gallon, which only has an incandescent bulb..15 watt I think..but the plant seems to be doing well. Personally I think it's still feeding off whatever fertilizer it got before and will crash on me as soon as that runs out..haha....

Oh, do put some kind of substrate under your gravel if you want a live plant. I use flourite but there are lots out there to choose from. I have heard some good things about Bio-Complete substrate for planted aquariums. Has everything in it your plant needs, so they say, and you don't have to rinse it!! BIG PLUS !!! anyone who's ever had to try and rinse out 15 lbs of flourite can attest to THAT ! LOL !

Joined: Jan 2005
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Thanks for the response!!

What about Guppies with our Betta? I was at the pet store today and they are the most colorful and animated to watch.

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Chipmunk
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Chipmunk
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I'm guessing maybe yes....based only on the fact that guppies have big flowing tails and you can put them with each other..so I don't think they are tail biters. That's the thing you have to watch with putting bettas with other fish. Those beautiful tails of thiers are irresistable morsals to those who like to nibble.

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I've seen a lot of posts elsewhere indicating to be careful with guppies and bettas... apparently sometimes a male betta will misidentify a fancy guppy (fancies in particular) and think it's a competitor, and attack it... so be careful and watch closely. Oh yeah... and research the mating and procreation of guppies... they're called millions fish for a reason :-)

I'm looking at moving my betta from his half gallon into a 10gallon, with tankmates being a couple of albino cory cats and a few glowlite tetras... (anyone think this might be too much, while I'm at it?)

oh... and that reminds me... I've seen some posts warning about neon tetras and bettas... not a good mix.


My Tanks:
20g - planted - 1 cory, 4 otos, 4 shrimp, 4 swordtails, 2 angelfish
10g - 6 pygmy cories, 3 yamato shrimp, 3 otos
Joined: Apr 2004
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Jellyfish
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Jellyfish
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might want to try another female betta. *sometimes* they get along quite well. if she is shy, you shuld try looking for another shy one. just as long as both have a place to hide, it should be fine. at petco, i always see female bettas harassing otos, so you may want to make sure you get a female who is low key. my lil girl Amytis is like that. she just sits and looks out of her tank...very peacefully.

i did read somewhere about a lady with 5 females in a 10 gallon. they were all so cute and they had two little "cliques". lol. i guess us gals cant escape that, no matter what species!

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Hi there,

I have a 2.5 gallon tank and I put in two guppies with my betta, Mojo. It was okay for about a week, until Mojo attacked one guppy and shred the little one's pretty tail. I had to separate the guppies <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

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Chipmunk
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Chipmunk
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Sthenno ! Hello again ! <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

I have a 10 gallon with 4 female betta in it and two ADFs. They all get along fine since they straightened out the pecking order issue. For the first few days they did alot of 'pecking' at each other for sure but now thier just a bunch of buds and hang out together in one corner..waiting for me to show up with the feedbag...lol...a whole 10 gallons to swim around in and they hang out in one corner...my dog is just as bad...all he ever thinks about is food! sheesh...


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