what fish can you keep in a 5 gallon tank

[jelezoglo]

Originally Posted by Saltwater8
Hello Lion!

I assume you know the renowned marine biologists Fenner and Michael?
They both say, not me, that NO saltwater fish belongs in a 5 gallon aquarium and NO clown belongs in a 10 gallon aquarium.
Not trying to be harsh, just trying to educate

:happyfish
But you are being harsh. As a matter a fact you always come across as rude on your replies. You should take a hint from people that have been doing this for much longer and are always pleasant on their replies like moby, beth and bandguy. I am new to this hobby and would like to know and read as much as possible, but it is a huuuuge turn off everytime I come across the police.
Sorry all for being so aggressive, but I just got off another thread that he was behaving the same way. This is so far the only downside to this hobby....."KNOW IT ALLS"

 

[emperor11]

IMO, you could do dwarf seahorses (a lot of work) or something small and interesting such as a Yellow Stripe Clingfish.

 

[joojoo]

lol (the sarcastic smilies dont help either, saltwater8)
well time for my opinion.....Surfin, I think a pair of neon gobies would be fantastic. I have 2 in my 20g and they are very active members. They do actually swim a lot, but they are tiny, so a 5 gallon will give them plenty of back and forth fun.
2 neons and some brightly colored shrimp would be awesome, good luck
ever hear of dwarf anglers? they stay small and dont move much at all....however will eat anything that moves....

 

[ophiura]

One of the things about "experts" is that there is still commonly room for disagreement. They have opinions, but they are not necessarily the end all's of the conversation and debate. It is fine to follow them, it is fine to have a personal opinion and state that, no worries....but it does not have to be the end of the discussion.
I definitely don't think a clown or gramma is a good plan. And really I am not personally sure about any fish for a long time - long enough for you to work out the difficulties of keeping a tank this size. It is not easy to keep parameters stable, and that will be a problem. Once you have things settled after several months, and things are going well, and you have good circulation, etc....then maybe, I agree a clown goby or neon goby might be OK. It is not my number one thing to try but it is not quite comparable, IMO, to putting a really large active fish in a 29g tank. A tang would outgrow that tank and be severely stressed in its behavior. A neon goby, which basically is percher on rock and a tiny fish that stays a truly tiny fish...in fact it might not be a bad sort of system to try and breed them. :thinking: Not positive tho.
But this is not an easy type of tank to keep, and I don't recommend rushing into keeping fish in it.
The question is, do you also have a larger tank, so that if it doesn't work you can put the fish elsewhere?

 

[nolesfan06]

Yeah! what ophipora said is right! experts don't always know whats good and bad in every situation. I haven't done a water change for 3 months and my tank is better than it has always done before. Since then I've only lost a peppermint shrimp and thats cuz he decided to dive off the top of my live rock right into my LTA!!

 

[ophiura]

Now I don't want my comment to be used out of context! It is not intended to mean "do whatever you want" it means "research and debate openly." In many cases, I think the "experts" have extremely good justifications behind them for their ideas, and I agree 100%. But I think this is the forum for presenting those justifications and debating...not just a forum for thumbing your nose at what the experts say just because you can, or in shouting down another posters opinions just because such and such a person said so.
I personally think water changes are critical because it is a closed system and it just makes sense to do it. We test only a tiny fraction of the possible parameters that may be "off."

 

[ray28576]

Originally Posted by ophiura
Now I don't want my comment to be used out of context! It is not intended to mean "do whatever you want" it means "research and debate openly." In many cases, I think the "experts" have extremely good justifications behind them for their ideas, and I agree 100%. But I think this is the forum for presenting those justifications and debating...not just a forum for thumbing your nose at what the experts say just because you can, or in shouting down another posters opinions just because such and such a person said so.
I personally think water changes are critical because it is a closed system and it just makes sense to do it. We test only a tiny fraction of the possible parameters that may be "off."
Agree totally.

 

[celacanthr]

If you are experienced enough, and are able to do a WC, and hatch out and grow BS daily then you could try a few Hippocampus zosterae. If you do think you will do dwarf seahorses, then please do TONS of research before you purchase em.
-CELA

 

[ophiura]

Originally Posted by CELACANTHr
grow BS daily

I agree on the dwarf seahorses - and the tons of research!
As for the abbreviation of "Brine Shrimp" as BS....there I may have to disagree. That could get us into trouble, when people think you are feeding BS or talking about BS or....yeah, may be an abbreviation that could cause some

 

[celacanthr]

LOL, you are probably right! LOL
Maybe I should have said BBS (baby brine shrimp), but that could even be misconstrued.
:thinking:
-CELA

 

[threed240]

Bulletin Board System.BBS?
As far as fish in a 5? I know people who have the fancy guppies in saltwater tanks. The can change over to saltwater in a very slow acclimation. In a 5 gallon, you could add a few teaspoons a week, until the salinity rises to the desired level. They do great in saltwater! Better than fresh. Myself, I don't care for guppies, but it could be good for a 5.

 

[surfinusa]

dwarf seahorses sound interesting i will start doing research on them but how difficult are they and are they for somebody eith 2 years of experience and also can i keep 2 or 3 of them in a 5 gallon

 

[surfinusa]

Originally Posted by CELACANTHr
If you are experienced enough, and are able to do a WC, and hatch out and grow BS daily then you could try a few Hippocampus zosterae. If you do think you will do dwarf seahorses, then please do TONS of research before you purchase em.
-CELA
whats a wc :notsure:

 

[saltwater8]

Water Change...

 

[celacanthr]

Sorry, WC=Water Change
5 is the absolute minimum for a 5 gallon. More is better, because of food concentration considerations.

 

[poniegirl]

I'm wondering; could one, with patience, allow a tank to cycle and introduce a good copepod population.
Then think about dwarf seahorses.
Live feeding is not the only way to go with those guys, but the BS are more difficult (messy, frustrating?) than any seahorse?

 

[joojoo]

pods grow too big for dwarf seahorses to eat
it's very possible for u to keep dwarfs if you are very dedicated and keep up on daily tank maintenance and feeding

 

[drewsta]

if you are going sea horses.. Go with tank raised ones they are more hardy and they will usually accept frozen brine it will save you the trouble of feeding live (as that gets expensive) In a 5 gallon you will have to do weekly water changes because sea horses do not usually eat all food put in the tank and you have to feed them generally 3 times a day even though I think once a day is fine, the overfeeding will raise your ammonia and nitrates to an unlivable level for the horses

 

[celacanthr]

I am pretty sure that most Captive Bred Dwarf Seahorses will not eat frozen, but I do agree CB are way healthier than WC (wild caught).

 

[surfinusa]

i did a google search on pygmy seahorses and i think they look awesome so does anybody know anything pygmy seahorses are they hard to keep but also will they be hard to get to