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Empty tank


Em

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My first betta, Lazen passed away this morning, leaving me with an empty 5 US gallon (approx. 23L) tank. It's one of those acrylic Meiko 'Paradise Grand' ones you pick up from Big W, the ones in the yellow boxes. It's got an undergravel filter and a light (which I don't have a globe for so it never went). My question... What do I do with it now that the 'owner' passed away from old age? I don't really want to put my females in it and was wondering what other kind of fish would be suitable for such a tank? Am willing to try something a bit different this time.

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  • 4 months later...

Just wanted to reuse this thread instead of making a new one for the same reason. I was thinking about putting a school of tetras into this 5 gallon tank (although now I have to cycle it again) I was wondering how many tetras I would be able to keep? 6, 9, 12? Was thinking of a school of 6 lemon tetras and maybe the same amount of black neons or just neons. Would that be over crowding the tank?

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Just thought I'd show a photo of the empty tank. The lid is also hiding somewhere.

Posted Image

I've still got to put the draws on the 'table' together, put some plants in there and get it up and running again.

Plant suggestions? I want something different, not Elodea.

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I'd put a small colony of little African cichlids in there myself. Like um.... Abbey, was it N. brevis we liked the look of? I can't remember! Not occelatus, too aggresive. Similis? I can't believe I have forgotten. Or if you want planted, maybe some little rainbows, eg threadfin rainbows - about 12. Or some dwarf riverine cichlids like caucatoides. A school of 12 rummynose tetras would look great. I personally prefer a large school of a single species rather than mixing tetra schools, but I am a virgo :). As for plants, I'd try some java fern on a just off-centre bit of driftwood, and maybe some crypts to each side. Low-light and easy.

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Couldn't find any dwarf cichlids in the local aquarium shop (solely fish). I really liked the tetras and I was thinking two different types as I'm a Scorpio Sagittarius cusp baby so I suppose I like the best of both. It'sabout $25-30 for java fern on driftwood, but I'm sure I could make it for less... I'm going to be putting some 'chemicals' or something to bring the tap water pH down from 7.4 to below 7... would a large dose IAL extract do the job? They say a pH 6.6-6.8 for tetras.

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Na Serkan, I think I'd make up a special 2 ft tank for killis (and I do have a spare 2ft-er just 'sitting around'). Just needs the stand and a bottom board, both of which I have, they've just got to be moved over to my place. So many choices... Killis in the 20L and tetras in the 2ft-er or vice versa... I'm horrible at making up my mind! Found out that this tank is not really 23/25L when you add gravel and plants, got 20L in there and an array of plants, got a seeded sponge filter in there to get some good bacteria in the UGF again (probably leave it in for safe keeping) BTW Serkan, how much would a pair of those (or similar) be? And are they easy to care for?

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Are they the clowns? gorgeous <_< I'd personally not put tetras in a 5 gal tank, i'd say minimum of a 10 gal and even then only for a school of 6. They are fairly active and after a year or so they get pretty chunky so having a larger tank would be better for them. Killies would be more at home in the smaller tank. If you popped the tratras in the 2', you could increase those schools a bit more and the colour and movement should just be mindblowing :blink: I am a big fan of black neons and glolights, or black neons and cardinals :lol:

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Have to agree, once I stuck the plants in the tank there's barely room for anything else! I'll set the tank up none the less and even if it sits for a few weeks there's no harm in it just cycling away. I'll put the tetras on hold for now, wait and get the 2ft-er up and running. And save my money <_<

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If you want to try something a bit different (mind you, in my opinion killies are "a bit different") then how about a brackish water tank with gobies? (bumblebees, desert, etc). There are a few types of catfish which can happily tolerate brackish conditions that you could also chuck in, and if you wanted to be really adventurous, in addition to the gobies you could get a mudskipper. You would have to have a lowered water level in the tank and provide some "land" areas via rocks or driftwood or even a sand bank that comes up out of the water. I am in the process of creating a larger brackish tank myself and intend to photo-document the whole project from start to finish so when I do I will chuck it online in case anyone else is interested in keeping mudskippers but aren't really sure how to go about doing it...

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:) Yeah Lisa. Last year I had a few bettas from Eddie hanging in 1.5L critter keepers between the tank front and the tank lid (hooked off the edges) so that they were kept warm while the tank cycled. Somehow these bettas got ammonia-burn and I just don't know how the high levels of ammonia got in there. They had only been in the containers for a couple days, and I got very high readings in their water... The bettas survived tho.

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