How many corys can I put with with my Betta in an Eclipse 5-gallon hex tank?

Question

I currently have a betta in a 2-gallon bowl, and I want to move up to the Eclipse 5-gallon hex tank since it has gotten such good reveiws. I would love to get 3 or 4 cory cats to go with my betta, but will this tank be big enough?

Answer 1

don't... cory's need lot's of space(30-55 gallons) and clean gravel and water... they'll die other wise. The first symtoms would be their barbels would get infected and disapear..

Answer 2

I disagree that corys are only 1 inch fish. They usually get to 2. I would put only one in the tank. The reason only one and not two, is that both of your fish will benefit from an occasional carnivorous feeding of worms/brine shrimp, and these foods are messy and will easily take up 1 'inchesworth' of aquarium room.

Corys are armored, so they are pretty well defended against betta attacks, but they do have a few tender points, so it will be wise to give her a nice place to hide.

Answer 3

Rule of thumb: 1 inch of fish for 1 gallon of water. So your betta will get to about 2 inches when fully grown, that leaves three gallons. Corys get to about 1 inch when fully grown. So you could get 3. Remember to get a heater for the corys and some sort of filtratration - I'd go with a cascade type filter as it takes up the least space in the tank and is less expensive.

Edit: I keep corys with a betta and 3 full grown angels with no problems (in a 4 ft tank), since the tank is a little small, I'd look into getting something other than corys.

Answer 4

Don't get anything other than a betta for a 5 gallon, although adding more fish is possible the betta is better off having the whole tank to itself. And disregar what people say bettas are not territorial towards other species, just their own.

Answer 5

No corys do prefer groups of at least 3, but that size tank is too small for them. Get some ghost shrimp for cleaners, but the betta might chow on them.

Answer 6

I truthfully have a Hex 5. I shop my male betta in it. He loves it. I truthfully have a heater for him and that i comprehend with 5 gallons' this is mentioned to get a 25 watt heater, yet i offered a 7.5 watt mini heater because of the fact i wanted the backside wattage attainable when you consider that I stay in a dorm and this is probably frowned upon. apparently this is in basic terms meant to enhance the temp 2-3 tiers above room temp. properly, my room is saved 70-seventy two and the temp of my tank in no way falls decrease than or is going above eighty tiers. i think of it has to do with the completed hood, it retains the warmth temperature in there, which makes me chuffed.

Answer 7

I have heard from Pet Stores & from a Fish Hatchery that it is best to put 1-inch of fish per gallon. I don't really think that 3 bottom feeders would be a problem. I found out from experience that too many fish in a tank causes stress & health problems. But with a betta and 3 corys, you will do GREAT! GOOD LUCK!!!!

Answer 8

i dis agree to all of them who says one inch per gallon of water, here is why : read this article this is great:In case you haven't heard, there is this stupid "rule of thumb" in the aquarium hobby that you can keep 1 cm of fish for every 2 liters (1 inch per gallon) of water. Let me start by explaining why that rule should be ignored completely.

Consider a 3 cm (1 in.) Neon Tetra and a 3 cm Goldfish. In terms of waste produced and body mass, it will take about 20 Neon to equal that 1 Goldfish. Also consider a 3 cm Pink Kissing Gourami. The Pink Kisser is just a baby while the Neon is an adult already. That Kisser has a much higher metabolism and therefore will eat more and produce more waste. Also, the Kisser has much more body mass than a Neon. The cm/liter (in./gal.) rule is meant to apply to small fish at their adult size, such as Neons, Cherry Barbs, Cardinal Tetras, White Clouds, and Zebra Danios. Do NOT use this rule for any fish which is bigger than Neon. Not even for a Platy or a Swordtail.

Now that you can see what I'm talking about, let me explain how many fish you can comfortably fit into your tank. The most important consideration is that you are doing regular water changes and have the appropriate biological filter for your tank size. Provided you are doing the appropriate maintenance and have the correct sized filter, then you will probably never have problems with water quality, regardless of how many fish you put in the tank.

The important considerations are aggression and swimming space. You should never put a fast swimming schooling fish in an aquarium smaller than 200 liters. Many hobbyists assume that they are losing fish mysteriously because the tank is "overcrowded." In reality they are just not giving the fish the appropriate swimming space. When packed into a small tank, "fin nippers" will become very territorial and create stress on your other fish. This is what is resulting in the mysterious fish loss. And it is not related to water quality.

OK, so how many fish? To be honest, there is not a limit. As long as you are putting the fish in the appropriate size aquarium, you will be content with the fish load long before you have reached the biological limits of the tank. I have kept 40 liter aquariums with 30 fish and 200 liter aquariums with 100 fish. The catch is to provide the correct maintenance and be smart about what fish you mix together. Just watch your tank. When your tank starts to look crowded then stop adding fish. There really is no "rule of thumb" for adding fish. This depends entirely on the mix of fish you choose. Good luck!

Mark 'Ffishmaster' Lehr
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Reader Comments
With my experience with amount of fish you can put in a tank is determined by two things: how much maintenance you’re willing to do, and fish compatibility/crowding. For example, you could pack 100 guppies in a 20 L tank (Don't try this at home, it's unfair to the fish) but you would probably have to do multiple water changes a day to keep them alive. When you want to keep a lot of fish in a small area you have to be vigilant of water quality, ammonia spikes, high nitrite/nitrates, and problems with bacterial levels which are imminent and deadly. Overcrowding fish (as pretty as it may look) is a bad idea, first you're likely to have many casualties along the way, not to mention your own stress of constant maintenance and as soon as you slack on the maintenance the whole operation will end up as lot of dead fish and a messed up bacterial bed. My approach to adding fish and finding the right balance is 'A Few at a Time' and 'Very Slowly'. By adding fish in slowly (2-4 week wait in-between per group for an established aquarium) you can better observe the effect of that 'one more fish' into your aquarium. If fish start looking unwell, or aggression becomes a problem you may be at your limit. You’ll also be able to see and correct any problems that may arise from the new individuals. Also, the “rule of thumb” of 1 cm of fish for every 2 liters of water should be completely ignored.

so i would say YES you could put cory cats in it.

Answer 9

i have two panda corys (very small at the moment) in a 28litre tank with one betta. not sure how this converts to gallons (sorry). but i wouldn't put any more than that in there, and as the corys get bigger i think they will eventually move to one of the bigger tanks we have. everyone in the tank seems happy and healthy at the moment, but it has good filtration

Answer 10

I'd strongly advise you to leave the Betta alone in his tank. Bettas are extremely aggressive and territorial. Your corycats are better off in a separate tank they can share with peaceful fish like guppy, neon tetra, molly or zebra danio.