Freshwater Fish for a 5 gallon tank?

Question

What kind of interesting fish combinations should i put in my new 5 gallon tank? I'm trying to have a budget so plz give me some that aren't that expensive...

Answer 1

I would say any type of tetras, or neons, zebra danios. Honestly you should just pick out the ones you like best that fit your budget. The main key is that you should not go over 1 fish per gallon, even with air bubbles. So just be sure to find out how big the fish will get. As long as you get fish you like you should be happy, and so should they.

Answer 2

the smaller the tank, the more impossible it is to stock.

i would say a single male betta would lord it up in that tank, i have a planted 5 gallon for a single male betta, no other occupants, and he loves it.

i would NOT recommend guppies, i think they're too active for a tiny 5 gallon, same with endlers, i have them in a 7.5 and i feel bad enough about that! very active fish should be avoided, these include danios (min 20 US gallon), neon tetras (min 12-15 US gallons), any other tetras need larger tanks too.

depending on how experienced you are, you could try a dwarf puffer, i wouldn't try them as your first ever fish, and they may be tiny (about 1" long) but they MUST be the only fish in the tank with lots of hiding places and things to do, they're smart curious fish! they're also highly aggressive towards other fish.

other fish that could fit in a 5 gallon (provided it's long and not tall..tall tanks mean pretty much betta or dwarf puffer only as other fish need as much surface area to swim as possible) these are all OR, do not put all these in together!!:
- 3-4 pygmy or hasbrosus corydoras
- micro rasboras (anything 1" and under, not harlequins)
- at a SQUEEZE, male/2 female sparking gouramies

if you want an attractive tank you could look into planting it, a well planted and aquascaped tank just doesn't need many fish! you could even have a dramatic aquascaped planted tank with just unusual freshwater shrimps.

or if you want something unusual, i've seen a fun cichlid 5 gallon with Neolamprologus multifasciatus, or shell-dwelling cichlids.

Answer 3

For really cheap in a 5 gallon you can't beat guppies. If you look really closely at feeder guppy tanks you will see some that have some color. Remember these are young so they don't have all their color yet. Pick out a few of those and when they grow up they will really surprize you.

MM

Answer 4

Five gallons is pretty small, so your options are fairly limited (any fish longer than 1.5 inches would be unsuitable, and so would any schoolers or fast swimmers), but would include:

4 cherry barbs or,
4 white or cold cloud minnows or,
1 male betta or,
2 female bettas or,
4 endlers livebearers or feeder guppies or,
3 furcata rainbows or,
2 african dwarf frogs or,
3 scarlet badis.

Or some combination thereof :)

Answer 5

A betta pair, as in male-female. They will interact and most likely spawn. The babies may live if you put another fish in there so the betta feel like they have to protect(and not eat) their babies.

Really, there are not many fish that can live in a tank under 10gals. You could try getting some ghost shrimp and maybe three or four neon tetras, or maybe another type of small schooling fish, but other than that I have no other suggestions. Except the freshwater dwarf african clawed frog, which are hard to take care of anyway.

So make sure you have a fish that will be less than 5 inches. And ghost shrimp dont really count as a bio-load because they clean everything up, so you could have 6-7 of them.

Answer 6

A small tank like that can handle no more than 5" of fish. I'd say 4 White Cloud Mountain Minnows. They are less than $1 each and very easy to care for. Four is the absolute minimum for these schooling fish and the absolute maximum for your small tank.

Answer 7

With a 5 gallon tank you don't have room for much. Maybe a Betta or a goldfish.... guppies are a decent ideal... look up fancy ones. Males have very pretty colored tails. But even then you only have room for like 3 guppies.