Help me pick my fish
By Trace86
@Trace86 (5030)
United States
February 11, 2009 8:39pm CST
I have one of those small desktop aquariums, 1 gallon. My fish that I had in there went to the great fishbowl in the sky recently. I have refilled it and am letting it cycle. I want to get 2 or 3 small fish this weekend. What do you think is small enough and hardy enough for room temperature water. My husband thinks I need to get a heater. Do they even make heaters that small?
1 person likes this
4 responses
@moneymommy (3418)
• United States
12 Feb 09
The light from the lamp should be enough heat. Get a few dannos to start off with. They are hardy little fish and they prepare the bowl for other fish. Did you have a Betta before if not I also would recommend one of them.
@Patrika952 (156)
• United States
17 Feb 09
Hi, female bettas can usually be kept together, provided that they have enough space. Sorry to tell you, but a 1 gallon tank really is not suitable as a long-term tank for any fish. Bettas CAN survive in small quantities of water, but that does not mean they SHOULD live in such. Ideally, a single betta should have a minimum of 2 gallons of water, filtered, heated, and well-maintained. I use little heaters for my small tanks, I cannot recall the name right now, but they are flat, black, and heat up to 5 gallons of water. I bought them for about $6 a piece and they work well. I hope that helps.
@JoyfulOne (6232)
• United States
12 Feb 09
Hehehe...glad you're going to give that fish tank a go again. Geez, can't help you pick a fish. We decided the next ones we get are going to be plain old goldfish. Seems like they're pretty indestructible hahaha. Our last fish also went to the great fishbowl...my daughter cleaned the tank and put in water way warmer than room temp...they were done for it within half an hour. Yes, they do make heaters that small, or at least they used to; we used to have one in our 10 gallon tank a long time ago. Let us know what you finally pick out fish-wise!
1 person likes this
@Trace86 (5030)
• United States
28 Feb 09
I got two Betta girls. The problem is that one was bigger than the other and picked on the little one. I had to get a second small tank for the smaller fish. Now they are side by side and can look at each other but the big one can no longer chew on the little one's fins. Do you think the fins will grow back?
@oscarbartoni (2581)
• United States
20 Feb 09
For that small a tank, I would go with cherry shrimp and java moss. Fish , even the air breathing ones need more than one gallon to be and stay healthy long term. You could also put in a snail to liven the tank up. As far as heating the tank I would get a reptile under the tank hearer to help keep it warm enough, it will be out of sight and also keep the tank close t room temp.For the plants (even Java moss) you will need a light over it but the plants will act like a filter so you will need to feed very little if even then once algae start to grow.
@infinite_zoom (118)
• India
21 Feb 09
If you love ur fish, i suggest you get a bigger tank. 1gallon is just not enough for a fish to be happy. You can get a 2feet X 1feet without paying much, and you can keep many more fish in that.
@chyplos (13)
• Indonesia
24 Feb 09
Yeah, right. The tank must be much larger than before.
Btw, I've used some tank for water filtration. You know, for the good environtment for my favorite fish off course.
Heater ? probably you need it. But remember to always control the thermo inside the tank. Because some of fish are sensitive about the drastically change of temperature inside the tank.
