New desk tank suggestions

sam7152004

I am thinking about setting up my desk tank again. It is about a 1.5 gal. tank. Any suggestions for fish/plants/other would be greatly appriciated.

Tazman

Male or female betta and ghost shrimp that is about it.

Jave fern would work in that size.

Geomancer

Yeah, just a Beta. Make sure you have a heater and filter. If you skip on the filter... very frequent water changes.

redchigh

you have a few options...

you can pick 1 off this list:
school of 6 ember tetras
school of 6 Rasbora merah, nana, or brigittae
school of 5 pygmy chain loach*
a single male Dwarf Gourami or Honey Gourami
a single male betta
trio (2 females 1 male) sparkling Dwarf Gourami
trio (2 females 1 male) Badis badis, or Dario dario*
2-3 male guppies or endlers

Except for the gourami and betta, you can add a handful (3-6) of shrimp (red cherry or ghost are good) and 1-2 nerite snails...

* are somewhat sensitive species... Stay on top of water quality.

A small tank can turn out really well... I'd definately encourage you to go planted though...These are some easy plants of suitable size-
mosses
Anubias nana
Anubias nana petite
cryptocyrne lucens, parva, petchii
narrow-leaf Java Fern
small marimo balls
Monosolenium Tenerum
You could leave it open top and add a Echinorodus 'Kliener Prinz' or small Aponogeton crispus in the back as a centerpiece..

Dry-start method could make the tank much easier to set up planted... It's essentially where you add the substrate (with a tiny amount of soil mixed in), add rockwork and wood, add the mosses and some select plants (like hairgrass, glosso, or dwarf baby tears), and keep covered with plastic wrap. The plants grow faster in high-humidity than they do submerged, and you can get a really nice tank with 'difficult' plants the easy way. Mist with weak fertiliser mixture every day or every other day.. it only takes 2 weeks or so, but you can let it go as long as you like that way.

Geomancer

Are you sure about that list? For a 1.5 gallon?

I would have to respectfully disagree. Maybe you could keep them from dying from ammonia poisoning with daily water changes, but they wouldn't be happy in such a ridiculously small volume of water.

fishy friend2

i have to say that none of the fish on that list are actually suitable for a 1.5 gallon IMO. and for the betta suggestion, i think that the minimum tank size for a betta has to be 2.5 gallons, 1.5 is TINY, and plus . even with a filter you cant cycle the tank so you would need to do 1 50 and 1 100 percent water change a week to keep the water parameters at the right level

Jayy

+1 I agree, a 1.5gal is on the small side even for betta. I think shrimp would be best. Or getting atleast a 2.5 gallon. The larger the more choices.

redchigh

It depends on how much work you want to do. In a planted tank with frequent water changes, most of the fish would do well.

The larger rasboras, tetras, and betta would be a stretch... but Badis and Dario stay substantially less than an inch from what I've read. The ember and spotted rasbora max out at closer to a half inch.

fish monger

What about White Clouds ? They'll do fine with room temperature and provide you with some movement. Add a bunch of Anacharis and you'd have a nice looking little desk tank.

fishy friend2

I still wouldn't put 6 fish in a 1.5 gallon, I'd say that the minimum tank size fr the embers are more like 5 gallons, and the same goes for the Badis, just because it is only an inch big doesn't mean that it will be okay in such a small tank considering that they are really active fish