3 gallon tank

Red Betta

I just got a new 3 gallon tank. It has a filter, heater, and driftwood. I was looking for some suggestions and ideas about what kind of fish to put in it.

Any ideas and suggestions are welcome.

DragonFish

Hmm....not a lot of options I think for such a small tank....if your filter flow isn't too strong/adjustable, perhaps rescue a Betta from a LPS? :)

Mikaila31

I'd go with a betta and some shrimp as well.

Red Betta

I was hoping to get something other than a betta, are there any other fish that can live happily and healthy in a 3 gallon tank.

Mikaila31

Sure there are quite a few. What are the dimensions? you've got pygmy cories, lots of different micro rasboras and some other micro fish. You could keep some MALE endlers if you wanted. The only issue is a lot of these fish are not easy to find, often you will have to order them online and pay for shiping which is $. Also maintance of the tanks will be difficult IMO when keeping these smaller more sensitive fish.

Red Betta

Ya well i have been looking through pet stores and they do have these kinds of fish.

Also i dont know the exact measurements. It is almost a cube( it is a rectangle) the height and width are the same and the length is just slightly larger. So if you imagine a 3 gallon cube that's pretty much the size of the tank

eileen

Buy them on AquaBid.com - Sell or buy aquarium related equipment and fish in an auction format! Put endlers in the search You can also get the shrimps on aquabid. Swampriveraquatic.com has a bunch of endlers and the prices are good. The only problem with endlers here are they are a trio 1 male/2 female and they breed like crazy. If you can just get maybe 3-4 males only that would be good. Dwarf shrimps are a good choice for a small tank. Aquabid has these at a good price in the dollar auction. If you have a walmart they do sell Ghost shrimps sometimes for about .39 cents each. They are a good beginner shrimp to get. Another idea would be small white clouds tetras, glow-light tetras, Neon tetras,Harleqen Rasboras are very hardy but you can only get about 3-4 a tiny school in a nice planted tank with real or fake plants. The shrimps need good water quality. They are sensitive to ammonia, nitrate,Nitrite spikes also no copper in the food that you feed them check the ingr. of the food. That means do not over feed, weekly water changes of 25% and testing the water with a dropper test kit once a week and you should be ok. When picking the tetras if you go with them get the smaller types and stay with a group of 3-4 at most for your cycled 3 gal. tank. Also some fish stores sell endlers as feeder fish but they are endlers. Just remember to only get 3-4 males since they are livebearers. You can also get a dwarf frog if you do not want to go with fish or shrimp any other type of fish will out grow your tiny tank but it can be done. I have yellow shrimp and 2 small endlers in my 3 gal. tank and they are fine. Shrimps only tanks are fun and you can get babies in a tiny tank. They are easy to rehome as I rehome them on Craigslist.You just have to put a sponge or fine netting over the intake vavle to you filter so the shimps don't get sucked up when the babies are born. Red cherry shrimp are a easy nice color shrimp so are yellow, green, or tiger shrimp.Stick to one kind of shrimp as some will interbreed and they will breed back to the wild color which is plain with no color. Check criagslist , Some fishforums have a selling section and some people are willing to send them by mail with a small shipping fee. Aquabid has some sellers that ship free. Set a amount you are willing to pay with the shipping and if the bid goes to high watch another auction til you find one that fits your price. I got my shrimps for $14 for 10 with 5 free ones sent and $10 to ship arrived in 3 day in perfect condition from Aquabid from a Missfish. Good luck on finding some nice fish for your nano tank.

Mikaila31

personally I think white clouds tetras, glow-light tetras, Neon tetras,Harleqen Rasboras are going to get too big, too active, or be too sensitive for a 3 gallon tank. You need to also keep in mine that a small school is going to be more difficult, aggression will not be spread out as much and there will not be much escape or hiding room for stressed fish. IMO any fish you keep should be 1" max. Live plants will be best and I would do 50% WC weekly. Expect the tank to require lots of maintance and to have lots of issues, balancing a small tank is much more difficult than a large tank.

Fishin Pole

I agree with mikaila......the tank is just too small for any fish other than a betta or shrimp.........putting a small shoal of tetras in such a small tank will lead them to being stressed and with no place o seek relief..........Go with some type of shrimp for the tank and keep up with your water change and things should go well for you

Mikaila31

Its not feasible, it is certainly possible I've seen it done before and I attempted it myself. That tank turned out a total disaster it was properly cycled, but nothing I could do would "balance" it and the only thing happy in there was the algae. The amount of maintenance my 2.5gal tank required was the same as my 20gal high tech planted. Eventually I turned it into a terrarium and currently it just grows plants.

The betta, endlers, or adf's are all good options and the most common. Bettas are always suggested first because they are the best suited(they'er indestructable). It is almost impossible IMO to have such a small tank stay stable, the larger the tank the more stable it generally is. I'm not talking about the cycle, but other water parameters GH, KH, PH and temp to mention a few, tend to fluctuate a great deal in micro tanks. Live plants are almost neccasary IMO as they add to the stability.

Fish <;((((< that are suited for small tanks, Micro rasboras. You won't find these in shops. You can get them online easily, but then you have shipping charges. $30 is usually what it costs, sometimes $15 if they will shipp priority. Considering you only want 4 fish it is not feasible to order them this way. But below is a list of fish that can be cept in small tanks. Rasboras are more peaceful towards each other than tetras and they don't activetly swim around, they usually hang around a general area. I keep B. Brigittae.

Boraras micros - .5-.75 inches max
Boraras merah - .8 inches max
Boraras maculatus- 1 inch max
Boraras brigittae- 1 inch max