# 15 gallon tank for a 5 year old.



## tophat665 (Sep 30, 2006)

Greetings all. I just upgraded my 7 year old's 20 high to a 40 breeder, and my 5 year old was feeling grumpy because her tank is only 5.5 gallons (course, it's a 30 buck male yellow butterfly steel blue halfmoon betta in there, but she just knows her tank is tiny next to her sister's). In any case, I got a good deal on a 15 (24x12x12), so I figure I can tell her she's got 2 tanks and mollify her that way.

So now I am looking for something to put in there to delight a kindergartener.

So far, my thoughts have been (These are all for different tanks)
- 3 dwarf puffers
- Threadfin Rainbows and some bottom feeders (kuhlis, corys, moth cats or oil cats)
- Neons (not thrilled with this or similar small tetras)
- Bumblebee gobies and a couple (3) glassfish.
- Microrasboras
- Honey Gouramis
- Sparkling gouramis
- Female Bettas
- White Cheeked Gobies

So what say? What would get a little one to say, "That's COOL." (Bearing in mind she already has one very cool fish indeed).


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## MegK (Aug 23, 2007)

i think any fish would do.

and im assuming your the one taking care of the tank right?


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## tophat665 (Sep 30, 2006)

Yeah, I'll be taking care of it.

I want to try and get something colorful or active or odd. Something with a high neat-o factor for her, and something that I can try and wrap my head around and put together a nice little eco-system.

I've written a number of posts on fish for the small tank, but my issue is that I maybe have too many things to think about. So I can handle the bioloading and the aquascaping, but help me out with the coolness factor. This is a pretty savvy 5 year old, so just any fish won't cut it.


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

tophat665 said:


> So far, my thoughts have been (These are all for different tanks)
> - Threadfin Rainbows and some bottom feeders (kuhlis, corys, moth cats or oil cats)
> This would be a very good stocklist. Threadfins are quite entertaining especially when kept in a group. I'd go with corydoras or kuhlis as well as they are equally entertaining.
> 
> ...


My answers are in green font. I have not commented on two fish in your list as I've never kept them yet.


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## Falina (Feb 25, 2007)

I'm trying my best to have a 5 year olds frame of mind here, and I think that dwarf puffers might do it for me the most. They're really cute and kinda funny looking, and entirely different to the betta that she's already got. Plus they are taken care of quite differently to other fish which could be educational to her.

Either that or a small community consisting of threadfins, cories, microrasboras, CPDs or whatever she likes best. Maybe this would be a good route go go since she could have the most variety of different fish in the one tank.


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## tophat665 (Sep 30, 2006)

Lupin, Julie, Thanks for the input.

Julie, Shoot for an 8 year old mind set. This one is pretty canny. :shock: 

With Lupin's advice, you're best options of DPs or micro-community are the top two contenders now. I'll be attending a seminar on Rainbowfish this evening, so that may clinch it. Half Dozen threadfins, 5 Kuhlis, an Otto, 10 or so microrasborae (which would be the correct latin plural ). Sounds like a plan. That or 3DPs and 3 ottos.

? CPDs?


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

tophat665 said:


> ? CPDs?


Celestial Pearl Danios.


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## tophat665 (Sep 30, 2006)

Lupin said:


> tophat665 said:
> 
> 
> > ? CPDs?
> ...


What I continue to think of as Galaxy Rasboras. No worries.


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## tophat665 (Sep 30, 2006)

OK, I've settled on 6 Threadfins, 6 Kuhlis, 3 Ottos, 12 or so Microrasboras or Ember Tetras, and 10 or so cherry red shrimp.

Too much? Skip the ottos in favor of the shrimp? Can I up the number of rasboras or tetras (I'm estimating their bioload at 2"/gallon, so that's just a hair under 3 fish/gallon for any of them.) I have found that 6 is a good minimum number of kulis.

Substrate will be Tahitian Moon Sand (black) with a couple of flourish pellets ground up into it. Plants will be straight vals, java moss, and maybe a nice little crypt as a centerpiece. Hardscape is going to involve lots of red slate. No Driftwood.


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

It looks fine to me but then I have a habit for keeping a lot of tetras in one tank. 15 rasbora/tetras will be okay. I won't skip the otos and will simply add the shrimps if it were my tank.


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## tophat665 (Sep 30, 2006)

Thanks Lupin. I ran the numbers again and realized that I had neglected to include the Kuhlis in my last bioload estimate. With the Threadfins at 1"/gallon, the minifish and kuhlis at 2"/gallon (small on the one hand, incredibly skinny on the other), and the cherry shrimp at 4 shrimp/gallon, I come out with an equivalent bioload of 17 1/2" at the outset, 25 1/4" at max size, out of 30" equivalent capacity for a heavily planted tank.

Should work. The only thing I worry about in that tank is that the kuhlis will hunt down and eat any baby shrimp, but such is life. I can always set up a 2.5 for a breeding colony if I want one.


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