# 5 Gallon Tank



## DreamDust03 (Jan 12, 2012)

Hello,

My daughter got a 5 gallon tank for Christmas. We have in it 1 betta, 2 balloon mollies, and 1 juli cory catfish. 

I was just wondering if you all think this will work out well? Or have any advice? I have never had a tank before. 

We have gravel on the bottom, one fake plant, a structure/decoration ... and have not added any salt. 

They all seem find so far except the betta just hides at the top back. 

I want these animals to be happy and healthy - thanks in advance for any input!


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## ktone (Jan 4, 2012)

*Feeding fish*

I am new to aquariums and I find this forum very useful. I added three brilliant rasbora to my new ten gallon aquarium 5 days ago. I feed them twice a day a few flakes of Nutrifin Max. At each feeding they seem to love it and go right to it. I enjoy watching them. This morning I feed them as usually but there was no reaction whatsoever. It was as if I had not added food. Could I be feeding them too often?

I also noticed that one of them sort of stayed by itself.

Any suggestions or advice would help.


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## Geomancer (Aug 23, 2010)

Welcome!

Well, there could be a couple issues. 5 gallons is not much water, and the actual amount of water is a little lower due to the gravel, decorations, and the fact that it isn't filled to the brim. (The advertised volume of the tank is calculated from the outside dimensions of the tank)

The Juli Cory Catfish I believe is a schooling fish, which means it's best to keep them in numbers of at least 6 (more is better). A single one won't be happy, and 5g is far too small for the proper number.

The Balloon Molly's could become an issue if they are both male, if either is female you can probably expect fry (babies) as they almost always come pregnant.

All are tropical fish, so you'll need a heater to keep the water up around say 77 deg F. Then lastly you'll need a filter.

Unfortunately ... it dosen't look like the store told you about fish tanks needing to be cycled. I would recommend reading over this post: http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/...inners-guide-freshwater-aquarium-cycle-38617/
Without a tank being cycled, Ammonia and Nitrite will build up, and both are highly toxic to fish.


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## Geomancer (Aug 23, 2010)

ktone said:


> I am new to aquariums and I find this forum very useful. I added three brilliant rasbora to my new ten gallon aquarium 5 days ago. I feed them twice a day a few flakes of Nutrifin Max. At each feeding they seem to love it and go right to it. I enjoy watching them. This morning I feed them as usually but there was no reaction whatsoever. It was as if I had not added food. Could I be feeding them too often?
> 
> I also noticed that one of them sort of stayed by itself.
> 
> Any suggestions or advice would help.


Twice a day is fine, just make sure it is very little food. It all should be eaten within a very short period of time. If any is left over after a couple minutes you are feeding too much.

However, like I linked above, I would suggest reading the post about cycling a tank... http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/...inners-guide-freshwater-aquarium-cycle-38617/

Ammonia and Nitrite are toxic, and can cause what you are describing.

Rasbora are also schooling fish, and should be in groups of at least 6.


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## thekoimaiden (Oct 19, 2011)

Welcome both of you! To the hobby and the forum! 



DreamDust03 said:


> Hello,
> 
> My daughter got a 5 gallon tank for Christmas. We have in it 1 betta, 2 balloon mollies, and 1 juli cory catfish.
> 
> ...


In my opinion your tank is overstocked. This means that there are too many fish in that small area. Mollies are livebearers. This means that unless they are all males, you will soon have a tank full of babies. I also think that mollies need a little more room than what can be provided in a 5 gal. Cory cats are schooling fish; this means that they need to be among their own kind in order to be happy. Unfortunately, 5 gal isn't large enough to hold enough of their friends to make them happy. Generally, people recommend having nothing smaller than a 10 gal if you want to give your bettas some friends. I think it would be best to return all but the betta fish (if you want more help with the betta, you can look in the betta forum here). You could keep the molly and the cory cat, but they will need a larger tank or you will see health issues with all of your fish. 



ktone said:


> I am new to aquariums and I find this forum very useful. I added three brilliant rasbora to my new ten gallon aquarium 5 days ago. I feed them twice a day a few flakes of Nutrifin Max. At each feeding they seem to love it and go right to it. I enjoy watching them. This morning I feed them as usually but there was no reaction whatsoever. It was as if I had not added food. Could I be feeding them too often?
> 
> I also noticed that one of them sort of stayed by itself.
> 
> Any suggestions or advice would help.


Geomancer is right: you need to see if your tank is cycled. That could be the cause of your current problem. But I think you are going to have some more problems on down the road. I had to look up brilliant rasbora because they aren't in the database here. The information I found says they need to be in groups of 6 or more to be comfortable (they are a schooling fish). They also need at least a 29 gal tank because they are an active fish and grow to around 3.5 inches. A better alternative for your 10 gal would be mosquito rasbora , neon tetra , or pristella tetra. (You can click the highlighted names of the fish for more info on them.) They are much smaller and more sedentary.


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## DreamDust03 (Jan 12, 2012)

Thank you all for the input!!

The pet store owner told me they two mollies are both female. I wanted two of the same sex so they can't have babies ... right?


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## GwenInNM (Feb 2, 2011)

DreamDust03 said:


> Thank you all for the input!!
> 
> The pet store owner told me they two mollies are both female. I wanted two of the same sex so they can't have babies ... right?



I agree with others. Return the cory, they need to be kept in a group. I think one betta and your mollies are all you can fit in that tank. 

Gwen


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## thekoimaiden (Oct 19, 2011)

DreamDust03 said:


> Thank you all for the input!!
> 
> The pet store owner told me they two mollies are both female. I wanted two of the same sex so they can't have babies ... right?


If they are both the same sex they can't make babies together, but females can come already pregnant. This can be a problem. Generally when you keep only one sex of livebearer you get all males so they can't come pregnant. You'll just have to wait and see.


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## MinaMinaMina (Aug 28, 2011)

*DreamDust03*, female livebearers can store genetic material from males for quite a while. So, if they've been bred in the last 9 months or so, you very well could have babies on the way.

As others have said, I strongly urge you to return or rehome all the fish but the betta. A 5 gallon tank is suitable for a betta and nothing more. Otherwise you will run into problems from overstocking- meaning illness and death. 

Please do read the article previously linked, get an API testing kit, test your tank, and do 50% water changes any time the Ammonia or Nitrite readings are over zero, the Nitrate reading is over 20, or weekly, whichever comes first. Fast growing live plants (like stem plants or floating plants) will also help your fish survive the cycle with minimal damage if you have adequate lighting. Using "seeding" material (substrate, filter media, etc.) from a HEALTHY, established tank will also speed and mitigate your cycle. In the future you can do a method of fishless cycle to start up new tanks.


*ktone*, please also read the link about beneficial bacteria and cycles. Please see my comments above to DreamDust03 about getting an API test kit, doing 50% water changes when readings are unaccpetable (see above) and weekly, getting plants of the fast growing variety, and getting seeding material. Please also consider returning or rehoming your fish, doing a fishless cycle, and finding suitable fish for your size aquarium and water parameters (like pH, etc.)

Good luck to both of you!


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## I Love Tetras And Oscar (Jan 12, 2012)

hmm umm your betta is just scare do he/she has a line or some white colors? if so then dont worry about that because he/she is just scare because hes/shes alone.


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