2.5 Gallons.

supgourami

supgourami

Gourami Expert
Jun 10, 2006
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Well, you see, for my birthday, my friend gave me his old 2.5 gallon tank. It has a little undergravel filter and a little heater, and gravel, etc. All the good stuff. I don't want to put a betta in it. Thats all I have to say.


Any suggestions of what I could put in there?
 
Had the same question yesterday. The only things I could find were a couple African dwarf frogs (although you have to seal the lid or they jump out), or a couple male Endlers (tiny liverbearers). You could keep shrimp or snails, but those are boring.
 
I would say that the catalogue is just trying to sell a tank. 14 neons in a 2.5 gallon would die very quickly I would think, or at least be overcrowded to the point that they would barely move (which takes all the fun out of neons). I am still trying to find a good solution for the 2.5 gallon. I originally bought it when I was a newb thinking (wrongly) that a smaller tank would mean less work, and I kept a couple guppies and platies in it, but they didn't do well. I have no idea if this was entirely my fault or if they would have died anyway because the tank was just too small. (They didn't all die. Out of the 6 fish I tried to keep in there, four of them made it long enough to switch over to the 10 gallon when I upgraded, and the male guppy and one of the female platies are alive to this day.)
 
Do what I did with my 2.5g, I turned it into a planted nano tank with Endlers and Cherry shrimp. Everyone is always so surprised to see a functioning tank on such a small scale. And my sister thinks the endlers are the most ‘flashy’ fish I have. I use fluorite, a small hunk of driftwood and miniature plants like anubius nano petite, dwarf hair grass, HC, Red temple, Java moss and Pearl weed.
 
Do you have pictures of that tank RA? I was thinking of doing something like a nano. The common use of that word is short for nano-reef (something I definitely don't have the resources to try), so I have been unable to see what a successful small tank like that looks like.
 
Sure, I'll snap some shots tonight. Last picture I took was before the pearlweed really started growing. I’ll see if I can get a pic of the Endler fry too, my female just had babies again!
 
Endlers can work well in a 2.5 gallon, especially if you stick with the smaller males. 3 males would be fine in your tank. I've got 2 in a 3 gallon and they 're very happy and active.

I don't think putting males and females together in such a small tank is a great idea though--as soon as they starting breeding your tank will be seriously overstocked.
 
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if you could ever find one, why not a pygmy sunfish? they're really cute (like you) and have loads of personality! they need live foods and very soft water, though.
 
*sigh* wish my camera took better close-up pictures. It's great for outdoor stuff but when it comes to taking pictures of my tanks or close-ups they come out blurry, over-saturated or generally blah looking. Sorry for the poor quality images, I’ve tried every freaking setting…anyone else use a Kodak Z760?

Anyway, here is my 2.5g. Not entirely happy with it yet. I keep pulling stuff, replacing it, then pulling and starting all over again. I see it as a work in progress that I just can’t finish! At least the fish and shrimp are happy. Any suggestions/critiques are welcome!

It has fluorite substrate, a red-sea nano filter, and a 18w compact florescent coralife over-light. It has about 12-15 young cherry shrimp of varying sizes and 2 adult endlers, male/female, with 5 baby offspring from two separate pregnancies.

nano.jpg
nano2.jpg
 
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