# 5 gallon tank stocking ideas



## FriendsNotFood (Sep 21, 2010)

You have a bunch of choices depending on what you want...
If you want small schooling fish, you could do ember tetra, celestial pearl danio, any of the microrasboras (boraras merah, boraras brigittae, etc), microdevario kubotai, etc.

For the bottom, you could get a school of pygmy cories (corydoras pygmaeus or c. hastatus or c. habrosus)

Some other options would be sparkling gourami, scarlet badis, dwarf pea puffer, pseudomugil gertrudae, endler's livebearers, guppies. 

If you want a big centerpiece fish, you can always go with a fancy betta.

What you end up getting will also depend on what your tap water is like.


----------



## Stump26 (Jul 4, 2012)

This is her husband. If we get a betta would it be possible to get anything else?


----------



## FriendsNotFood (Sep 21, 2010)

You could probably still do a small school of 5-6 pygmy cories for the bottom. If you get cories make sure that your substrate isn't sharp because that can wear down their whiskers. Sand usually works well with cories. You can also try shrimp (especially amanos) but be prepared to never see them out and about in the daytime.


----------



## Kworker (Oct 28, 2011)

With a betta in there it depends entirely on his personality.. i personally would only do the betta.
But you could do endlers, micro rasbora, a dwarf puffer (make sure not brackish), killiefish. There are more but can't think of just do some googling it helps a lot
Or can go shrimp route with a nice little colony of shrimp going. 

Good luck, appreciate you two are seeking advice


----------



## e.lambert (Jul 21, 2012)

We just started with this hobby the week before fathers day and we have 2 10 gallon tanks and the 5 gallon. In my 10 gallon I have a hifin Mickey mouse tail platy. 6 neon tetras an oto and about 10-12 glass shrimp. Alot of vals, a sprite, a sword, some dwarf hair grass, and a moss ball. I am working on soaking driftwood to put in it. I have been soaking it for 2 weeks. 


His 10 gallon has 3 male guppy and the same number of shrimp. He has vals, a sprite, dwarf hair grass, a sword, anibus, a moss ball, and 2 banana plants. He just got driftwood Saturday for his tank.

We want to eventually make the new tank into a shrimp tank.  but for now I think we will stick with a betta.


----------



## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

I'm trying to get a 5 gallon going on as well

I'm thinking that a small group of dwarf cories followed by either a single betta, a single dwarf puffer, a single sparkling gourami, or a school of some small fish

Since I already have, I would also probably throw in some ramshorn snails and some cherry shrimp.

Oh, and since I'd be setting this thing up from scratch, I'd probably do a dirtied substrate capped with pool filter sand, get some diy co2 running, low to medium lighting, and take cuttings of plants/order plants to go into this bad boy


----------



## Kehy (Feb 5, 2012)

I've got a 5 I recently got up and running. All it's got at the moment is a bunch of rili/cherry shrimp, and it feels really active, and I barely notice there's not an actual fish in there. I don't recommend shrimp with bettas, puffers, and possibly some killifish, but other than that, shrimp would probably be a great addition. The shrimp and cories have the same niche food and space wise, so you might want to only have one or the other. I'd go with shrimp, since you can have so many more, and they really are much more colorful.


----------



## moosenart (Feb 18, 2012)

Shrimp!


----------



## e.lambert (Jul 21, 2012)

I LOVE shrimp. They are, most of the time, more fun to watch than fish. The only problem I have is everywhere around here only sales glass shrimp. They are neat but we already have 2 tanks with about 15 in each and some are reproducing. One of our lfs has blueberry shrimp but when we went to get them we only had our 10 gal tanks and they were so small we could barely see them. So we didn't get them in fear of them getting ate. I really would love some cherry or blueberry shrimp just can't find any unless ordered online 100 at a time.


----------



## FriendsNotFood (Sep 21, 2010)

There's tons of places online you can get any kind of shrimp imaginable if you don't mind paying for shipping. I'd suggest you start with some fire reds... they're just a nicer grade of cherry and have the same requirements. Post a WTB in the Swap 'n Shop on this forum and someone will send you some shrimp. Just keep in mind you can't keep cherries and blueberry shrimp together because they will probably interbreed (someone correct me on this if I'm wrong). Some shrimp that can be kept with cherries are amanos, tigers, and caridina babaulti.


----------



## e.lambert (Jul 21, 2012)

Thanks friendsnotfood, I am going to try that


----------

