Nano Tank Issues

Hi, I have a 5.5 gallon aquarium with 2 cherry barbs, 1 cardinal tetra, and 2 neons. The cardinal and 2 neons shoal around and the cherry barbs just drift around the aquarium. The fish seem to be showing off their colours and the aquarium water perameters are all good. The problem is that when I put food in, they eat but they don’t seem really interested in any food I feed. What should I do? ( I also have a 20 gallon with 3 kuhli loaches, 1 hill stream loach, 1 honey gourami, 4 black neons, 2 otocinclus and 2 guppies.) should I try to switch some of the fish??

I'm afraid 5.5 gallons is too small for all the fish you have in there; and they are all shoaling fish which need to be in groups of at least 6 each. They will be very stressed in this tank which is probably why they are not eating.
None of the fish in the 20 gallon can go in the 5.5 gallon either.

It would be better to move all the fish in the 5.5 gallon into the 20, but that would leave the tank overstocked and poorly stocked.



I know you don't want to hear this, but for the sake of the fish I need to explain.

You have many shoaling species - the cherry barbs, all the tetras, the otocinclus and the kuhli loaches - which need to be in groups of at least 6 of the same species. You don't have room for 6 each of all these fish.
The hillstream loach needs fast flowing water which is cooler than the other fish need.
Guppies are hard water fish while the others are all soft water fish, though guppies may be OK unless your water is very soft.

The honey gourami has no problems.

You have 2 choices. Either upgrade to a bigger tank and increase the numbers of the shoaling fish. Or rehome some of the fish and increase the numbers of the others.


A betta would be the best option for the 5.5 galllon.

Do you have any other tanks you could maybe move some fish to?

I agree with the others, a 20 gallon long would be the smallest tank for shoaling fish like tetras. I keep my tetras in a 55 gallon tank where I have room to have the proper number of tetras for their shoals.

PheonixKingZ said:

Do you have any other tanks you could maybe move some fish to?

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Umm, I am moving to a new place in a couple weeks, so when I am settled there, I am thinking of upgrading the 20 to a 55 gallon. So do you think I can work something there?

Retired Viking said:

I agree with the others, a 20 gallon long would be the smallest tank for shoaling fish like tetras. I keep my tetras in a 55 gallon tank where I have room to have the proper number of tetras for their shoals.

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I attached some pictures to this reply. Would any of these work for an upgrade.

Flopper12345 said:

Umm, I am moving to a new place in a couple weeks, so when I am settled there, I am thinking of upgrading the 20 to a 55 gallon. So do you think I can work something there?

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Yes, a 20g long and a 55g would be perfect for a couple of schools of Tetras. (The 55g you could probably have 2-3 different species/schools)

Flopper12345 said:

I attached some pictures to this reply. Would any of these work for an upgrade.

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For the 20g long: Neon Tetras are soft water fish, while guppies are hard water fish. It is strongly recommended that we keep fish in their comfortable hardness range. (@Essjay already touched on this above. ^)

I keep both soft water fish (tetras) and hard water fish (guppies) in there own tanks. I use RO water to soften my water for my tetras.