Some 5 Gallon Tank Questions

[RockyRaccoon]

I'm gonna set up a 5 gallon tank with a betta and probably a couple ghost shrimp. are there any other good tankmates I could consider? Maybe dwarf frogs? any possible fish?


and i was also wonderin if a heater with a termostat could fit in there... if not Ill have to use this

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and monitor the water temperature.




This is the tank i'm getting. It has a filter and lid built in... it looks pretty nice for what it is. How would I go about cycling it? I have a 20 gallon set up already, could I just use water from that and be okay?

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[ellena]

I think it's recommended not to mix bettas with other fish in anything smaller than a 10 gallon and even then, it's down to the personality of your betta.
You can use a small heater with thermostat-I'm cycling a 3.2 gallon with a heater which has a thermostat, but you can't change the temp.
As for cycling it, the water from your current tank won't have many bacteria in-they're in your filter. So if you could get some sponge/ceramics from it and put them in the new filter, that would help a fishless cycle along. It could still take ages though-I did that and am on day 30. Almost there!

 

[Honeythorn]

An ordinary 25 watt heater will fit in a 5 gallon , no problem. I have one in each of mine. Same for a filter.

In 5 gallons I really wouldn't try to add any other fish. One betta is more than enough bioload for 5 gallons ( the shrimp won't really make a difference ) and with such a small space, if things kick off the fish won't have any space to get away from eachother.

It's safer and easier to keep the betta by himself with the shrimp . Plenty of plants and hiding spots ect and that should work out great.