2.5 Gallon Desktop Tank Build

But Tiger Teddies <3 and my new guppy male that I'll have to bring home with me and hope like there's no tomorrow that the filter for their tank arrives on time...

 

Amazon frogbit is making more... I started with two tiny plants and now they are propogating

I hope their roots get to growing soon lol
The two surviving females are doing well so far. Just added them to the tank. Here's hoping they're pre-hit so I still get some babies out of them.

endlercollector you might like to see them

They are so tiny, hehe even smaller than my shrimp.

lol how did the amazon frogbit photo get in there? Oh well :/

I'll upload the rest when I get home and can do it from a computer where I don't accidentally click on random stuff.

 

Fish are beautiful!! I love the frogbit too! I love frogbit already though

 

Fish are beautiful!! I love the frogbit too! I love frogbit already though

Thanks I'm really hoping they are like other livebearers in that they store sperm. Their hubby was cooked in transit But they are WAY prettier than I thought they'd be. As females I expected them to be plain silver with faint stripes. They aren't, they are almost as dark as I expect the males to be. And they fire up and flare and do dominance dances with each other which I already find funny, since they're girls and generally only female gouramis and bettas do that kind of thing. Maybe some cichlids too I guess, but never would have thought I'd see it in these little things

Okay, more and better pictures

 

Down to one female now Girl #1 died either over the weekend or last night (I wasn't at work yesterday so I can't be sure but she looked like she had been dead more than one day )

The sad thing is, it's the healthy girl that looked pregnant that died. Her sister now looks pregnant, but she is the one who was struggling during acclimation last week, so we'll see what happens.

 

Aww no! I'm so sorry to hear that!! I hope the other girl will survive and also be pregnant.

 

Aww no! I'm so sorry to hear that!! I hope the other girl will survive and also be pregnant.

I am pretty bummed. I am meeting some people from our local aquarium society in a few weeks at an aquascaping event though so hopefully one of them will have some of these guys so I can restock, or will know someone local who keeps them. I'm not buying from the first guy again since he didn't bother shipping the fish correctly.


The good news is, I can be fairly sure it's nothing in the tank that caused her to die. All of the shrimp are doing well and have been molting. They would be the first to go if there was a problem with the water parameters.

 

Tank update: New shrimp were added this week, and only lost one after acclimation (she was purple. I don't know what it means, but the others seem pretty healthy and are nibbling everything, so I think the batch is overall okay).

The remaining tiger teddy girl seems to be doing well, though she isn't a fan of the shrimp at all (the females are for the most part, bigger than her). She hasn't bothered them, but she swims up to them and then darts away haha.

Anyway, photos:

 

So what fish are going in there? I originally read that you were putting shrimp in the tank but I guess I must have missed something!
Beautiful setup by the way, you're making me jealous!

 

So what fish are going in there? I originally read that you were putting shrimp in the tank but I guess I must have missed something!
Beautiful setup by the way, you're making me jealous!

There is already a fish in there; Neoheterandria elegans. It's just a female as the male died in transit, but I'm going to see if I can get more locally. I will then determine if they can be bred in a small tank like this and simply have the fry removed, or if the smaller space means no babies. I have a 20 gallon guppy breeder I can move them to at my house if need be.


The tank will definitely house fish, though. If I end up having to move the tiger teddy home, I will get another nano-fish for the tank. Possibly a single clown killI or something along those lines. I have a pretty good selection of nano-fish at one of my local shops. Or I can always order from Rachel O'Leary haha.

 

The plant in the HOB. Beneficial or just for looks?

 

The plant in the HOB. Beneficial or just for looks?

Pothos

All plants are beneficial, as they all consume ammonia and other harmful compounds in the water. Pothos is a slow grower, and can't be grown fully submerged in aquaria (the leaves are poisonous to most animals) but the roots in the water will at least remove some of the big bads that can come in our tap water, and if not, they will still use the ammonia and nitrite provided by the fish and shrimp for food.

Also, they just look pretty <3 haha. Marbled pothos is my favorite to randomly throw in water and HOB filters. I have some growing out of my guppy tank at home as well And I use peace lily in some of my other tanks, and Chinese evergreen. Taro also works, but gets large. Bamboo, and some gingers are great for the same purpose.

 

hmm I may have to do that on the HOB on my 20 tall. I know how beneficial plants can be I just was unsure if they were as beneficial in the filter as such. But it makes sense

 

hmm I may have to do that on the HOB on my 20 tall. I know how beneficial plants can be I just was unsure if they were as beneficial in the filter as such. But it makes sense

Faster growing plants are more useful. I happen to have really light stocking on this tank, so I just used what I had. But something like a Chinese everygreen, or a fast growing Ivy, would work better than pothos.

 

I got some rather good photos of the surviving shrimp today (I had a few die, unfortunately. But, one of them had babies either right before or right after she passed, so there are a few babies darting around in there!)

I still need more plants. But I think I want to do vals and my local shop doesn't have any right now and hasn't for a while. Of course, I do have the frogbit which will be getting nice long roots soon, so I may go for lower-growing plants instead.