Recommended Decorations For 5 Gallon Tank?

It's been a few weeks now and my Betta fish, Buddy, keeps tearing his fins on various decorations around the tank. Initially, there were 4 decorations in his tank, all fake plants from PetSmart's Top Fin brand. I'm down to one decoration in the tank now as he's torn his fins 3 separate times. I'm not considering adding live plants to my tank because I don't think there's enough light to sustain them in my room. So I'm asking, what decorations do you recommend for a 5 gallon tank and a Betta?

 

It's been a few weeks now and my Betta fish, Buddy, keeps tearing his fins on various decorations around the tank. Initially, there were 4 decorations in his tank, all fake plants from PetSmart's Top Fin brand. I'm down to one decoration in the tank now as he's torn his fins 3 separate times. I'm not considering adding live plants to my tank because I don't think there's enough light to sustain them in my room. So I'm asking, what decorations do you recommend for a 5 gallon tank and a Betta?

Marimo balls are low upkeep and barely need any light and from what I hear, Bettas love to push them around like a soccer ball.

 

Is your tank even remotely near a window? That’ll sustain low-light plants from ambiant light. That’s what I do, since my LEDs suck lol.

 

Is your tank even remotely near a window? That’ll sustain low-light plants from ambiant light. That’s what I do, since my LEDs suck lol.

My LED's are pretty bright I guess, but unfortunately the tank is nowhere near a window.

 

My LED's are pretty bright I guess, but unfortunately the tank is nowhere near a window.

Hmmm... what lights do you have?

 

Hmmm... what lights do you have?

Literally the stock ones from the Top Fin 5 Gallon 'Retreat' aquarium, plus some lights and lamps scattered throughout the room

 

If you have led lights for your tank, go with anubias and java moss. They can survive is really low light conditions. Try finding a small piece of driftwood that will fit in your tank and glue these mosses and anubias on it.

 

I have 2 Top Fin 5.5 gallon essentials shrimp tanks. The lights are probably not as good as your Retreat. I have anubis, java moss, christmas moss, crypt, anarchis, and amazon sword doing well. I use flourish (not flourish excel) and some dyI osmocote root tabs every 3 or 4 months.

 

I have the 5 gallon topfin retreat and I have java ferns, amazon sword and moss balls in it. All are doing amazing with no added ferts

 

I have a 5 gallon too currently. I would remove any plastic fake plants especially from Petsmart. They are major causes of fin tearing. Get silk fake plants instead. They are much safer for a betta. I got mine on Ebay and I'm sure there are other sites too that sell it. I hope my photos on here show up, but here is my 5 gallon with my silk plants or check out my album on my profile. Toys and other stuff I have for mine are the leaf hammock, floating betta log which I rigged up by wrapping a twist tie around the top feeding hole and then tying the other end to my tank light cord so its like anchored because my betta doesn't like it moving. A skull cave, and 2 Aquarium Fish Tank Sea Artificial Fake Coral, and Marimo balls.

New silk blue flower plant

• HelloKittyPowa
• Nov 27, 2018

Current 5 gallon aquarium look.

Cutie enjoying his blue silk plant

• HelloKittyPowa
• Nov 27, 2018

 

Are the fake plants made out of plastic? If so, you should remove them and pop in silk fake plants or even real aquatic plants. You're gonna wanna pick plants that have long leaves that your betta can lay on, but are also soft enough where it won't jab or hurt their fins. Silk plants and real plants will do this with no problem.
(If you do decide to get real plants, picking up 1-2 tall and long-leaved anubis is a good choice. Very simple to care for, needing little lighting and giving the extra benefit of keeping your water a little cleaner. They also give a semi-hidden spot your betta can lay or hide in.)

Besides that, pieces of driftwood (wouldn't recommend just finding a piece of wood on the floor and popping it in. Check out what a petsmart or a local fish store have in stock so you know they're prepped and clean) are good decorations. As long as it's not too big though! The bigger the decoration, the less space there is for your betta to swim around.

 

G.J. Let us know how the tank decorating goes and upload some pics, I would love to see your 5 gallon.

Koriand'r relaxing

• HelloKittyPowa
• Nov 23, 2018

Such a baby :3

 

Update: So I guess it wasn't as much of the decorations as it was the water flow. I went to a flight club meeting for 2 hours, and his fins only had a minor tear. I just got back and the lower portion of his caudal fin is basically shredded. I have the pump turned off now, but how should I solve this issue? Putting a sponge in front of the intake, because of the way the tank itself is designed, would would cause the water level to drop, exposing the heater, thermometer, and everything else that it's actually supposed to conceal, to air, which basically ruins the whole point of it. How should I go about it?

 

The topfin 5 gallon retreat has a dial on the pump. Just pull it out and turn it all the way down.

 

The topfin 5 gallon retreat has a dial on the pump. Just pull it out and turn it all the way down.

The thing is that I did that. All the actual dial piece was missing, so I had to manually go in and flick the piece under where the dial is supposed to be.

 

The thing is that I did that. All the actual dial piece was missing, so I had to manually go in and flick the piece under where the dial is supposed to be.

Strange. I have the same tank all the way turned down and it does barely any flow. Only thing I can think of is tying a sponge to the outtake.