# Options?



## n25philly (Dec 5, 2013)

I know they are going to be very limited but I'm looking for options for filling a 3 gallon tank. It's cycling right now and I'm not necessarily in a huge rush to get it going. I'm very new to this so I want to make sure I do things right. I want to stick to the 3 gallon at least for now to make sure I'm into this before doing any big elaborate setups.

So the talk is three gallons as mentioned, has blue aquarium sand, 1 decoration that has a place to hide, and three plants, a moss ball and I forget the names of they other two.

I know a betta would work in that size tank, I'm just curious if there are any other routes I could go. It doesn't necessarily need to be fish either. I say some suggestions of african dwarf frogs which sounds interesting although the two lfs' I've found don't have any at this time, and I'm not sure about getting stuff from the local Petco's I've been too as it seems like there is a decent amount of dead/questionable stuff in every tank.

I've been all over the internet and asked questions at both lfs' and have gotten tons of varied and conflicting answers. Everyone seems super knowledgeable here, so I know I can trust the information I get, and know matter what I get I want to take care of it right.

Thank you ahead of time for any help you can provide!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

[URL="http://www.freewebs.com/nanofishlist/suitability.html]Here's[/URL] a good list of nano fish for small tanks!


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## n25philly (Dec 5, 2013)

Thank you so much for the help! Your suggestion really helped me research and I ended up getting some Celestial Pearl Danios last night. They seem to be adjusting to their new home quite nicely.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Oh I love CPD's! I hope to have some of my own soon as well ^_^ good luck with yours :-D


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## n25philly (Dec 5, 2013)

Ugh, I'm ready to give up on aquarium keeping. The Danios were happy and healthy when I left for work yesterday. By the time I got home last night two dead. I cleaned the tank/did a water change when I got home and the rest still died. Frustrating. One thing I noticed before cleaning the tank was some kind of what looked to be a tiny worm slithering around the bottom of the tank on the substrate.

In unrelated disaster I ordered some red cherry shrimp online that arrived last night. I planned to put them in a new tank I set up in my office at work. With the deaths in tank set up I put a couple in the tank after it was cleaned and put the rest in a temp 1 gallon tank for over night until I could take them to work. Six died over night. I bagged up the surviving 5 included the ones from the apparent death tank and took them to work. All but 1 died on the drive in. He's in the tank now and seems fine, but I don't know how comfortable I feel about his future. Aquatic genocide doesn't really suit me so despite the money I've put into this I don't think I want to continue.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

How long did you acclimate them? Both the CPD's and shrimp.


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## n25philly (Dec 5, 2013)

Well, with CPD the tank was all set up with good parameters. When I got them home I took the bag and floated it in the tank for about an hour giving them time to get used to the temperature of the water before I moved them in.

With the shrimp, I didn't really do much. When they arrived I thought they were dead as none of them were moving. I filled a bowl with room temp water and placed the bag in the water and I guess they were just cold as they soon sprung to life. The tank I used was brand new so it wasn't really set up or anything, just meant to give them something temporary over night. I filled it with fresh water and dechlorinated it and then did the same thing I did with the CPD and let the bad sit in the water for a little to let them get used to the temp even though it wasn't heated. The tank did have a filter but I turned it off as it seemed too strong for them. I probably would have handled things a bit differently if it was a permanent home, but I figured for 8-10 hours it would have sufficed.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Ah that's why, you can't just let them get used to the water. You need to acclimate them to the water chemistry as well. I suggest using Drip Acclimation (google it to see) over an hour with any fish and sometimes up to two hours with Shrimp. Shrimp are very delicate and need to be acclimated carefully depending on where they came from and how different the water parameter's are. It doesn't matter how good your parameter's are, they still need to be acclimated to the new water since they aren't used to it.


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## n25philly (Dec 5, 2013)

Ok, I'll look that up. I've been reading through this forum and another for weeks to get all my information and never heard of that before.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Yeah, usually people just add 1-3 teaspoons of new water into the bag every 10-15 minutes but I like the Drip Acclimation. It's easier because you don't have to stand over it all the time adding in more teaspoons and it's much easier for the fish to adjust, especially shrimp since they are so very sensitive to water chemistry changes. I use it for all delicate fish and shrimp including Oto's since they're wild caught and very sensitive as well. With Betta's I tend to just put them in a cup with the water they came with, let them float for 15 minutes or so and then just push the cup under a little to let some new water in and do that to add a little bit of water every 10 minutes or so until the cup is filled. It's similar to use the teaspoons, I just don't use the teaspoons in that case lol.


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## n25philly (Dec 5, 2013)

Awesome, I'll do that next time if there is one. Since there was mass death in the tank I've got is it worth keeping or will reusing it just be asking for more problems? Would it make more sense to start over with a new tank and maybe just bring over the plants since they have done well in the tank.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

The tank should be fine to use since it wasn't anything the tank caused for them to die. Most likely either they were already sick and just not acclimating properly led them to the death or it was just the acclimation. Because like, if the pet stores tank is a pH of 7.0 and yours is either 8.0 or 6.0, that's a huuuuge difference, enough to kill off any fish if just thrown into it so that's probably what happened to them and the shrimp. So your tank should be just fine.

Now if you introduced a fish after proper acclimation and it still died, that would be when I would tear it down to disinfect entirely and re-set it up afterwards but otherwise it should be fine.


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## n25philly (Dec 5, 2013)

Ok, I guess it's safe to assume it wasn't the tank as the shrimp I put in there were fine, only the fish died in the tank.

Thank you so much for the help!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Np! Happy to help and at least you know now ^^


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## n25philly (Dec 5, 2013)

ok, must have been acclimation and not the tank. I put three shimp into the tank with the fish and only found one this morning that I took out. I just got home and the other two shrimp are swimming around and happy as could be.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Yeah, most likely. Glad the two shrimp are happy though ^_^


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## n25philly (Dec 5, 2013)

Well, they were active. I asked if they were happy but the plead the 5th. Moved them to the tank at work so I can clean that one to eventually give it another try and they are doing well so far.


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