How do I take care of a 2.5 gallon fish tank?
We have a 2.5 gallon fish tank that we purchased about 7 weeks ago. (It is a Littlest Pet Shop aquarium that our 5 year old BEGGED for. It only comes in the 2.5 gallon.) It has a heater and filter. We purchased four male fancy guppies for it per the PetSmart employee’s suggestion.
For cleaning, we have been doing a complete water change about every 10 days to keep the water clean and clear. We change the filter cartridge as needed. We feed them tropical fish flakes. During water changes, we treat the water with a dechlorinator and aquarium salt. Are we doing something wrong?
We found one guppy dead on the bottom of the tank this morning. He had no obvious physical problems and he seemed perfectly fine last night. The remaining 3 are actively swimming and eating with no apparent problems.
The only thing that happened recently was that our electricity went out the day before yesterday due to an ice storm, and their filter and heater were off for about 5 hours. When it went off I immediately changed the water (to make it a little warmer) and then wrapped the tank in scarves to hold the heat in. I also opened the little feeding door for air circulation, and added a little more aquarium salt.
I admit we are amateurs – these are our first fish. Whe felt like we were doing everything right, but please enlighten us if we are not. I want to do what is best for our fish. Any constructive advice is appreciated!
There is nothing wrong with being an amateur. Nobody starts in this hobby as an expert.
Tips:
~Please do not do complete water changes. There is actually beneficial bacteria that breaks down fish waste living in the substrate and filter media. 100% water changes remove that bacteria which will cause a rise in your ammonia levels, which is lethal to fish. Perform weekly 25% water changes.
~I would also not suggest replacing the guppy. 2.5 gallons is fairly small.
-Concerned Citizen- Though I did not give you a thumbs down, I think I know why you were given one. Many people in the hobby highly disapprove of the “one inch of fish per gallon rule”. It is commonly told to beginners choosing tropical community fish so that they don’t go overboard and add too much to an aquarium. When stocking an aquarium you should really look at the recommended length of the aquarium for the specific fish you are interested in, and surface area.
you are perfectly taking care of it but there aare some situations which are not in our control these are tropical fish and need warmer water that fish might have died because of the heater going off well many fish dies when a person is new to hobby the same happened with me but do check if there are any white spots on them if so they have ick just google it you will find the cure or go to the petstore
well take care of fish nad your lil 5 year old
peace
It sounds like you are doing a good job caring for your fish.
The guppy’s death may have been from after-effects of being chilled during the blackout, or it may have just been his time. Guppies have a fairly short lifespan. They are middle-aged at one year, and old at two years. I don’t know how old yours was when you got him, but he may have simply been at the end of his rope.
Instead of changing 100% of the water every 10 days, I would change 50% every five days or every week.
Guppies do not need salt in their water. They are freshwater fish, although they can tolerate quite a bit of salt. I often wonder how the legend that guppies should have salt got started. The fact that they don’t die when you put salt in the water doesn’t mean it’s good for them.
Your fish are lucky to have such conscientious keepers.
Hey it’s awesome that you’re asking questions: everyone was new to the hobby once:-) It’s great that you’re asking questions!
You should pick up a gravel vacuum at your pet store – they’re cheap. You can get little ones for a small tank like yours. It looks like a little tube with a hose attached. You shake the tube in the water to activate the syphon (so you don’t have to use your lips haha) and put the hose into a bucket. You dip the tube into the gravel and suck out the debris and waste in the gravel, and it empties out into your bucket. The gravel vac sucks up the debris and leaves the gravel.
Your fish tank needs a colony of beneficial bacteria to break down waste and keep the tank cycled so cleaning the whole tank or removing all the water is a bad idea, and can actually trigger your tank to cycle again. These bacteria grow on surfaces, so mostly in the filter and gravel. Every week or two (I do mine weekly, twice weekly if my nitrates are high) you should do a fifty percent water change with the gravel vacuum, then add water that is the same temp back into the tank and treat it with water conditioner. And instead of replacing your filter cartridge you should just clean it with cold tap water or old tank water and only change it when it is obviously expired. Throwing away a filter cartridge gets rid of a lot of bacteria.
You can also pick up a test kit to test your water parameters. You should have no nitrite, no ammonia and very low levels of nitrate. You should also make sure your filter disturbs the water surface quite a bit to facilitate the oxygen exchange.
My daughter would be so jellous of a littlest Pet Shop aquarium haha too cute!
Good luck:-)
I’m a newbie too and I’m already wishing I’d started with something larger than a 10 gallon tank. The smaller the tank is the more difficult it is to maintain. Larger tanks have enough water to dilute dangerous substances like ammonia and give you time to get things under control. The water can get toxic fast in a small tank. I just bought an ammonia monitor to put in mine. It’s a small disc with a suction cup that changes color if the ammonia level rises. As a previous answerer said, doing a complete water change also removes the beneficial bacteria and stresses the fish, so you might be better off doing partial changes.
I hate to say it, but the store employee who advised you to buy four guppies gave you bad advice. The general rule of thumb is no more than one inch of fish per gallon of water. That means your 2.5 gallon tank is only big enough for one guppy. On top of that, guppies produce a lot of waste and that raises the ammonia level. If the guppies don’t make it, I’d recommend getting a single betta. They’re generally happy living alone and one is about all a 2.5 gallon tank can support safely.
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Obviously some self-proclaimed experts know even less than we newbies do. There’s nothing above that any knowledgeable fish expert would dispute (except maybe that a 2.5 gallon tank is big enough for a betta, but it’s certainly better than those 16 ounce bowls some people buy for bettas), but someone chose to call it a bad answer. Don’t take my word for it. Do your own research and you’ll see that it’s all true.
How many fish are in the 2 1/2 gallon? I assume your tank has not cycled and you are having deaths due to toxic levels of ammonia.
How do I take care of a 2.5 gallon fish tank? | Aquarium Blog