pico tanks can be fun :)

Eee. I'm thinking about one of those tiny hex tanks or similar at my new digs, but my experience has been that big generally tends to be better and easier on the inhabitants and ease of maintenance, etc. (More room, more buffer from temperature swings, chemical changes etc.)

What's recommended stock for a micro tank these days other than bettas, bettas, bettas?

You know, my tank is only a five gallon, and after the first period of finding out the tank hadn't fully cycled yet, it has since become very calm and self-maintained. I reccomend cherry shrimp and glo-fish, they seem to make great companion critters.

If you're looking for something a little less hands-on, you could always try fancy goldfish, since they do well alone or in a pair, in small tanks.. but water changes are needed, and often.

Fancy guppies are also a nice choice, but they do reproduce like crazy.

Tetras are another good choice.

How long are you supposed to let the tank sit and cycle. I understand its a month, but I don't have the patience for that. I didn't do that when I bought my fish tank in 2010, had four silver dollars and four tiger barbs with a pleco.

Mine took over three months to fully cycle, but there are ways to get it to go a lot faster. I switched out some of the 'filter media' for sponge instead, and used a bottle of safestart http://dfmlo8oja8g1e.cloudfront.net.....ant/523703.jpg - which adds the bacteria you will need to get things going properly. Mine was a fluke really, to take so long, so you should have no problem with waiting a month. If you add these things from the start, along with a live plant or two, you should have a good bio filter started within the first few weeks, just test the water for ammonia levels before adding any fish. The ammonia level should be 0, that way you will be sure your fish won't die. If you're not wanting to wait for the bio filter to be started, the best fish you can expect to survive that would be goldfish, they're pretty darn sturdy.

I think that's what I forgot to add, I was just using the dechlorinator. The water would never get clear, always a kind of milky color. I remember when I was a kid, I had a 5 gallon hexagon tank with a couple of goldfish. Those definitely are hardy, I would sometimes change the water when it was yellow from all that ammonia.

Yeah, goldfish in general make a tank cloudy and dangerous for all other aquatic life. Best to change the water once every week, if not every three days or so, if you've got a small aquarium. At least partial changes.

I don't think I ever changed it out that often. I was about 10 or 11 when I had the tank, I think I changed it out maybe every 2-4 weeks. Fish probably lived for a couple years until I got my 10 gallon tank when I was 12 (and it was that one I correctly set up).

In the 10 gallon tank, I had neon tetras and some black mollies with some other fish.

there are some mirco freshwater fish that do well. pico tanks take like 3 minutes a day to mait lol top off and do a cupfull of water change and a mini filter

Oh wow, that is teeny~
it's adorable! x3

I wish i had the room for a tank ATM but haven't. Old boss used to have a beautiful marine display

jesus, I guess that is pretty small. I'm surprised they make'um that size.

I wonder what the worlds smallest aquarium is now.

Probably this! http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blo.....llest-aquarium

That's amazing!

Nice, is your tank a fresh water tropical, brackish?

I'm not sure.. ^_^' ... Have 2 glo-fish (danios), 2 cherry shrimp, and a bunch of itty bitty snails that came in on a live water wistera that I'd bought. Some people call the little buggers pests, but I think they do a great job of keeping the glass and rocks clean, since they tend to stay away from the sandy bottom.

They become pests when you win the mystery snail that lays an apparently truly-epic clutch and then find yourself literally skimming an explosion of baby snails out of the water, filter, etc. That was an 'interesting' somewhat-alarming experience.

If worst ever does come to worst there was a product called "Had-a-Snail" but it took a long time to discover that back when this happened (and possibly the skimming continued thereafter). But one goldfish in the tank would probably hoover them up, too.

Yeah, So far i've only got a clutch of about five or six babies and one adult. If they get to horribly bad, I know where I can put them. ;) ..
Since they're a pond snail species, they'd be just fine in the pond in the front of the housing complex. Lolol.. Or become foods for the other fishes.

Pond snails tend to eat live plant matter so you might want to watch them if they are infact pond snails (most other tropical snail species tend to eat decaying plant matter or algae instead so they leave your healthy plants alone, but the pond guys can be verocious).

Apparently one easy and safe way to reduce your snail population is to blanch a lettuce leaf and stick in down on the bottom of your tank overnight then remove it before turning the lights on so as to not spook them off the leaf. Viola, leaf covered in snails that you can relocate elsewhere.

Thats a good idea.

So far they're not eating the plant, and even if they were, it needs trimmed back about every week anyway, so it wouldn't do much damage for them to nibble at the edges a bit. Thus far it dosn't seem like they're even bothering with the plant itself. Not sure if they like water wisteria, but they do cling to it and eat some of the smaller species of algea off of it.... Biggest issue right now is the damn string algea. Keep pulling it off of things. Need to get myself an algea eater i think.

Huh; never knew goldfish would suck em down, I know when I had an outbreak my oscar cichlid ate them right up.

Just a guess, really, as the tropical tank with the explosion and my later goldfish-keeping didn't coincide. But they're pretty indiscriminate and sometimes-aggressive feeders...

if they ever begin to breed to much you can always start up a cichlid tank^^ they eat those little guys as if they were nothing. I also have a few glo fish, they are rather interesting under a black light. What size is your tank?

5 gallon. Not large, but it has stabalized quite well.

very nice, is this your first time tank? My own first tank was a mere 2 gallons XD it had a bobble eye goldfish.

Oh nah, my first tank was when I was very small, a 50 gallon freshwater full of fancy guppies of multiple species.. They ended up breeding together to create all sorts of weird critters, even some with double tails and distorted bodies. They weren't sold to shops, so they kind of just did their own thing. ... No real way to stop those critters from goin at it. lol

Lol! The best way to deal with over population, add a betta^^ Male or female, they love to hunt down the fry. My current 75 gallon tropical has many breeding fish and one population control male fancy tail.

I love snails, and I love miniatures. This MADE MY DAY.

X3 Me too!
Glad I could make your day.

interesting

Just imagine how frequently you'd have to do water changes!

Lol no kidding, that's why I immediately put him back into the big tank. X3

Ah, someone else who actually enjoys having those little snails in their aquarium. ^u^ They do a pretty good job of keeping the algae down, especially once they start to really populate the tank. Cute!

I didn't have a clue they were even there till about a month after i got the live plant. They're so tiny, and stay that way. These don't ever get over a quarter of an inch in size. :3
Mine tend to keep the algea off the grass and rocks, but as for algea growth along plantlife and fake plants, they don't get the job done. My shrimp take care of some of that, but I've only got two of them now, have store credits for more of them, so I'm going back to get more at some point. ^_^

You know what does a surprisingly good job at cleaning algae off plants? Minnows. Yep, the little feeder ones. lol I had a few of them and they went into a tank that had a pretty decent amount of algae on the plants (hadn't brought myself around to start scrubbing it off with a toothbrush) and within a month or so it was GONE. They ate it all!

The only problem with that is, that they'd also eat my shrimpies. X3

I'd recommend getting yourself a few otto catfish- they stay tiny, get along with everyone well and eat the algae off plants : ) We've never had snails to avoid issues of population, but I do think they're cute!

I think snails are great in tanks but I've never had a situation where there wasn't a complete snail population explosion. Snails aren't an issue now that we've got clown loaches though--they think snails are an escargot buffet.

tyneee

Very cool! sadly I know people who would bitch and piss if they saw this, I got a reaction like that for having my late Beta fish in a lava lamp type aquarium. That's a rally cool idea for such a little aquarium. You should do a resin version of this :3

Lol, even if they did bitch, I didn't have it in there for even five minutes, so there's no cause for them to fuss. X3

Lava lamp type aquariums are great for betas though, since they're puddle jumpers, they don't need a lot of water, as long as they have proper ventilation and a good food source.

I asia they sell turtles in key chains :D Air sealed. There like the size of pink cause there quarter sized baby turtles. My buddy saw some while in Japan.

Yeah, but unfortunately those turtles never live over a month in those sealed containers, and need air to survive... so they slowly suffocate to death. A lot of people have been fussing over this, and buying them only to release the baby turtles inside.

Oh I know its cruel xD I'm just saying I know of other tiny containers to keep things, BUT Keeping a snail in a tiny container like that is interesting. I wonder how you'd go about doing water changes so ammonia doesn't build up inside and kill him, or would the plant be the perfect size to absorb it... such a conundrum.

I didn't keep it in there for more than five minutes. It would sooner (rather than later) kill the little bugger. I did this for the photo itself, then put him back in the big tank with his family. :3

Oh I know but like... for a baby snail that'd be a good enviroment xD Anyways sorry was just off on a odd thought.

It actually would be a very bad enviornment. You'd have to have a very slow drip of fresh water going into the container, and have it in a temperature/climate controlled room, with little to no natural light. Otherwise the snail would die.

Oh yeah got a point. smaller the tank the more times water changes jeez xD

That... that's so adorable it hurts. I love tiny things like this!

X3

I dunno. I think at least two gallons with lots of plants is better for a betta. That's just my opinion though. :/

Oh, the snail is adorable too. ^^

They're helpful little critters, my tanks have never looked better.

Man when I first saw this I thought it was some kind of "water breathing mask" for the star fish, like you keep the starfish on dry land and you let it suction it mouth to the bottle of water.... I dont think it would work....

Lol, well it'd be interesting enough if you could.

cute

cool