2.5 gallon tank/fish

[kdreid2]

Im looking to get a fish for someone. They have a 2.5 gallon tank, and i was wondering what kind, if any fish would be best for that tank. all the websites ive been to havent helped me, so i thought i would ask some experts thanks

[supernip]

flattery gets you nowhere... but theres almost nothing that can be kept in a 2.5. your best bet is a clown goby. you should think about inverts instead. you could keep something like an anemone crab.

[Mermaid123]

A 2 1/2 gallon tank is pretty much too small for any fish, like Supernip said try concentrating on some inverts. A cleaner or peppermint shrimp, serpent starfish, or something more like that would be best. Is thier tank already set up? How old is it? What do they have in it now? Any info you can give us will help us to help you.

 

Good Luck

Val

[kdreid2]

the tank was just recenyly set up, but they have experience and have and a few tanks before. i couldnt say what exactly was in there, but anything that i would get would be properly taken care of.

[zizmans]

Well, your "friend" must of not been paying too much attention while researching hisher "other" tanks. Not only is a 2.5 too small for any fish, it is too small for a serpent star or any shrimp IMO. Both get too big for a 2.5 eventually.MAYBE a shrimp would be Ok but a 2.5 gets crowded really quick. I would suggest a couple hermit crabs .Thats it. Maybe some zoos or a shroom. No fish can be "well taken care of" in a tnak that size.

[Quantumfusion]

Well I would suggest a Blue/Green Chromis for you friends 2.5/ if you look at the following thread:

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread...0233(Clickhere)

You will see that LiQuiD has had a Chromis in his 2.5 for atleast four months. It is doing very well in there and seems to be very happy. A neon Goby may also work well in a 2.5. Just my two bits.

[Chyendra]

IF you must have fish...

Try a neon goby OR a clown goby like other people have said.

They don't require alot of swiming room, and they stay fairly small.

 

why don't they just get a bigger tank? a 2.5 isn't really big enough for any type of fish to thrive

[zizmans]

Hey Quant. A newbie looking for a fish isn't the sam as liquid, who is an experienced reefer with other tanks.

[Ytouf]

I mean my friend has a 2.5 with a little dottyback in it. The key is to get a tiny fish, that way it will grow with the tank and not start out overgrown.

[zizmans]

They don't stay small forever. Just because the tank is small doesn't mean the fish will stop growing. The problem I see with alot of beginners is they look at tanks such as Mermaid123, Liquid, Brooklyn J's and they think "If they can, I can" Not taking into account that these are reefers with ALOT of experience. Also, with a lack of experience comes selfishness. Sure you CAN put a dottyback in a 2.5. But you shouldn't. You are supposed to be maintaining a responsible ecosystem here. Putting in fish that are too big is only for yourself. Look at a cherub angel, I've seen them like 1", think that should go in a 2.5? The key here is to think of what inhabitants are "must haves" for you. Then designing the tank around them, not the other way around. Shoving dottys in a 2.5, or keeping pygmy angels, or Pairing clowns in a 10 gal is why nanoreefers get a bad name. If the only specimens you have seen are at an lfs, then you probably have not seen them full grown, andor do not know their needs.

[Phish]

Holy crap, WTF is wrong with you? NO FISH IN A 2.5, Liquid is a 'special' person, he has experiance and can maintain something like that, I dont think you should have recomemded that to him, his "friend'' and liquid are two different people...

 

I would suggest, nothing... NO shrimp, NO FISH, not even a clown goby... just make it a very tiny reef, keep a few Zoo's and a few really small Xenia...

 

and you must really tell us about his tank, "he" needs a 13w PC light from www.hellolights.com or something comparable.

 

and if the experiance was FW, it dosent count... FW and SW are two different things...

[freakaccident]

I have a blue damsel in my 2.5g. He is happy as can be and has been in there for nearly 6 months. I do a one cup WC every 4 days. I had a green chromis in there like liquids but he jumped out.

[pulse13]

I had a yellow clown goby in my eclipse 3g for a few months. Until it died when I accidentally overdosed an antibiotic and caused an ammonia spike. But I'm thinking about getting another one. They are fairly active and always visible in the tank and have a lot of personality for their size (up to ~ 1.5in). I did have to feed it quite a bit though because they aren't the fastest eaters and they miss a lot of food. 15% WC weekly and nitrates never got over 5ppm.

[Jozefs a lizard]

I have a 2.5 gallon mangrove tank that get trimmed regularly, with some pulsing Xenia, the only inhabitants are a 1 inch porcelain crab that always hangout on the mangrove nearest to the filter for food, and I have some asterina starfish for CUC i got from my larger reef tank

[Solarflare8806]

small gobies would work, i have seen bigger fish in 2.5 but i would use caution

[Solarflare8806]

holy crap I just saw this was a post from 2003 @Jozefs a lizard how did you pull this up lololol

[Jozefs a lizard]

i dunno

 

[Tired]

For anyone reading- fish can survive in too-small tanks, but that doesn't mean they're doing well. Damsels should really be kept in over 5 gallons, even the little ones. 5 gallons and under, small gobies can work. 2.5gal isn't even enough room for a freshwater betta! 

Besides that, fish have faster metabolisms than inverts, and add another degree of complication to the already-tricky balancing act of such a small tank.