New Tank - Oxygenation

[dharaksin]

Will a bubbling ship provide sufficient oxygenation for fresh water fish, or is some other form of oxygenation required? My husband brought home a 5-gallon tank 2 months ago. He went through 1 month of fishless cycling. He has had 2 fish die already. The tank has a biowheel filtration system and he has put a boat w/air bubbles in the bottom of the tank. At this time he has 2 algae suckers, 3 dalmation mollies (which he just bought today), a zebra danio, and 3 orange/black fish which I don't know what kind they are. Does he need some kind of oxygenation system or will he be fine with what he has?

This is our first time with a tank. Any comments would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!!

 

[GeraldTheMouse]

First off, your tank is overly over-stocked. The mollies need a minimum of 10g and preferably more. Danios like to be in groups and are very active, needing a bigger tank. I'm not sure what fish the red/black kind are, but they are probably Platys or Swordtails. Also needing a minimum of 10g. If the algae eaters are otos, they are fine, if not, they need a bigger tank. It would be better if you got a larger tank (longer is better) around 10-35g tank. A 5g tank is more suitable for a betta than anything else in my opinion.

 

[fishnewbie]

As a newbie myself, when I went to buy a tank I thought I could just buy a little tank and put "tons" of fish in it, but after lots of research(very important) I realized that a bigger tank would be better and give me more stocking options than a little tank. With that said try and take back all the fish you have now to your LFS before they die, after that try a betta (very cool fish and a great beginner fish). A betta would love to be in a 5g tank, mine loves his home. Please do whats right for your fish, if you don't want to take them back then try to get them a bigger home they will be a lot happier!

Justin

 

[MissFishy]

As was said above, the oxygenation and filtration isn't a problem in your tank, it's just massively overstocked. Please return most/if not all of your fish before it turns into a fish massacre. It's a great start to do fishless cycling, but aftewards you really have to know how many fish you can safely keep in that tank. The general rule for fish stocking is 1 inch of fish per gallon of water. So if you have one fish that is 2 inches long and another fish that is 3 inches long, that would be a fully stocked 5 gallon tank.

 

[JWright]

Did the tank actually cycle? (Did he add ammonia, test levels, etc?)

I'd be surprised if someone was able to do enough research to discover and implement fishless cycling, but didn't get enough information to know that that's a very unreasonable stocking level for a 5 gallon tank...

 

[dharaksin]

Thanks for all of the info. Buying a bigger tank and moving the Betta into the 5g.