The saga of the small tank...

[vampirefish]

Hi everyone
Ok, so I have a small tank that had a massive parasite explosion before Christmas (dodgy fish, not going to THAT shop again) which killed all my fish in there Anywho, after cleaning it out VERY thoroughly and doing a fishless cycle I went to a different fish shop and ended up with two red crystal shrimp and two forktail rainbowfish (which were sold as 'perfect for small tanks'). The shrimp died soon after, as I hadn't done my research properly and thought all shrimps were pretty easy to keep, but can anyone offer any advice as to keeping the rainbowfish happy? I'd also love to get some shrimps back in there eventually, but I don't know if that's going to be possible :/

Sorry for rambling, by the way!

 

[bassbonediva]

Rainbowfish are schooling fish and prefer to be in groups of six or more, for starters. If you went with six of them, that's all you could have in the tank because they'd be a tight fit (they get to 2" each).

Forktail Rainbowfish (Pseudomugil furcatus) - Seriously Fish

 

[temull2]

As a sidenote, are you sure your shrimp died, and that your fish didn't eat them? That's happened to me before..... Poor little shrimp.

 

[OrangeCones]

I do not think that the rainbow fish will last long-term in a 3gallon tank. You might want to upgrade to a larger tank for them.

As far as shrimp go, you might be able to keep a few red cherry shrimp in there.

 

[bassbonediva]

Oh, whoa! Totally didn't see the size of the tank! Was thinking it was a 10gal, for sme reason.

Yeah, in that case, I agree with OC.

 

[vampirefish]

OK, so much for 'great for small/nano tanks' :/ would the shoaling thing be less of a problem for them if they have plenty of plant cover? Or would space still be an issue if there are only 2 of them in there? I'm pretty sure they'd become snacks if they went in the bigger tank, as they're so tiny...

 

[aakaakaak]

They're about the same size as the generic neon tetra, right? They should be fine in your 15g.