# What can I breed with my 5G tank?



## BSCfootball16 (Aug 8, 2012)

New to the site, but I was wondering what I could possibly breed in a 5 gallon tank I have. Currently I use it just to keep my feeder fish and feeder shrimp for my Jack Demspsey and Auratus. The tank has sufficient filtration along with a heater and artificial plants but I'm not against getting live plants if necessary. Any suggestions?!


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## Puppylove (Jun 10, 2012)

Mystery snails might be cool. I think they are really cute, and they are easy to breed. They would probably prefer live plants.


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

I think a five gallon is a bit small for breeding anything. Even cherry shrimp and the like need at least ten gallons.


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## Kehy (Apr 19, 2011)

I have shrimp in my 5. Just have it as a shrimp tank and enjoy it as is. Shrimp are colorful and active enough that I don't even notice there's no fish. Just make sure there's at least live moss, and hopefully more live plants. 

Really there's nothing wrong with live plants. Just one or two wouldn't hurt.


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## BSCfootball16 (Aug 8, 2012)

majerah1 said:


> I think a five gallon is a bit small for breeding anything. Even cherry shrimp and the like need at least ten gallons.


Even if I intend to immediately use the fry as live food for my cichlid tank?


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## SuckMyCichlids (Nov 5, 2011)

If you just wanted to breed your own fish food get a hand full of ghost shrimp but it would be better in a 10g as I don't think you'd get the quantities you wanted but I could be wrong


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## BSCfootball16 (Aug 8, 2012)

Ok so shrimp it is.. Do I need to add any calcium or anything to the tank? I am going to get some live plants as soon as possible but are there any preferences or suggestions? Im new to the planted aquarium but don't mind giving it a shot!


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## navigator black (Jan 3, 2012)

The fish you could breed in a five would be very small species, and would take some work. Small species tend to produce small broods. You aren't going to want to work like mad to breed a fish and then feed it to the cichlids - cichlids won't be very interested in small fry and will get close to zero nutrition from them. You would work at it for a month to give them one meal.


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## SueD (Aug 4, 2012)

You shouldn't need calcium but shrimp love moss, Taiwan, Christmas, java moss are good. You can leave free floating, tie to rock or wood, or use plastic mesh to create a moss wall or floor.


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## BSCfootball16 (Aug 8, 2012)

navigator black said:


> The fish you could breed in a five would be very small species, and would take some work. Small species tend to produce small broods. You aren't going to want to work like mad to breed a fish and then feed it to the cichlids - cichlids won't be very interested in small fry and will get close to zero nutrition from them. You would work at it for a month to give them one meal.


Yeah I guess I didn't think about the nutritional value like that.. I was just thinking of how fun it is to watch my cichlids chase down feeder fish!


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## Kehy (Apr 19, 2011)

Shrimp, especially any kind of neocardinia (cherry shrimp) will breed faster than rabbits. One berried female can have usually between 5-30 babies, and it takes about 3 months for a baby shrimp to mature, with a 1 month berried period. There's a TON of information available out there for shrimp breeding.

Cherry shrimp also come in: cherry red, fire red, painted fire red, red rili orange, pumpkin, yellow, yellow fire, painted yellow fire, yellow rili, green, blue pearl, blue aura, blue velvet, blue rili, brown, black, black rili, and whatever else breeders can come up with. Just don't mix different colors, or else you'll end up with wild-type colors, and lose the pretty colors.


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