new aquarium set up

Question
I took your advise and we know have three white clouds in our tank and they seem to be doing rather well. I have noticed that I'm starting to get algae growing in the tank. Does an algae eater survive without a heater or is there a better solution. We have a 2.5 gallon aquarium with a filter and no heater.
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Your reply was very helpful, thank you so much ! I did have a couple more questions. I was told not to keep the aquarium in the kitchen because the water will absorb the food cooking and put toxins in the water, is this true ? If we go with a Beta, should I just get one or can two be together in a tank?
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I recently set up a 2.5 gallon aquarium and the two guppies I purchased only survived for four days. The tank came with a filter and uses the Whisper Filter Cartridges, we do not have a heater. The day I set it up, I added a tap water conditioner and the next day I purchased the fish and added a product called Cycle when the fish were added. On the third day the fish were in the tank, one of the fish wasn't looking well so we took a water sample to the fish store for testing. They didn't find anything wrong with the sample but suggested a partial water change. I did a partial change and added more water conditioner. By the next morning, both fish were dead. Do you have any ideas of what may have went wrong? Should I do a complete water change before trying again?
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Hi Kelly,
Congratulations on setting up your aquarium!!!
You mentioned that you purchased guppies. Unfortunately, guppies are not very hardy and cannot survive though tank cycle. They also will not survive without a heater. Since you do not have a heater, I would not recommend getting any Tropical fish. Do not do any complete water change because that would mean your cycle will start over. Although there are several fish breed that can survive through cycle and does not require a heater.

Betta: I love bettas. a 2.5 gallon aquarium with a filter sounds like a perfect home for a betta! They are very hardy and they are true "pet" fish. He might be a bit non-active and shy in the beginning, but once he gets to know you, they are truly wet pets. You can handfeed it and will let you pet him. My bettas will jump out of the water to get food when I hold it above the water. You can train them to do tricks and do a routine in his bowl. I have had them for a long time and they have always been one of my favorites. I always bring him (since I only keep one betta at once.. they are pets for me!) to my vacations and he loves to go! You can wither keep one male or a few females.

White Cloud (full name: white cloud mountain minnow): They are typical freshwater schooling fish. Although they are so called tropical fish, they are not scientifically tropical fish. They can survive in room temperature and their body shape is somewhat like guppies. I would recommend getting 3-6 of them, since they are schooling fish.

Goldfish would be ok. Although a 2.5 gallon tank is not the best home for them. Goldfish can grow upto 1-2 feet and commons eventually need 100-200 gallon tank, and fancy ones 55 gallons to keep 3-4 of them. Once they outgrow your tank, what can you do with him? Is there someone you can give him to once he grows 6 inches? Please think about these questions before you decide on getting goldfish.

Bettas and white clouds need weekly partial water changes. If you would like, you can keep them in the same bowl, although the betta will prefer being alone. An ideal mixture setting will be one betta, 3 white clouds, and a few live plants. Sounds like you are doing an ok job, so keep it up! You can wait 4-6 weeks for the tank to be cycled, or you can just put them in. Definitely, putting the fish in after the cycle is a better choice. If you are planning to put the fish in now, you have two choices:

you can put the fish in, and do FULL water change weekly.

or, the other option is: put one white cloud (If you are planning to keep just one betta, then just one betta) and keep it that way for 6 weeks. Do 10-20% water change every week and the tank will be cycled in 6 weeks.

If you want to know why cycling is necessary or have any other questions, feel free to ask me follow up question. I would be happy to answer.

Good Luck,
Barb
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Hi Kelly,
I have never heard about not putting the aquarium in the kitchen. If the "person who told you not to" is a worker at petco or petsmart, don't listen to them. They do not know anything, maybe some basics if they are experienced. They act like they know so much, but usually they are wrong or they don't know. I knew better than them when I was eleven. Although, there are a few risks in putting the aquarium in the kitchen. It is the temperature change. Many kitchens counters get direct sunlight and it is not good for the little tank like yours to get direct sunlight. The reason is, the water will get warm very fast and it causes the water temperature to change rapidly. In the afternoon, since it gets direct sunlight, the temperature will be much, much higher than when it is at night. Also, when cooking food, if it is near the fire, it can be another factor that changes the water temperature rapidly. At last, many of seasoned or oily food substance is not good for the water, if any happens to splash in. So as long as it is not under the direct sunlight, not near the heat, and will not get splashed by dinner sauce, it should be fine.

If you go with betta, depending on each one's personality, you can put two FEMALES together. Males bettas should never be kept together, unless you have a HUGE tank or pond with lots and lots of plants. In the wild, male bettas fight until one of them dies or backs away. In a little tank like yours, there is nowhere that weaker one can swim away to, so he will keep getting beat up. You should not even keep male and female together unless you are spawning. Many times, male will kill the female if she is not ready for spawn, and will immediately spawn if she is ready. It gets really complecated when they do, and bottom line is: do not put male and females together. :]]]
Although, two females can work just fine. Whenever I had females, I had two or more, and they always got along fine. They might flare and chase each other in the beginning, but later on, they will be very close. I loved watching my two females rub against each other and sleeping together. So sweet! I like to have bettas as pets, so I always had one male betta in a jar, and, if any, had females in the big aquarium with other fish. It will be even ok to have them with white clouds, as long as there are three or more white clouds.

I hope everything works out well for you!

Best of Luck,
Barb

Answer
Hi again Kelly,
Many algae eaters, such as flying fox or chinese algae eater cannot survive in a tank without heater. I am not sure how a pleco would do. I have had, a long time ago, a pleco with goldfish in a tank without a heater. He did pretty well in it. But I have heard plecos cannot do well without a heater. It was a bit mysterious because I have had many hardy and long-lived ones, as well as fragile ones. Although, I would not recommend a pleco either because they grow very large over time and they can be a bit territorial when they grow.

Snail might be ok, but I don't like snails at all. They reproduce very very quickly and soon the tank will be invaded with baby snails.

In a 2.5 gallon tank like yours, I would say don't get any fish/snails. I would get a acrylic scrubber and scrub the sides every other week. If you really wish to get an algae eater though, try a very small pleco or a snail. If you have a snail, I would still recommend scrubbing the sides of the tank for snail eggs.

I am glad your white clouds are doing well! My best suggestion would be just to scrub the algae when you do water changes. The scrubbers are probably the cheaper than any other fish or snails anyway- around $2-4. :]]]]

Barb