I've got a 5 gal tank with a couple goldfish in it at the office right now. Its boring. Everyone has seen goldfish before. What are some interesting things I can put in there that maybe you don't see in an aquarium? Thinking along the lines of plantlife, snails, shrimp, crab, etc...

Bought a setup with a small filtration system but outside of that everything must be pretty hardy, easy on the environment (so I don't overload the tank), low light, and fine at room temperature (maybe a little higher with the light turned on). If the suggestion is cool enough I am able to change the substrate and plantlife if needed.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

I would get the goldies out as the tank is way to small. I would add a small piece of DW and tie some Java moss to it and then maybe some Anubias nana and then get some Red Cherry Shrimp Tropical Shrimp for Freshwater Aquariums: Red Cherry Shrimp

I "built" what I call the neon nano from a 1g jar to test a substrate with neon tetras. That was two and a half years ago and a neon is still there.

What I did was 1" peat moss, 1" sand, 1" pro choice select (or aquarium gravel) with micro swords and a couple of anacaris. Lighting was just a 10w spiral pigtail in a clip on round reflector.

No filtration (other then the plants) and no circulation. Just the jar substrate, fish, water, and plants.

Tap water with no water changes.

Seems to me a nice school of neon tetras in a 5g would be interesting.


just my .02

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks.
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden