Good fish for a 2 gallon tank w/neon tetra friends already inhabiting?

Question

I am looking to add another fish or two to my tank. I have three neon tetras that are best friends, and have already survived the harmless chasing of my previous beta.

I do not have a heater although the water temperature stays at a toasty 78-80 degrees Fahrenheit. I have artificial gravel, no plants, and a pump that circulates water, however the only filtration system in place is currently a sponge inside the pump (which I realize is not the ideal set-up nor a permanent solution). The pump creates a sizable amount of current in 2/3 of the tank although there are some calm spots to sleep in.

Any ideas for a new friend I could introduce to the tank?

Answer 1

What I recommend you do is first of all get a hang on the back filter. Then you can remove the air pump. Hang on the back filters will create enough oxygen exchange in the water for a tank that small. I also your tetras are going to like calmer water to swim in instead of feeling like they are always having to work so hard to swim.

Next I would add a couple fake plants in the tank and maybe a small decoration sort of thing for you fish to investigate like I said it will have to be pretty small cuz you are going to want to leave some space in your tank.

Also, all these people throwing around the 1" of fish rule per gallon is wrong. This is an extremely inaccurate rule to follow. In a 2 gallon tank you can easily keep a small school of smaller schooling fish. I recommend getting 2 to 3 more neons. Neons are schooling fish and really prefer to be in groups of 5 to 6. Sorry to say but that is about all you can have in this tank. If you are interested in having more try moving up to a 10 gallon tank!

Answer 2

The rule of thumb is 1" of fish per 5 gallons of water in a new tank. As the tank matures its 1" per gallon. I would not put anymore than the 3 neons you have in there or you are going to cause your Nitrites and Nitrates to climb and loose fish since Neons are delicate. The rule of how many fish to put in per gallon is due to the waste load. Too many fish in a small tank would be too much waste for any healthy bacteria to break down to safe levels. Therefore, causing your levels to go up and causing stress on the fish. Stress also brings on diseases and/or death.

Answer 3

I got some gold twinbars that had a small population explosion. I started with 4 and it grew to 20. They mated with some of my guppies somehow because now there are three distinct varieties of twinbars in there now and they've whittled themselves away to a group of 7.

Answer 4

i would go to your petstore or online and look up community fish.. betas are not community fish which is y it probably chased the other fish... neon tetras are great with other tetras along with balloon fish, and a few gramis, plus i know there are a bunch of other ones too

Answer 5

*sigh*

One inch of fish per gallon of tank....I think you're nearly full up!!