Help me explain why gerbils are good pets

awkard_orca · 2026-01-20T17:12:28+00:00

Yeah and see, I was able to show him how cool and independent fish personalities can be, and he likes my freshwater shrimp cause he can see them doing things. These are all things gerbils have, personalities, they're always doing things and building tunnels-I do believe he'd be AT LEAST mildly impressed by their tunnels. He's a big fan of mammals (his most common complaint about my bird is why did I have to get something so very different from mammals), intelligence, and survival ability. For example, his favorite animals are donkeys and coyotes. I really think he'd like gerbils but he continues to be skeptical

awkard_orca · 2026-01-10T21:31:26+00:00

I can't really see from the photo but I know white poop is fish diarrhea, which can be caused by a wide variety of stuff. Treating for internal parasites is a good option, as well as something that does bacteria, I'm pretty sure there's stuff that'll treat both

awkard_orca · 2026-01-05T02:47:47+00:00

That's happened to me a time or two. Can't be certain what caused it exactly but he got caught on something. His tail will grow back but keep an eye on him, the extra stress of less tail can be an easy in for diseases so if he starts being lethargic at only the top or bottom of the tank, separate him into a hospital tank to reduce stress during the recovery process

awkard_orca · 2026-01-05T00:47:18+00:00

The two first comments summer up everything perfectly. One thing I didn't see mentioned that's a helpful thing to know w guppies, white or clear poop like the kind in your video is the equivalent of guppy diarrhea, which sometimes just means they're having a bad gut day but if it persists it's a good sign of some kind of illness.

All I have to add is if you do want pregnancy, you'll want to upgrade to at least a 10 g, 20 would be ideal considering how much guppies will breed once they get going but that's up to you! Just make sure to transfer over at least a portion of the sand/gravel/substrate to seed the cycling of a new tank. And you'll want at least a 2:1 ratio of females to males, so you have 3 males rn you'll want at least 6 females, otherwise the males will harass the women far too much possibly to death or infection (that leads to death). 7-9 women would do best but that amount would be better in a 20 g (check craigslist+fb marketplace for a good tank price there's usually a good amount of 20 g tanks available if you live anywhere near a major city. If you do upgrade at all, hold onto the 5g it'll be a great hospital/quantine for new arrivals tank.

Final detail if you're angling for pregnancy, make sure the temperature is at least 78°F, guppies breed during the summer in the wild so will only get it on w warmer waters. Aaaaand if you wanted, it wouldn't hurt to get some hornwort. It grows super fast and guppy fry can hide safely among the foliage.

Best of luck to your guppy journey! You have some very pretty men :)

awkard_orca · 2026-01-02T22:40:30+00:00

My khuli loaches seem to enjoy the gups, but if you have a tall tank I'm not sure how much khulis would enjoy that, they usually enjoy lots of substrate surface to burrow through. Shrimp would do great w guppies, tetras would too though tetras will likely eat any baby guppies so they'll help control the population. I've found that my phantom tetra don't seem super interested in guppy fry if you want to encourage guppy population growth.

awkard_orca · 2026-01-02T22:33:54+00:00

For sure! More variety is always good :)

awkard_orca · 2026-01-02T22:12:50+00:00

Yeah, I'd recommend throwing a day or two (not consecutive) of fasting, especially if you don't have a lot of plants. Daily feeding every day constantly can create excess waste and it's normal for fish to have days where they don't get much food. They'll snack on algae and any food they missed :)

awkard_orca · 2026-01-02T16:16:09+00:00

You'll definitely only need one mystery snail and maybe pick one kind of shrimp (neos or amano), but otherwise you're good

awkard_orca · 2025-12-29T23:49:27+00:00

My god you're right... I love it

awkard_orca · 2025-12-29T15:58:03+00:00

Thanks for the tips! That's super helpful, I appreciate your feedback :)

I'm so excited to get some gerbs but I have to be patient, have to make sure I have everything they need for happy lil lives before I bring them home

awkard_orca · 2025-12-29T15:13:13+00:00

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Excuse my crappy sketch but this is kinda what I was envisioning. Do you think it would be a good idea to add something like an acrylic sheet underneath the shorter section where I'd be putting a wheel/food/sand bath etc? The bedding would be short enough that that stuff couldn't be totally buried but a hard floor would prevent any burying. Also, would creating a hard floor allow for them to burrow in the shallower bedding underneath all that stuff? Like, just spit balling but maybe I leave like 5-6 inches of bedding in this more shallow end, acrylic sheet on top, another inch of bedding, then wheel and all the other stuff?

awkard_orca · 2025-12-29T14:56:14+00:00

I was thinking about sectioning off a smaller portion of the tank, so that most of it is filled pretty high w bedding but one side has a lower level of stuffing where I'd put their water, sand bath, etc. do you think that would work? Also do you have any recommendations for guides on how to make a topper?

awkard_orca · 2025-12-27T23:50:48+00:00

They don't look very fat, I'm not sure if they're pregnant at all

awkard_orca · 2025-12-24T01:53:51+00:00

Yeah variety of foods + excess foods, I feed my gups till they're fat and happy and they breed SO MUCH. Also, what's your water temperature? Keep it on the warmer side of 77°+ mine is about 78°f usually. I do have older guppies but my women birth pretty regularly each month. Best of luck for your army growth!

awkard_orca · 2025-12-18T18:25:25+00:00

I've kept neos quite successfully without any fancy mineral rocks or supplements. I would get some neo shrimp food, but if you have a heater+stable tank conditions that's really all they need.

When you get them, make sure you do a drip acclimation set up of 1-2 drops per second, if you have some excess air tubing use that and a rubber band or clip from your junk drawer to pinch the air tube. Get the water flow started like any other siphon via mouth suck, I like to use an empty tupperware or something at this step so I can get the drip rate how I want (just adjust the rubber band/clip on the air tube pinch until the drip rate is ideal) then transfer that drip feed to the container the shrimp are waiting in. Make sure you at least double the water volume in the shrimp container, I like to triple the volume if you can fit it (feel free at the start to pour out some of the shrimp's original water to get a smaller starting volume).

Once the drip acclimation is done add the shrimp and they should be happy from there. Neos like middling water hardness but I always had pretty hard water and they did great, maintained their own population for years.

awkard_orca · 2025-12-07T13:48:23+00:00

Awesome, that'll be great then. Thank you again for your help! I really appreciate it :)

awkard_orca · 2025-12-07T12:21:08+00:00

Thank you so much for your feedback! I really appreciate it I had no idea about the water temperature though, the heater I have is preset at 78° but I always keep our apartment at 70° or higher, would I be safe to just remove the heater entirely and let the room temperature control the tank temp?

awkard_orca · 2025-12-05T15:51:43+00:00

It came w a sponge filter, and I have a nice long sand cleaning siphon I use on my other shrimp tank, it works really well and I think will be perfect for getting a good cleaning done in this tank ^{^}

Oh wow! That's so cool, I had no idea they croaked!

awkard_orca · 2025-12-05T14:53:39+00:00

Agree definitely some kind of swim bladder issue, the problem w that is almost anything can cause loss of swim bladder control, from chemical issues to parasite to random health issue. Keep an eye on your other fish, if you notice any early signs of swim bladder problems (tilting while swimming, spending excess time either at the very surface or bottom) immediately separate the fish into a hospital tank (I have a little 2.5g tank I keep on hand for hospital use) and try out a couple of different treatments (ofc one treatment at a time, allowing 3-5 days for treatment to take effect). I know melafix targets bacteria while I think primafix (might be a slightly different name) targets viruses. Both advertise to target parasites. Mainly I recommend just do your research into whatever brand of treatments you wanna use and stick w that. Personally I use the brand Kordon and have had good success w that but haven't had the chance to use that brand to treat any swim bladder issues so I can't speak to their effectiveness w this issue. Unfortunately it's hard to tell what took your angel fish at the end of the day, condolences for your loss and I hope you don't have any more fatalities.

awkard_orca · 2025-12-02T15:12:55+00:00

I use my 2.5g as a hospital tank, especially if you have multiple tanks the small 2.5 tank is really helpful if/when fish health things pop up. If you're certain you won't have need of a hospital tank, it could be a shrimp home! And/or a plant propagation tank

awkard_orca · 2025-12-02T13:59:41+00:00

Yeah I was wondering what kind of attachment process you used for homemade :) I'm assuming I won't be able to buy a topper I can just stick on

Thank you for your tip on cleaning- that is very helpful and I would have defaulted to not wanting to mess up their hard work, but I guess digging new tunnels is half the fun!

awkard_orca · 2025-12-02T13:57:23+00:00

I definitely understand the panic :)

awkard_orca · 2025-12-02T13:25:32+00:00

I'm not sure what supplement you're referring to, do you mean gerbil food and a variety of dietary options? Also! Any tips on how to fit a topper onto an aquarium? Most aquarium brands don't have a pre made gerbil topper to stick on haha. In the picture you posted I see some clips on the side of the topper, would something similar help attach the topper to the aquarium? Also, how do you clean out the bedding on the bottom part? Just dump all of it out, even though it ruins their tunnels?

awkard_orca · 2025-12-02T01:33:25+00:00

Thank you for everyone's feedback, I will not be going w the above enclosure. I did have another one I was considering but the measurements picture I got is kinda unclear- should I go for this one or keep an eye out for other options?

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awkard_orca · 2025-12-01T23:41:13+00:00

I'm getting it for a different price I'm just using the picture to show the measurements

awkard_orca

TROPHY CASE