Over the last few years, the number of people keeping chili rasboras in their aquariums has been drastically increasing with no signs of slowing down and due to the bright colors, low price, and small size, we expect their popularity to continue to increase even though they are not the most beginner friendly of fish.
Still, we commonly see people from the fish keeping community reaching out about what chili rasbora tank size they require to keep their chili rasboras in so we wanted to publish this article as there is a large amount of misinformation out there right now.
The small size of chili rasboras make it easy to keep the species in a small and cheap aquarium tank that is not only easy to store in your home without taking up much space but also very budget friendly.
We usually recommend that you go with a minimum chili rasbora tank size of 5 gallons but more experienced fish keepers can keep chili rasboras in a 3 gallon aquarium tank once they have experience with maintaining steady water parameters.
Still, we wouldn’t recommend a 3 gallon tank for chili rasboras even if you are an experienced fish keeper as it really does restrict what you are able to do with your aquarium and a decent 5 gallon tank really should be the smallest tank size you use for your pet chili rasboras.
Even though they are a low bioload fish species, they are very sensitive to their water conditions so chili rasboras do need steady, consistent water parameters to thrive in your tank.
How To Workout Your Chili Rasbora Tank Size!
The easiest way to work out the minimum chili rasbora tank size is to use the one inch of fish per gallon of water in the tank rule.
As an adult chili rasbora will usually max out at just shy of an inch, you can usually just go with the rule of one chili rasbora per gallon of water in your tank but there are restrictions to this as most chili rasboras will be stressed if they are in a school of less than five fish.
This is why we don’t recommend a 3 gallon tank size for your chili rasboras as you really do have to be experienced with keeping fish and maintaining perfect water parameters to allow you to keep five chili rasboras in a three gallon tank.
Even then, you really are limited to the type of decorations and plants that you can also have in your aquarium and you really can’t be looking to add other fish species to the tank either.
We have seen people argue the case for a cheap, decent 20 gallon tank being the best chili rasbora tank size as it allows you to easily and safely keep 20 chili rasboras in your tank as well as various plants and hideouts for the fish.
This allows you to simulate their natural environment as well as the natural school size of around 20 fish that chili rasboras will school in when in the wild.
How Many Chili Rasbora In A 3 Gallon Tank?
We would only recommend that you keep chili rasbora in a 3 gallon tank if you are experienced with keeping fish and you are confident in your ability to maintain perfect water parameters for your chili rasboras.
If you are an experienced fish keeper then you can keep a school of 5 chili rasboras in a 3 gallon tank but you will have your work cut out for you to keep your fish happy in such a small tank.
You really need to go with an optimal 3 gallon aquarium tank shape too like this one that will offer a decent length in the tank for your chili rasboras to swim in.
You really can’t keep any other fish in the tank though as five chili rasboras in a 3 gallon tank will max out the space and not even leave any other room available for live plants but this really is a bad option and you should be doing your best to go with a 5 gallon tank covered below if possible.
Due to the lack of popularity for 3 gallon aquarium tanks, you can often buy a decent 5 gallon tank for cheaper than a 3 gallon tank anyway as the 5 gallon tanks sell better so the manufacturers are able to produce them in bulk to keep their costs down and know that they will sell.
The only real restriction for someone upgrading from a potential 3 gallon tank to a 5 gallon tank is the potential space issue but the differences really are minimal so most people should be able to find somewhere in their home to keep a 5 gallon tank with ease.
How Many Chili Rasbora In A 5 Gallon Aquarium Tank?
A 5 gallon chili rasbora tank is the minimum tank size we would recommend as it allows you to comfortably keep five chili rasboras in the tank without issue.
You can technically keep up to seven chili rasboras in a 5 gallon tank if you want without having any other issues but this will start to restrict the other things that you are able to do with your tank while keeping more than five chili rasboras in it.
As we covered in our article going over keeping rasboras and shrimp in the same tank, more and more people are looking to keep some type of shrimp in their aquarium with their rasboras these days and chili rasboras are the perfect option for anyone looking to do this.
You should be able to keep between five and seven chili rasboras in the same tank as a number of cherry shrimp, neon yellow shrimp or blue shrimp without issues with the fish trying to eat your shrimp.
As we covered in our article on keeping cherry shrimp and neon yellow shrimp in the same tank though, we would not recommend you keep different type of shrimp in the same tank as they can cross breed but their offspring will not keep the bright colors of their parents.
On top of that, aquascaping is starting to become very popular within the fish keeping hobby too and a decent 5 gallon tank starts to open up the world of aquascaping for your chili rasbora tank too.
You won’t be able to do much due to the size restrictions but you can get started with some basic aquascaping if you wish to build up your experience levels for in the future.
How Many Chili Rasbora In A 10 Gallon Aquarium Tank?
A 10 gallon aquarium can offer a number of combinations that you are able to use to keep chili rasboras in your aquarium with schools of seven to 14 chili rasboras being commonly kept in a 10 gallon tank.
If you are looking to keep other fish species with your chili rasboras in a 10 gallon tank then keeping between five and seven chili rasbora in the tank is often best to allow you to use the rest of the space for other fish.
If you do opt to go with the 10 gallon tank option then there are a number of different tank designs available at a wide range of price points too but if you are a beginner, a standard, cheap 10 gallon aquarium tank will almost always be the best option.
Not only are they cheap but the standard rectangle tank shape usually offers a quick resale of the tank if you choose to upgrade to a larger aquarium size in the future too.
A 10 gallon aquarium really will open up the aquascaping options available to you too if this is something that you are looking to get into.
If not, you can still add some live or fake plants to your chili rasbora tank as well as a number of fish hides too.
If you are keeping other fish species in your 10 gallon tank with your chili rasbora then fish hides can be essential to give your chili rasboras somewhere to go to destress and hide if they choose.
How Many Chili Rasbora In A 20 Gallon Aquarium Tank?
Many people considered a 20 gallon chili rasbora tank to be the perfect size for the species as it allows you to replicate the natural setup that chili rasboras will often choose to live in in the wild.
A 20 gallon tank allows you to keep between fifteen and 28 chili rasboras in the tank that is the natural schooling size for the species as well as plenty of plants and fish hides to keep your fish happy too.
Thankfully, you should easily be able to pick up a cheap, decent 20 gallon tank to keep your chili rasboras in without having much trouble with budget as the prices of a 20 gallon tank have fallen drastically over the last couple of years too.
If you wish, you can usually use your 20 gallon tank as a community tank too and keep a number of different fish species that are suitable tank mates for your chili rasbora in the tank too if you choose to only keep around 10 chili rasbora in the tank and use the rest of the space for other fish.
You can also keep a number of shrimp, plants, and hideouts in a 20 gallon tank too turning it into an excellent tank for your chili rasboras.
If you are considering getting into aquascaping then the doors really do open up with a 20 gallon tank allowing you to do a wide range of different things in the tank with a number of different plants that your chili rasbora will like to hide in too.
How Many Chili Rasbora In A 30 Gallon Aquarium Tank?
If you have the budget available then a 30 gallon aquarium can make a great option as a chili rasbora tank due to it allowing you to keep a large number of chili rasboras in the tank with various other fish too.
Even though a 30 gallon tank can technically keep over 40 chili rasboras in it, we would usually not recommend that you go over 30 as the fish can start to fight each other.
The price tags for 30 gallon aquariums do start to increase drastically though and although there are some solid options out there, the majority of our readers will probably be better off if they just go with one of the smaller, cheaper tank options covered in earlier in our article.
A 30 gallon tank for just chili rasboras is usually too much and you can save money by going with a smaller tank.
If you are specifically looking for something that you are able to use as a community tank with a range of different fish species and you have built up some experience keeping fish then a 30 gallon tank can be a great option though.
You can easily keep between ten and fifteen chili rasboras in the tank with a range of other fish species with minimal problems due to the larger size of the tank but you will still have to go with suitable tank mates for your chili rasboras.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over chili rasbora tank size to an end. We hope that we have been able to help you and that we have covered a tank size that is within the ranges that you were considering keeping for your chili rasboras. There really are a huge range of different setups that can work very well with chili rasboras though due to their small size so even beginner fish keepers are able to keep the species in a tank and do other things such as keep other fish species in there or try their hand at aquascaping with minimal long term problems too.
