Rainbow fish

k19smith

Well after looking around a good bit I'm interested in adding some rainbow fish, I'm kinda just browsing at the moment.I 'm thinking about doing a school of turquoise rainbow fish with yellow peacocks in my 90g. I'm also looking to add at least 2 more tanks to the rack in my office which I was thinking of doing 40L, with maybe dwarf neon's. I also like the bosemani and red rainbows who knows what I want it going to depend on what I can find more than likely.

Do we have any rainbow keepers?

GwenInNM

I have Neon Dwarf Rainbows. Cute, friendly little dudes

With a larger tank, I'd be going for the Bosesmani Rainbows. They are so beautiful. I've seen them periodically at the big chain fish store, like PetCo and Petsmart.

Gwen

k19smith

What size tank do you have your neon dwarfs in? Tank mates? I've looked at the bosesmani, I'm pretty sure I'm going to start with the turquoise rainbows, then who knows. After some measuring I realized I cannot go with 40L because they will not fit I can however add two 45, 38, 30, 23L not sure which I'm going to go with. I don't know why I've never noticed these fish before but I'm in love.

jeaninel

I've kept Boesemani before. Gorgeous fish and needs room to swim. I would recommend a 4 ft tank for them. Kept The Dwarf Neon before also and they can go in a bit smaller tank.

Here's one of my Boesemani. Miss these guys.

Attached Images

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k19smith

That fish is stunning makes me rethink the turquoise. I have an open 90g but any other rainbows I get will have to go in a 36" tank as that's all I have space for in less I do some rearranging. hmm the thoughts running threw my head on new fishes. lol

GwenInNM

My Dwarf rainbows are in a 36" long tank, which is a 43 gal as best figured by the site that calculates tank size with measurements. They do well, happy etc. I think you'd do fine with a group of 5 in the tank you have. As far as tank mates, I have various loaches (Kuhli, Burmese, Angelica), a Bamboo Shrimp, one female Blue Gourami, 1 male Bolivian Ram (love him), and a school of neon tetras. All are fine together.

If you get dwarf rainbows, I read they recommend if the group is under 6 you should stay with either all males or all females. I started with one male and 4 females, which worked out just fine. I've since lost 2 females, for no apparent reason, they were fine one day, dead the next. The male I have has a tumor, and is surviving but I'm not sure how long he'll last, plus he now has another condition where his mouth is wide open all the time. Not much I can do about it, but keep the water super clean and hope for the best. They do best with good water parameters. You can not let nitrates get high, like anything over 15ppm or 20ppm. I have not replaced the loss, as they are active, nice fish, but aren't really very colorful, except when lights are off or dim, you can catch the irridecent blue in them. One day I want a big tank, and I want to get the Bosesmani Rainbow fish - so beautiful.

Gwen

Jakiebabie

I'm a Rainbowfish keeper. I have a 75 gallon community with:
a M/F Dwarf pair, 2 Bosemani poss M/F, 2 Lake Katubu Blue, 2 Australian.
In with them are:
2 Congo Tetras (!!) want more!! They are well suited to a Rainbowtank and are gorgeous in colouration
also have m/2f Callico molly, M/F Neon Swordtail,
3 rosy barbs, 2 rosy danios. 1 Pearl Gourami.
some Oto's, Cories, and one 7 inch Pleco.
I will probably rehome at some point the 3 barbs, 2 danios. They really are too fast and just chase each other around. The rest are peaceful and live well together.

k19smith

I'm currently looking for the dwarf and the lacustris turquoise, I'm super excited about this new venture.

Jakiebabie

If you didn't know... the Dwarf F has yellow fins, the M has red. I try to buy in 3's... 2 F, 1 M. but invariably one F always seems to die and I go back to get 2 more and they don't have them ready for sale or too expensive!! so I end up with 2's.
I LOVE the Lake Kututbu Turquoise! My biggest is close to 3 inches long. Don't know quite how to tell what it is tho M/F? I was told the top fins along the back appear to be all one if it is a Male. do you know anything more?
I always look in the "assorted Rainbowfish" tank at the LFS and pick out, pick up bargains there if all look healthy in the tank. Cheaper that way! Need to get a couple more Congo's tho... it says they need 6 to shoal and can be aggressive and fin nippers. Hmmmm!?
Oh ya, I turned my lights on late one night for something, and the LK Turquoise were dark, almost black at night, I was panicked, but all was fine back to normal colouration in the morning. So they must darken to sleep at night. And they flash golden colours up their backs from nose to tail along the top line. Cooll fish!!! My favourite.

Sabledog

the dark color and yellow nose stripe is called flashing, Mine did it all the time and were very neat to watch.. And The easiest way i found to sex rainbows (as far as I know) is the males will have the double dorsals overlap, the females do not overlap. they both have the double fins on top though. Honestly, I would recomend the run of the mill Aussie rainbows, they really color up as adults and have a wide range of colors, mine were red, orange, yellow, blue, silver green, a True rainbow of colors...

here is a pic of one of my old male turquoise flashing...



and a pic of the fins on a Male rainbow (aussie) not the best angle, but you can see it going past the second dorsal fin on top..