Rainbow ID?

[invadertoast]

I decided on a school of neon dwarf rainbows for my empty 20 long (footprint is 28"x16") I picked up three the other day that all looked silver in the store, now that they have some color I'm pretty sure two of them are not what I thought! Are these Boesemanis? I've read conflicting info on their minimum tank size and am totally new to rainbowfish. I was going for six neon dwarfs, with nothing else in the tank. I have four of those and now two mystery fish. Will they be ok in this size tank? (their tank is the top one in the photo) I have an AC50 and AC Mini running on their tank

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y91/invadertoast/20150412_120442_zpstwefadpg.jpg (http://s3.photobucket.com/user/invadertoast/media/20150412_120442_zpstwefadpg.jpg.html)
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y91/invadertoast/20150412_120522_zpsplwgtea1.jpg (http://s3.photobucket.com/user/invadertoast/media/20150412_120522_zpsplwgtea1.jpg.html)

[DoubleDutch]

Boesemani ?? Btw : I've a link to a free pdf-book about rainbows. Quite a file !!

[invadertoast]

I would be interested to read it, like I said I am brand new to rainbows. I am leaning towards Boesemani as well but just not sure, they are the same size as the largest dwarf neon I have in there, I guess I'll just wait and see how they grow.

[Anders247]

Yes, those are young boesemani rainbows.

[gronlaura]

Cannot keep boesemanis in a 20 long, they need a 48" tank - these are 4-1/2 inch fish. Neon dwarfs can go in a minimum 30" tank, but IMO a 36" is better.

[Slaphppy7]

http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/melanotaenia-boesemani/

[invadertoast]

Thanks for the replies everyone, these two guys went back to the store last night! How worried should I be about the remaining 4 neon dwarf rainbows (1 male, 3 female) outgrowing my tank? I had read of alot of different 20 and 29 gallon tanks with these in them, my 20 long is an oddball size at 28x16 but with the large footprint I thought I'd be okay.

[SueD]

Thanks for the replies everyone, these two guys went back to the store last night! How worried should I be about the remaining 4 neon dwarf rainbows (1 male, 3 female) outgrowing my tank? I had read of alot of different 20 and 29 gallon tanks with these in them, my 20 long is an oddball size at 28x16 but with the large footprint I thought I'd be okay.

According to this, you'd be OK

http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/melanotaenia-praecox/

[gronlaura]

Seriouslyfish recommends a 24" tank, Badmanstropical a 32". I think you will be okay with the 28", especially as it's 16" deep instead of 12".

These fish need highly oxygenated water to survive. What type of filter is on their tank? You need a lot of surface agitation to create an exchange of gases (CO2 to O2). They also need a bit harder water, a general hardness (dGH) of 10 is good.

[invadertoast]

I have an AC50 and AC Mini on this tank. The AC mini was running on my established tank to get seeded before adding fish to the new tank, then when I brought the fish home I moved the mini and stole some media out of my TopFin 75 for the new AC50. I was going to move the mini to my other ten gallon but have decided to leave it on this tank as I read these fish like current. I honestly don't know what my general hardness is but I will be sure to grab a test kit and find out, this is the first new tank I've set up in a few years and all the fish in my other 20 gallon are between 3 and 8 years old now (save for a few hand-me-down neon tetras) My plan was to add one more male and one or two females and be done with stocking at 6 or 7 fish total (2 male, 4-5 female)

[gronlaura]

What is an AC Mini?

he AC50 might not give you enough surface agitation, as this is a longer tank. You need to keep the waterfall part of the filter housing well below the surface to get maximum ripples across the surface. You may need to add another AC filter or an airstone at each end to break the surface tension.

You can do 4 females (1:2 ratio). With 2 males, adding 5-6 females would make a very nice school. I will be upping my school to 4 males and 8 females (currently 2 M and 3 F). In my area, I'm having a hard time finding large enough girls so my boys don't run them to death. The breeder in my club will have fish avail in January.