Rough Rainbow

[Ashley]

Hey all

I have four gold cloud minnows and one furcatas rainbow and one cherry shrimp. I notice the rainbow chasing the minnows around. I've observed him for a while and I don't see him nipping the minnows fins, just chasing. Is everything ok? I was thinking maybe he was just making it known that he is the boss of the tank, but not too sure.

[Dave66]

The reason the rainbow is acting thusly is you're keeping him improperly. Rainbows are schooling fish, and being alone is so unnatural for him, he's turned into a pest of tankmates. If you had eight of that rainbow species you wouldn't have the problem.

Since your tank is still so new, perhaps a trio added when the tank adapts to its present bioload, then a quartet the next week, would give you a proper school.

You could also add four more white clouds to your group, but additions should be made in small numbers every other week to avoid ammonia surges in a new tank.

Save

Dave

[mac]

I totally agree. The fish want to be in larger groups. And more so with the Rainbow. It feels so out of place and timid, that it will kill the others off to feel safer.

So to fix the problem some more fish is all that is needed.

mac

[Ashley]

I had four of these rainbows and he always chased them as well. Then they passed away from the beginning stages of cycling. I later added two more and they died too. So, unfortunately I learned that the place I had bought them from sells unhealthy fish. As others have bought fish from there (fish experts) and they always die. But I just recently bought a cory cat and made a post about it, and the rainbow has made a serious friend!