A bit curious

[Cristoff]

I have been thinking (and researching) about putting a couple of small schools of Rainbows in my 90 gal tank, but I have a couple of questions.

1st. It seems to not be a very popular species of fish around here. Whenever people have stocking questions, rainbows RARELY come up in the conversation. As colorful and active as I have read that they are it's kind of a surprise that not more people think of them in stocking lists. Any thoughts on this?

2nd. I'm thinking about a school of 8 Dwarf neon Rainbows, perhaps 4-6 Reds, and Hopefully 6 or so Bosemani. I currently have 6 Lemon Tetras in the tank - would my list grossly overstock me?

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

[rich311k]

1. I love rainbows i have several of them. They are great schooling fish for a larger tank.

2. That may be a bit, much my axelrodis are very active and 5 do a good job of filling my 75 with activity. They are larger 4-5 inches and fast. the males spar constantly. I woould do 8 -10 fish at the most. the lemons will not bother them or vice versa.

[Cristoff]

Gotcha. Thanks for the input! I'll have to do a bit more research to figure out which ones I want to keep on the list and which ones to "cull" before I even get em!

[mac]

I have been thinking (and researching) about putting a couple of small schools of Rainbows in my 90 gal tank, but I have a couple of questions.

Sounds great.


1st. It seems to not be a very popular species of fish around here. Whenever people have stocking questions, rainbows RARELY come up in the conversation. As colorful and active as I have read that they are it's kind of a surprise that not more people think of them in stocking lists. Any thoughts on this?

I think it is more tank size. And a species of fish which in some places hard to get. Or no one thinks of.

For me I love them. And have quite a few in my 100g.


2nd. I'm thinking about a school of 8 Dwarf neon Rainbows, perhaps 4-6 Reds, and Hopefully 6 or so Bosemani. I currently have 6 Lemon Tetras in the tank - would my list grossly overstock me?

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

That sounds great to me. Make sure with the Dwarfs to get 1 male to 2 females or, all male. As for the rest sounds great. Maybe a few Loaches would complete it nicely.

mac

[AquaLene]

I love rainbows!! A big reason LFS don't stock them often (feedback I got from LFS owners) is because in the shop tanks they are often pale and lack colour and come with quite a price tag, hence they don't sell well.

When they get put into a proper planted tank and like the environment they colour up almost immediately, but people visiting LFS's generally don't know this unless they researched rainbows.

The neon dwarfs are quite small, but the reds and the boesemani's can get pretty large, so that's something to consider before stocking.

One thing's for sure, you won't be disappointed with them, they are stunning fish. thumbs2:

[Cristoff]

Thanks for the input all!

Luckily I have a LFS that is GREAT and stocks almost everything you can imagine in large quantities. I just wish they shipped so I could recommend them to all of you. It's a very "mom and pops" type store that only carries fish and birds. if you need it, they can get it.

Again, thanks for the advice!

[jaysee]

I have been thinking (and researching) about putting a couple of small schools of Rainbows in my 90 gal tank, but I have a couple of questions.

1st. It seems to not be a very popular species of fish around here. Whenever people have stocking questions, rainbows RARELY come up in the conversation. As colorful and active as I have read that they are it's kind of a surprise that not more people think of them in stocking lists. Any thoughts on this?

2nd. I'm thinking about a school of 8 Dwarf neon Rainbows, perhaps 4-6 Reds, and Hopefully 6 or so Bosemani. I currently have 6 Lemon Tetras in the tank - would my list grossly overstock me?

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

I ALWAYS recomend dwarf neon rainbows. They're a fantastic schooling fish and can be kept in smaller tanks.

For your 90, I would do just 2 schools, but I don't have a tank that big so I'm not so sure about stocking.

[Cristoff]

Thanks as always Jaysee!thumbs2:

[jaysee]

You bet! I'd do dwarf neons and boesmannis - the reds look a lot like the dwarf neons to me. Different rainbows will school together sometimes, so that would be cool. I say 12 neons and 6 boeses. Any other fish you're looking at or is it gonna be more or less a rainbow tank?

[Cristoff]

Thinking pretty much all rainbow, but I do have 6 Lemon Tetras in there right now as I slowly add the schools of Bows. Not sure if I'll keep them in there or not.

[jaysee]

I think you could squeeze them in the 29.

Any considderation of a bottom feeder? If you can find them, I think it would be cool to have like 20-25 pygmy corys. Or you could do a few crayfish - they'll never catch the rainbows.

[Cristoff]

LOL! The only thing I could think of is the skittles commercial

"catch the rainbow...taste the rainbow" :hmm3grin2orange:

Been thinking on the Corys, but Crays are tough to find around here.

[trojannemo]

rainbowfish are amazing fish but I see what you mean about them not being too popular. i'm member of a local aquarium club and out of everyone, besides me there is only 1 other member who kept rainbows - and all he had were 2 g. incisus.:help:

i just think they're hard to find, require more work and are too expensive to pick up without knowing what they are.

check out my gallery page ("my fish" link in my signature) for pictures of my 'bows. maybe they can help you decide. i currently have all 3 species you've considered plus 3 more. i've had over 14 species of rainbows by now and these are the ones i liked the most....

my recommendation? get boesemani, praecox, and lacustris:19: or do like me and just mix them all, i have 13 rainbows comprised of 6 different species:hmm3grin2orange:

[mac]

As for the amount of fish for a 90g, I would got with at least 2 groups of 5-6 of the Larger Rainbows, and a school of 7-8 of the Dwarfs. Along with a group of say Kulie Loaches or Yoyo's in a size of about 5.

That would be all.

mac

[Cristoff]

Love the Gallery Trojan, Great pics!

Thanks for all the great advice guys, It's why I hang out here all the time!