rainbowfishes colors

[lobsternoob]

So, I'm restocking a 50g tank and decided I wanted to kind of base it around a school of bows I was a bit worried about some varieties getting too large for a school in a 50 though. I thought 5 would be a good number, at least to start with, didn't want too many, or too few. I decided to skip on paying 12.99 a piece or more for some of the fancier ones and instead pay 1.99 each for what was tagged as just "Australian rainbowfish". I wasn't too thrilled at how they looked, they were just kind of a dull gray, but I figured whatever, I have the option of bringing em back if I really dislike them, course I'd hate to try and catch em! Which is why I didn't worry too much about them possibly getting large either, plus I could always move them to another tank. The store i got them from knows me well now, and it is a bit of a drive, but they are happy to trade in my fish since I haven't brought them any diseased fish or problematic ones yet. (and I don't intend to!)

Within half an hour or less of them being in the tank, they are fricking gorgeous! They hid for about 10 mins or so, then came out and started schooling and exploring, and I could swear i saw the color changing like a dang chameleon! Even funnier, one of the otos in the tank is swimming around with them, never even hardly see the thing and its out swimming in broad daylight, weird!

So anyway, there are a couple questions, since this is only the 2nd time I've ever had any variety of bows.

1. Have I made a complete mistake and was uninformed, are these one of the varieties of rainbow that get pretty large? I do not know the scientific name so that may be hard to answer. It's a 3ft tank, but fairly wide, I thought they would do better in my 4 ft 55, knowing what little I do about their swimming habits, but its not ready yet.

2. Any recommendations for a centerpiece fish with bows? the tank is currently only stocked with 5 otocinclus and the 5 rainbows. It's well planted but will be more heavily planted soon, and fairly dense with decor, but a good bit of open mid/topwater space.

3. Do they ever dislike live food, dropped just a couple tubifex in, and they were ignored, but they went after flake?

4. Any other stocking recommendations for this tank? I would like some bottom dwellers, 1-2 oddity fish, and 1 or a pair of centerpiece fish. I'd like to do a decent school of cories, but I dont want to wind up way overstocking, especially not if these bows get large.

5. Would the bows like a powerhead in there for some flow to swim against?

More info: Tank has been established for over a year, I do small wc's on it every 2 days, large WC's every week and a half or so. Tank runs 2x 200gph HOB's, and typically an extra AC20 I use for one of my Qtine filters.

[trojannemo]

lets see if i can answer all your questions with my limited knowledge...

1) the fish you got are 99% chance farm-raised hybrids of a Melanotaenia splendida subspecies, most likely Melanotaenia splendida splendida. they indeed will be one of the larger species of rainbows, reaching about 5" for a full sized male. they need a mininum of 36" for swimming space, so they'll be ok in the 3-footer but would be better off in the 4-footer.

2) rainbowfish should be the centerpiece of the tank. i understand you've got possibly one of the dullest examples of rainbows (i.e. inbred/hybrid "australians") but rainbows do make great centerpiece fish. another alternative would be angelfish. i keep them together and find they get along well.

3) rainbows love eating...and eating anything you give them. mine eat live blackworms, live brine shrimp and live ghost shrimp, as well as frozen brine shrimp, frozen bloodworms, granules, flakes, crisps, green bio balls, freeze dried gammarus, etc. if they didnt like the tubifex it may have just been that they're not used to it, but they will eventually eat it!

4) i'm not good at recommending stocking options...i always keep my tanks well-stocked (if not overstocked), but like you i also keep them overfiltered and with 50%+ weekly water changes...so my fish do well...i'll let someone else give you stocking advice!

5) yes....the rainbows you have occur in the wild in streams, creeks and rivers in australia (by comparison most rainbowfish in the hobby come from papua new guinea, not australia). they do appreciate a current in the tank and will swim against it for hours on end. even my rainbows, most of which come from lakes in papua new guinea have a ball swimming against the koralia powerhead i put it for them. before they would squeeze against the back glass to swim agaisnt the current of the canister filter outlet!


your cleaning regime is good. i do 50-60% water changes weekly, and combined with two hobs and canister filter, my water is pristine. sounds like you have a similar setup and routine, so continue doing what you're doing thumbs2: and good luck with the 'bows:22:

[lobsternoob]

Thanks, so seeing as they are gonna get large, I'll plan on putting em in a 4 footer eventually, its not as wide, but the swimming length is probably better for them. They've been in the tank a few hours now, and they are coloring up more and more, its kind of crazy. Never been a big fan of angelfish, and the good looking veils (pattern/finwise) around here are always unhealthy.

I'm gonna prolly try popping in a powerhead then, I'll have to buy a smaller one, the 1 free one i have is huge and would turn the tank into a hurricane.

as far as centerpiece fish, I meant a single fish or a pair of fish, thinking about some of the smaller peaceful cichlids maybe. the bows will be the focus, but I want a fish or two thats way different from them.

Thanks for taking the time to give me some advice, I know even my post took some time to read, I appreciate it!

my otos are still cruising with the bows, now its not 1 out of 5 its 3 out of five doing it, I've seeen more of my otos today than in the last 2 months!

[AquaLene]

Yes, I have seen some rainbows colour up within 5 minutes after releasing them into the tank. In the pet shops they don't look like much at all. It's a lovely surprise when you see them in full colour.

I have combined my 'bows (in my one tank) with some oddballs/predators (eels and celebes halfbeaks - way different looking to rainbows). Some rainbow's get fairly high bodied so they are a good companion with certain predators as they wont go for the rainbows. In my tanks the rainbows are pretty peaceful fish and don't pick on or bother other species.

Some peaceful cichlids like you said, or even a nice group of smaller schooling fish would also look great.

They're not fussy eater's, although after introducing bloodworm mine also don't touch tubiflex, but they would eventually if that was all I fed (basically, they are piggies and eat anything :lol: )

[Lady Hobbs]

If you want a pretty big school, the neon bows are smaller. The largest bow I had was the Austrialian Splendida. I didn't like them. They got larger and was more aggressive. I currently have only boesemani.

Here's the site to check them out really well.
http://members.optushome.com.au/chelmon/Contents.htm

Check the species tab and you'll see lots of them.

[lobsternoob]

Wow, that's a cool site, thanks for the link LH. So, your saying the splendida get large and aggressive, do you think those or any of the other larger bows would pick on the neon dwarfs? apparently I can get Praecox easily and very cheaply, whereas the bosemani's are a bit cost prohibitive to have a decent sized school at like 12.00 a piece. It would be pretty cool to have 2 separate schools. Or would they probably just school together and some would look all midgety?

[walt8880]

I am just starting a new 30g tank with rainbows also. I put in 6 praecox and one pearl gourami as centerpiece. Not very expensive if get small one and a beautiful peaceful fish.

Am trying to decide what else to put in.

[Lady Hobbs]

Wow, that's a cool site, thanks for the link LH. So, your saying the splendida get large and aggressive, do you think those or any of the other larger bows would pick on the neon dwarfs? apparently I can get Praecox easily and very cheaply, whereas the bosemani's are a bit cost prohibitive to have a decent sized school at like 12.00 a piece. It would be pretty cool to have 2 separate schools. Or would they probably just school together and some would look all midgety?

In my tank, the Splendia was just bigger, faster and the dominate fish in the tank. He didn't attack any of the others but they were definately the boss of the house. I also had the turquoise (twice) and they are lovely. Both times I lost them for some reason, tho, but want to try them again. They will all do fine together.

Bows have hundreds of babies so you could just get a few and raise their spawns. That's how I got most of my boesemani. They spawn on java moss in the tank and I just removed the moss to a breeding tank.

They have the smallest babies in the world, I think!

[AquaLene]

They have the smallest babies in the world, I think!

They are indeed tiny, only about 2mm long when they hatch!! I managed to raise 30 boesemani's from one pair.

I have turquoise/blue (M.Lacustris) adults which I am now trying to breed and currently have a healthy clutch of fry (about 25 so far) here's a pic of newly hatched fry:

http://www.headzone.co.za/myfish/smallfry.jpg

Rainbows are serial spawner's (ie will continue to breed for months, but you must separate the species you want to breed from the other rainbows, or they will inter-breed resulting in hybrids).

They are very slow growers though, so if you go this route and raise your own stock you will be in for a long wait until adulthood, and it is hard work (daily water changes in baby tank, and new freshly hatched brine shrimp for food) BUT it is very rewarding and far less expensive than buying a shoal. :ssmile:

IMHO I think that is why rainbows are so expensive, mine took 5 months to reach about 3,5cm (under 2 inches).