Irian Red Rainbowfish wanted

[saganco]

My male has lost his significant other - since she died, he's lonely and loosing his beautiful color. Anyone have a female for my lonely guy fish? Trying to stay local since we'll be coming to the meeting next month and perhaps someone could bring said female to the meeting... Thanks in advance!

[saganco]

My original pair came from the last auction (seller "CASX") - would that have been a donation from elsewhere (somewhere other than Denver area)? If it was a member of the club, I'm hoping there's another female available...

Anyone??

[WindingVines]

Hey, I don't know how to sex Rainbows but Exotic Aquatics has a Pair. THEY ARE STUNNING, I'd give them a call and ask them what sex they are. Grab them while you can because next week I want to get them hehehe.

Send me a PM w/ any other questions.


They are very stunning once again, big too and very well established they have had them for 3 months.

[PHalas]

If it does'nt work out & you don't mind paying the shipping, look here..

http://www.thatfishshop.com/rainbowroom.html

[saganco]

Thanks guys - I'll check into both of those. I "think" I would like to breed the rainbows, but if I let them hatch out in a community tank they won't make it. How would I know WHAT they spawned on, and when to take it out of the tank? Or is that even the right way to do it??

[WindingVines]

Originally Posted by saganco

Thanks guys - I'll check into both of those. I "think" I would like to breed the rainbows, but if I let them hatch out in a community tank they won't make it. How would I know WHAT they spawned on, and when to take it out of the tank? Or is that even the right way to do it??

Well if you do a quick google search on rainbow spawning as far as I am aware it is relativly easy if you know what you are doing. Like keeping water parameters consistent and high quality, fresh/live/frozen foods.

Here is a brief cheat sheet for you: http://www.aqualandpetsplus.com/Minn...ainbowfish.htm

It is not crazy science, you just need to be diligent and careful with the fish.

[TheXman]

While I agree with the fact sheet that separating the sexes before breeding increases the egg output for the first spawn and increases interest in spawning, I wouldn't recommend it because the males can get VERY aggressive with the females to the point that sometimes the females can be fatally injured. Red Rainbowfish (G. incisus) are the most aggressive rainbowfish, so I REALLY wouldn't recommend the separating strategy with them. This species will give you plenty of eggs as it is, if the fish are in good condition. It's best to spare your females the extra stress and not get the males too riled up.
Anyway, about your question of how to separate the eggs from the adults. For this, a spawning mop is very useful. It's basically a mop of 100-200strands of yarn that are attached to a float, so that the yarn hangs down in the water. Rainbowfish will spawn in this preferentially and the mop will help hide the eggs from adult fish so they won't get eaten. Here is an article describing in great detail how to make one:
http://aquafacts.net/components/com_...ng_Rainbowfish
Condition your fish by feeding lots of live foods such as blackworms, daphnia, brine shrimp, etc or frozen blood worms for a couple of days, then add the mop to the tank (make sure that there is only one species of rainbowfish in the tank as rainbows are notorious for hybridizing and the hybrid offspring generally look very bland). You could also put the breeders (hopefully more than just a pair and more females than males, 2 males and 4 females should give excellent results) into a spawning tank separated from all the other fish, before you start conditioning. Continue conditioning feeding while the mop is in the tank for 7-10 days, then remove the mop to a hatching/breeding tank or if the fish are in a spawning tank, remove them and leave the mop in the spawning tank. Alternatively, you could wait until you start seeing eggs in the mop or fry start to appear (if you can spot them before the adults do that is!) to separate the adults and mop. That should get you started, good luck finding some females!
Josh

[saganco]

Wow, what great help you've both been! Seems like a sensible way to do it then would be to add the spawning mop for about 7-10 days, then move it to a small "nursery" tank, and when I do that, replace the mop with the "alternate mop". Then repeat the cycle every 7-10 days.

Is this a good way to do it? How will I know they use the mop instead of the zillion plants that are in the tank?? I can't be yanking all the plants out and moving them to the nursery tank (though that happened accidentally once - I took a bunch of plants out and put them in a "plant grow out tank" and next thing we knew, we had a bunch of little ones!). Is there a sensible way to leave the spawning 'stuff' (plants, mop, or whatever they happen to choose) IN the community tank and have SOME way to collect and protect the fry (THEN move them)?

See, the problem gets into the fact that we aren't breeding just for the sake of breeding - all our tanks are show tanks that are community tanks (but with only one species of rainbows per tank). So it's all about keeping the tanks as much of a community as possible, and keeping them nice looking. I just would like to see some offspring manage to survive. Any kind of floating something that the little ones will migrate to? See how I can take anything and MAKE it complicated!!??

[TheXman]

Originally Posted by saganco

Wow, what great help you've both been! Seems like a sensible way to do it then would be to add the spawning mop for about 7-10 days, then move it to a small "nursery" tank, and when I do that, replace the mop with the "alternate mop". Then repeat the cycle every 7-10 days.

Is this a good way to do it? How will I know they use the mop instead of the zillion plants that are in the tank?? I can't be yanking all the plants out and moving them to the nursery tank (though that happened accidentally once - I took a bunch of plants out and put them in a "plant grow out tank" and next thing we knew, we had a bunch of little ones!). Is there a sensible way to leave the spawning 'stuff' (plants, mop, or whatever they happen to choose) IN the community tank and have SOME way to collect and protect the fry (THEN move them)?

Yes, moving the spawning mop every 7-10 days to a nursery tank will most likely work great. They seem to prefer the mops to live plants for spawning, but you never know, every fish is different!
You can also pick the eggs off of the mop, or plants that they spawn in and put them in a floating dish in the nursery tank until they hatch, then let them loose in the tank.
You could try growing lots of plants at the water surface to provide cover for the fry. If you have enough cover, a few of them could make it, but you'll get a lot more fry moving the eggs/mop to their own tank, especially since the fry will grow much better at temperatures around 82-84 degrees F while adult bows prefer temps around 75/76 F.

[saganco]

Originally Posted by TheXman

Yes, moving the spawning mop every 7-10 days to a nursery tank will most likely work great. They seem to prefer the mops to live plants for spawning ...
but you'll get a lot more fry moving the eggs/mop to their own tank, especially since the fry will grow much better at temperatures around 82-84 degrees F while adult bows prefer temps around 75/76 F.

Hmmm, most of my tanks are in the 79-81 degree range - just because of the plant lights. The adults seem to do fine in that range, but perhaps might not be spawning (I wouldn't know because IF they were, any fry would be immediately eaten before I would see them). So, I guess I'll try the spawning mops, then keep moving them to small nursery tanks to change out every 7-10 days. I appreciate your extra help Xman!

[TheXman]

Originally Posted by saganco

Hmmm, most of my tanks are in the 79-81 degree range - just because of the plant lights. The adults seem to do fine in that range, but perhaps might not be spawning (I wouldn't know because IF they were, any fry would be immediately eaten before I would see them). So, I guess I'll try the spawning mops, then keep moving them to small nursery tanks to change out every 7-10 days. I appreciate your extra help Xman!

My tanks get up there too, at least during the summer. I wouldn't necessarily say that it's harmful to them to have the tank at 79-81, but I try not to let the adult rainbow tank get any hotter than that. I've heard that they are less susceptible to disease at 75-76 degrees and that they have better luck with spawning too, but it might not matter for your fish, I wouldn't be surprised if they spawned when the tank was at 80.

[saganco]

Yeah, they seem to do fine in the warmer water. I sold some plants from that tank when it was "at least" 78 in the daytime - and the gal just emailed me to tell me she has "mystery fish" in her tank now! I did have to kick the tank up to 84 for two weeks to get rid of an infection - but did loose two of the female rainbows - don't know if the infection got them (never saw it on them), or if the heat did it. But we're back down to 78 and all are fine again. Funny huh?

[TheXman]

Originally Posted by saganco

Yeah, they seem to do fine in the warmer water. I sold some plants from that tank when it was "at least" 78 in the daytime - and the gal just emailed me to tell me she has "mystery fish" in her tank now! I did have to kick the tank up to 84 for two weeks to get rid of an infection - but did loose two of the female rainbows - don't know if the infection got them (never saw it on them), or if the heat did it. But we're back down to 78 and all are fine again. Funny huh?

I think that 78 degrees is fine, and I'm not surprised that they spawned at that temperature. Some rainbowfish people will tell you 75-76, others will say 73-80. Like I said, my tank stays up in the high seventies during the summer and sometimes gets over 81. I haven't seen any detrimental effects on the fish, but I start putting frozen bottles of water in the sump to try to control the temp when It gets that hot. My heater is set to 76, so that's the temp it's at in the winter. I figure in the wild these fish experience seasonal temperature changes greater than these, going over 81 in the summer and below 76 in the winter, so they should do fine with the changes ocurring in my aquarium. Some people with heavy fish loads and less aeration may have low oxygen problems in the summer exasperated by higher temps, but I have a trickle filter that aerates the water very well, so it's not a problem for me.