[RainSong]

I have been looking for Red Rainbowfish for my 90 gallon planted tank. Yesterday, I bought two Red "Pearl" Rainbowfish at my LFS. I got home and did some research only to find that this is not a real species! That ticked me off.

The two fish seemed to have settled in fine. However, this morning, I find one of them had turned a bright yellow and was being very very aggressive and territorial towards all the other fish in the tank. I am not sure if this is normal behavior and will abate. All my other Rainbows (4 Boesmani and 2 Turquoise) are very peaceful.

Based on both of the above, I am tempted to return these fish. Your thoughts?

 

[rlswaney73]

Thought I read somewhere that is a hybrid (Red "Pearl" Rainbowfish) out of Singapore. Dont know much more than that though...

 

[wendyjo]

Perhaps they are unhappy in such small numbers. Many schooling fish will become aggressive if not kept in proper schools.

 

[farrenator]

The change in color and the time of day probably indicates spawning behavior. My rainbows get that way in the morning and sometimes during the evening. I have never had any real problems with this since I always had a minimum of 5 of the same species and made sure to have males and females. You likely have males since many LFS don't sell females (look drab compared to males). It is important to have male and female rainbows so the males don't take out their aggression on other fish. I would either return the males or get some females in there. I seriously doubt their behavior will abate.

That being said, I was able to keep one sexed pair of M. Splendida Inornata. BUT they were a pair and the male displayed to the female only. While the males of the different species occassionally pushed each other around, nothing came of it. At the time I kept:

2 pairs of M. Boesmani
1 pair M. Splendida Inornata
3 male Lacustris + 4 female Lacustris
2 male Kamaka + 5 female Kamaka

A great resource for doing some research on rainbows is this excellent site: http://rainbowfish.angfaqld.org.au/Contents.htm

I have been looking for Red Rainbowfish for my 90 gallon planted tank. Yesterday, I bought two Red "Pearl" Rainbowfish at my LFS. I got home and did some research only to find that this is not a real species! That ticked me off.

The two fish seemed to have settled in fine. However, this morning, I find one of them had turned a bright yellow and was being very very aggressive and territorial towards all the other fish in the tank. I am not sure if this is normal behavior and will abate. All my other Rainbows (4 Boesmani and 2 Turquoise) are very peaceful.

Based on both of the above, I am tempted to return these fish. Your thoughts?