[Studman0143]

The Pseudomugil furcatus or Forktail Blue-Eye/Forktail Rainbowfish/Blue-Eye Rainbowfish (I'd hate to have so many names) caught my eye the first day I saw it in a beautiful display tank at my LFS. So, I will have me some.

Here's my question
How many should I get and best M/F ratio?

What you should know before answering:
This is my very first! big tank. I have two 10G planted, but they are pretty mellow and have basic tetras and platy's.

My new project is a 29G that will be moderately planted (is the plan). I plan on including driftwood and rocks, creating several caves/hiding places for the inhabitants.

I plan on keeping some sort of Gourami (Honey, Powder Blue, the smaller ones) one or two other species of fish, probably some sort of tetra or other fish similar in size. There will also be Cherry Shrimp, Amano Shrimp, Panda or Julii Cory's, and possibly some Oto's.

I know the breeding habits of the Pseudomugil furcatus and I understand I may not have success with that in my tank, but for now, that isn't my concern. I'd rather try to become successful at keeping them and the plants alive first. And obviously the Males are much prettier than the females. But...even though I'm not breeding them, is it a good idea to have more females than males? That is what I have read, but that is mostly suggested for breeding purposes.

I have also read up on the Pseudomugil gertrudae & Pseudomugil signifer, both of which are great fish, by I just have easier access to the P. furcatus

Thanks!

 

[nkambae]

ol' blue eyes...

I have a group of fifteen or so Pseudomugil getrudae in a ten gallon and they are doing quite well. I don't know what the sex ratio is but it doesn't seem to matter to the fish. There are enough of them that, if there is any aggression, they seem to be easily distracted from chasing each other. They are constantly displaying for each other and doing the randy rainbow rut. I would say get as many of them as you can afford and sit back and enjoy the show. Good luck.

stu

 

[kuni]

Mine were horrible vicious little things. The males would kill each other off, until I was left with all my females and only a handful of males. I saw a similar phenomenon at a LFS with them.

Oddly, adding dwarf neon rainbows to my tank helped a lot. The Pseudomugil would display at dwarf rainbow males instead of to other Pseudomugil, and the larger rainbows were just larger enough to not be affected. I just wish I had done that back when I had 15 males instead of 3...

 

[Studman0143]

Thank you very much for the feedback, unfortunately, it's mixed, haha.

It will be a 29G, so maybe that'll be big enough to have 10-15 of them with more Males (since they are better looking). I would hope they'd be distracted enough in there, just a hope though. The owner of the LFS could give me advice on those in his display tank....if I could ever actually run into him there.

Any other experiences out there?

 

[Firescaper]

If you have an open tank, make sure to leave at least an inch on top unfilled - they are great jumpers. I had 8, 6 jumped, always around the time of lights turning on or off when they'd decide it's time to seize a little bit. Now I know better and leave plenty of space on top.

All mine are/were males, they would chase each other sometimes but I never saw any real aggression. Beautiful fish. Enjoy!

 

[Studman0143]

If you have an open tank, make sure to leave at least an inch on top unfilled - they are great jumpers. I had 8, 6 jumped, always around the time of lights turning on or off when they'd decide it's time to seize a little bit. Now I know better and leave plenty of space on top.

All mine are/were males, they would chase each other sometimes but I never saw any real aggression. Beautiful fish. Enjoy!

Thank you! It's good to know that you had all males and it worked out alright. That has been my biggest worry with these guys. Right now I don't have a cover for the top. I was planning on going and getting a custom cut piece of Plexiglas or something like that, looks like I will need to do it for sure now.