rainbow fish question

7599 Views 15 Replies 6 Participants Last post by fresh_lynny, Feb 3, 2007

RachPreach

Discussion Starter · Jan 30, 2007

I recently lost one of my female rainbow fish for reasons unknown. The remaining rainbow fish are a pair of turquiose rainbows, 1 orange male(unsure of the name), 1 neon rainbow with the orange fins(male or female?), and one red and black striped rainbow which i think is a female. All of these had a mate at one point in time and they have died and now I am down to just one actual pair. The female I just lost was paired with the orange male. She looked a little mutalated so im not sure if they beat her up or what. Considering the male to female ratio now, is it safe? How do rainbow fish behave when there is no male/female for them?

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mistergreen

· #2 · Jan 30, 2007

rainbows can be pretty vicious acutally... i had 4, but now there is 1. The one male harrassed the other guys to death. He's the only rainbow in my tank for 4 years now.

here's his mug.

they need lots of space and a big female/male ratio.. 2:1 or 3:1 . more would be best.

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RachPreach

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jan 30, 2007

so is that why my female propably died? BTW thats a scarey mug shot..lol

Maazo

· #4 · Jan 30, 2007

Bows also are better if they're kept in a group of at least six, preferably of the one species. You can get away with mixing them up though. And mistergreen is right, I'd say at least 2 females to every male.

How big is your tank, and how densely planted? I kept rainbows in my 3 footer for a while, but they never looked entirely happy. It was also VERY densely planted, which cut down further on open swimming space for them.

RachPreach

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jan 30, 2007

i have a 55g and no live plants. I have a couple of pieces of driftwood but thats about it. So do rainbows breed with different kinds than what they are? also is my neon rainbow with the orange tail, is he a male or female?

RachPreach

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jan 30, 2007

im also worried about the rest my rainbowfish. LIke i said, i have a male and female turquiose, one neon(dont know if m or f), an orange male, and a red/black female. what should i do?

mistergreen

· #7 · Jan 31, 2007

keep the ones you have now... i don't know if you have enough space for more raindows... If you do, just get 1 species... 5 or six of them.

Maazo

· #8 · Jan 31, 2007

RachPreach said:
i have a 55g and no live plants. I have a couple of pieces of driftwood but thats about it. So do rainbows breed with different kinds than what they are? also is my neon rainbow with the orange tail, is he a male or female?

Depending on how closely related certain species are, they can interbreed, but not as a rule. For example I've seen some hybrids between some Glossolepis species, but this may be down to some tricky taxomony stuff - I don't know. Hybrids are generally frowned upon, but that really only a concern if you're breeding in order to sell/distribute them.

I'd say your Neon (Melanotaenia praecox) is a female. Males will always have red find, while females can vary between red through yellow.

If it was me I'd try and trade in your orange one (possibly Melanotaenia parkinsoni) and your red and black striped one (I'm not even going to have a crack at that one!

) and your Neon for a few more Turquioses (Melanotaenia lacustris). The males of those put on a brilliant display when in condition - their nose flashes yellow for 1-2 seconds at a time. Very cool.

OR, I'd ditch all but you neon and get a small shoal of them.

But I'd doubt you'll get much luck breeding them. They really do require some sort of plant life in the tank for them to be happy. But I've been wrong before and will be manay more times before I die!

Check this site out if you haven't seen it before; Home of the Rainbowfish Contents

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RachPreach

Discussion Starter · #9 · Jan 31, 2007

yeah my turquiose male does display some great colors to the female but she is never interested in him..lol. If I do trade them in, how many males/females should I get? I dont want to many becuase I have two of the kind that are yellow blue and orange...starts with a B?? anyway I have two of them(not sure if they are male or female??) that hatched and they are about an inch long in my 10 gallon. I plan to put them in the 55 gallon once they get bigger. Let me know!!

Maazo

· #10 · Jan 31, 2007

As I said, you should aim for at least six, so I'd try for another male and a few more females. However, once you start getting six or more of one species, the male to female ratio becomes less important, although I'd still aim for more females than males.

Your baby bows might be Boesemani's - a truly beautiful fish. If it were me in that case I'd be tempted to trade them all in and get a shoal of them.

I can't tell you what to do though, I can only say what I'd do in your shoes. The first thing I'd do is get some plants into that tank, even if it's just Val or java fern. Also Java moss or a fine-leaved stem plant can get them in the mood. I remember adding java moss and some Rotala wallichi and my alpha Boesemani went nuts and was trying to mate with anything that moved, and the females dug it too. The tank inhabitants ate all the eggs, but I don't have any fry-raising facility, so I wasn't fussed.

Color Me Blue

· #11 · Jan 31, 2007

OMG!! The phrase: "What big teeth you have!" comes to mind. LOL You sure that isn't a pirahna? hehehe

RachPreach

Discussion Starter · #12 · Feb 1, 2007

yes i have java moss in there and lots of fake plants(i know sin on me). I definitely could add some vals I have from my 100 gallon.

So I do want to get rid of my neon, orange, and black&red rainbow, but definitely not my pair of turquiose! I have had them too long! So I could get 2 more turquiose rainbows and then just add my two boesemanis and that would give me:
3 turq. females
1 turq. male
2 boes unknowns as of now...lol

How does that sound???

Maazo

· #13 · Feb 1, 2007

I think you could get away with that.

The plants really are important because you'll almost always have a dominant male and other fish will need a place to rest even if only for a few seconds. Lacustris (turquoise) and Boesemanis are quite similar in my expereince (the onle lacustris I had was mixed in as a juvenile with the rest of my Boesemanis!!) and should mix pretty well.

RachPreach

Discussion Starter · #14 · Feb 3, 2007

ok good well ill do that then.

Betowess

· #15 · Feb 3, 2007

Rach, I have 2 adult male Boesemani and 4 near adult Boesemani (3 males and one female) and three adult male Turquoise - and they all get along fine. No major bullying, just typical Rainbow flashing. I hear people say they can be aggresive, but none of mine have ever shown that behaviour. They have never bothered the plants... They get along fine with Corys, Black Neon Tetras, Clowns, Neon Tetras, Kuhulii loaches, even Amano shrimp etc., no problems at all in a 90 gallon tank. Those are my pair of adult Boesemanis in my avatar picture, BTW.

fresh_lynny

· #16 · Feb 3, 2007

As many have heard from me, my large male Bosemani systematically ate 30 Amanos, killed 7 red line sharks,3 corys, 4 female rainbows and 2 pregnant swordtails before I sold him to my LFS. I know people say they are docile and calm community fish, but other than the 8 featherfin rainbows I have in my tank, I will not get anymore.

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