Can female Rainbowfish flash?

Hello...I thought I bought a female to keep my male company. My male displays his highlighter yellow strip to the female but I noticed today that she also will flash a little too. Not to the degree the male does almost like she shimmers a little. Like her blue areas turn more turquoise. I picked a fish who’s dorsal fin had a gap at the top hoping to have picked a female. She also is a lot younger than my male. He’s almost double her size.


For reference these are turquoise rainbows.

Colin is a member here with considerable experience with rainbowfish so I will leave the technical stuff to him. But one issue is important, and that is that all rainbowfish are shoaling fish, meaning they must have a group of the species. Some can get rather aggressive if this is not provided, so I would consider increasing your numbers very soon. The longer this is avoided, the more likely the fish will become aggressive and that is not reversible, plus the fish is under high stress.

A group of at least six is often suggested, but some species need more, eight or beyond. Tank size obviously factors in too, but two fish of a shoaling species is really causing trouble for the fish and this should be resolved.

Colin will undoubtedly be able to sort this out better when he sees this thread. Colin will want to know the tank size, and other fish species/numbers.

Any chance of a picture and short 30 second video of the fish?
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Female rainbowfish do not produce the dorsal blaze, (the coloured line that runs from the first dorsal fin to the top of their mouth). Only males produce it.

Young male rainbowfish will have short fins and can resemble females.

Poor quality fish (generally from lack of new bloodlines) can have shorter fins than they should and many poor quality male rainbowfish can have short fins that look like a female. The good quality rainbowfish will have longer fins. This applies to the first dorsal fin that should overlap the second dorsal fin in males, as well as the second dorsal and anal fins.

I attached a pic of the female in question. Since I got her I noticed she has white stuff on her lips. It’s been over a week. Hasn’t really gotten worse but isn’t going away. Don’t know if she had it when I bought her. Any thought?

If she does end up being a male hopefully my male will chill out soon. I’m afraid He’s going to kill that fish!

The white lip is most likely bruising from being moved into a new tank and the fish swim into objects or the glass because they are not use to the environment. It's extremely common on new rainbowfish. Do big water changes and add some salt (2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres).

Make sure you have a picture on the back and sides or let the algae grow on the back and sides.

Colin_T said:

The white lip is most likely bruising from being moved into a new tank and the fish swim into objects or the glass because they are not use to the environment. It's extremely common on new rainbowfish. Do big water changes and add some salt (2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres).

Make sure you have a picture on the back and sides or let the algae grow on the back and sides.

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Thanks. I brought the “female” turquoise back. Things seemed to have calmed down. I think my rainbow likes to be alone ranger in the tank. I added a bosemani rainbow and he seems to not be so upset about that one. I tried to get a female bosemani but pretty sure ended up being a male due to this one flashing as well. We’ll see how things go. Maybe because my rainbow has been alone for so long he likes being the king of the tank.

FishNewbie82912 said:

Thanks. I brought the “female” turquoise back. Things seemed to have calmed down. I think my rainbow likes to be alone ranger in the tank. I added a bosemani rainbow and he seems to not be so upset about that one. I tried to get a female but pretty sure ended up being a mail due to this one flashing as well. We’ll see how things go. Maybe because my rainbow has been alone for so long he likes being the king of the tank.

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Your rainbow fish is stressed out from being alone. This is a shoaling species and must have a group. The fish "expects" this because it is programmed into the species' DNA.

Having said that, adding more of this species (there should be 7-8 of them for good health) at this stage may or may not work. Once a fish is stressed such as you describe, it may not reverse.

Byron said:

Your rainbow fish is stressed out from being alone. This is a shoaling species and must have a group. The fish "expects" this because it is programmed into the species' DNA.

Having said that, adding more of this species (there should be 7-8 of them for good health) at this stage may or may not work. Once a fish is stressed such as you describe, it may not reverse.

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Yes I wish I could have 7-8. I love these rainbows! But unfortunately I’m a total newbie and when buying fish no one at PetSmart told me about rainbows being shoaling. So I only bought one since I only have a 25 gallon tank (which I also know rainbows need more - however Petsmart lists 20g on info tags ). He was bigger than any other fish I have had (guppies, mollies, danios, cories, and glo tetras). I’ve had the rainbow about 6 months. So I accidentally brought home a female molly that was pregnant apparently and that’s what sparked his crazy behavior. He was flashing like a light switch. Messed up my guppies and glo tetras tails - luckily I only lost one
guppy because he ended up with fin rot. The pregnant molly also died I think he got her pretty good by her gill. So I have since moved my 3 glo tetras and 2 guppies into a 10 gallon and they’re all happy and healing. What’s left in my big tank is the turquoise and bosemani rainbow, 3 cories, a dwarf gourami, 2 danios and 4 neon tetras. I didn’t know about schooling fish and all this when I started. I now will do research rather than impulse buying. But the turquoise has definitely chilled out quite a bit and isn’t jacking up anyone today. So time will tell. I would like to have a group of 6 danios and 6 neons but I’m not changing anything right now. My danios and neons have seemed to school up together though.