Another Rainbow Id Please :d

[Amunet]

One of the many gorgeous rainbowfish the LFS has in a display tank.
Would like to know what kind of rainbowfish it is?

Sorry for the poor quality photo. It was taken w/ a cellphone and the fish wouldn't stop moving lol

 

[myrtle]

That's the Red-Striped Rainbow, Melanotaenia splendida rubrostriata. Lovely fish and another that I'd love to have if I had more tanks...

 

[Amunet]

Thanks myrtle
I hope we'll be able to own some one day

 

[myrtle]

You've got a better chance than me as I'm in the UK and we have almost no breeders of Rainbows at all and the ones we do have (bar one) seem to be perpetuating the hybrid strains as opposed to the original ones

 

[Squidward]

You've got a better chance than me as I'm in the UK and we have almost no breeders of Rainbows at all and the ones we do have (bar one) seem to be perpetuating the hybrid strains as opposed to the original ones

My lfs has quite a variety of genuine species.
In fact I have seen quite a few at various branches of MA

 

[myrtle]

The problem is that the breeders they come from mix them up in the tanks as many juvie rainbows look alike, particularly the females! They are usually named as whatever the shop has bought them as but are very rarely full blood with the most likely true ones being the bosemani, lacustris and praecox. The most mixed up tend to be the splendida types and as they are juvenile in the shops it's not always easy to tell. I've been caught out by it myself as one of my herbertaxelrodi is definitely hybrid now that he's coloured up. I don't blame the shops, just the farmers who are negligent. The US has many breeders of full blood stock whereas the UK doesn't.