Bosemani Rainbows Fighting

[Louiseness]

Hi guys,

Wonder if you can help me with this.

I've currently got a shoal of 6 juvenile bosemani rainbows living in my 100L. I bought them in two groups but from the same shop within about a week of each other, and I've had them for about 2 or 3 months.

They're about 2 inches long, and only display tiny bits of colouration now and then (a couple of dark stripes or sheen of yellow) except one which constantly has a yellow tail and often gets blue on his (its?) head.

They've been doing the usual chasing and posturing since I had them but I just got a text from my other half (I'm at work ) saying the most colourful fish and another fish were 'black' and fighting pretty viciously, apparently it had already gone on for over 2 minutes.

I'm guessing these two at least are males and this is fairly normal male fighting? I'm not there so i can't see how much damage they're doing. I thought it might be a good idea to net out one and seperate him for a bit if they carry on, then reintroduce later and see if they calm down?

Oh and the tank is fairly well planted with vallis, swords and java fern, plus bogwood, plantpots etc.

Any advice?

 

[fluttermoth]

It's quite common for male rainbows to fight, but they rarely do any real damage. All you can do is keep an eye on things and if they get too rough, net one out, as you suggested.

Hope things clam down later!

 

[Louiseness]

It's quite common for male rainbows to fight, but they rarely do any real damage. All you can do is keep an eye on things and if they get too rough, net one out, as you suggested.

Hope things clam down later!

Yep, when I got home they were all shoaling together acting like nothing had ever happened

The other half took a video and they were really headbutting and circling each other but I did a quick check over them all and there's not even a scale missing - typical men!

 

[ZoddyZod]

slightly off-topic, but are you aware that these fish need considerable swimming room? They really need a 4t to provide them enough space.

 

[Louiseness]

slightly off-topic, but are you aware that these fish need considerable swimming room? They really need a 4t to provide them enough space.

Yup, certainly am When I was researching them a lot of sources said 3ft was fine, but now I have them a 4ft or more is definitely on the agenda, was looking on ebay yesterday actually! Until they get their new house I'm keeping on top of testing their water regularly (every couple of days) and lots of big water changes to keep them growing as they should

 

[ZoddyZod]

Yup, certainly am When I was researching them a lot of sources said 3ft was fine, but now I have them a 4ft or more is definitely on the agenda, was looking on ebay yesterday actually! Until they get their new house I'm keeping on top of testing their water regularly (every couple of days) and lots of big water changes to keep them growing as they should

enjoy the eBay hunt. I just finished my own hunt on Sunday.

Also, have you tried Gumtree.....bargains can be found on there.

 

[Louiseness]

enjoy the eBay hunt. I just finished my own hunt on Sunday.

Also, have you tried Gumtree.....bargains can be found on there.

yeah, i've been looking at most of the normal places - preloved, gumtree, freecycle, ebay, etc etc. The main problem I'm finding is that I can get a bargainous 5ft tank - full of fish, usually marine, and tons of rock to move too

Or a great cheap tank but it's 200 miles from me

Last time I went ebaying for tanks (when I upgraded to my 3 footer) I got the 3ft for cheap.....and a cheap 50L....and a cheap 60L that came with another 60L for free....I'm dangerous

 

[ZoddyZod]

patience is the key.

Took me about 4 weeks of hunting before I found one that was close enough, affordable and was the right colour (wife insistence)

 

[ChilliPepper]

A bigger tank doesn't always make them happier. I bought mine a brand spanking new 4x2x2, planted it up etc, they hated it. Much prefer my planted 3ft. Don't ask me why....

Anyway, I've never seen my 'bows fighting and I have loads of the blighters... The males square up to each other as is common in most male species of animal, but never witnessed proper aggression.

 

[Louiseness]

A bigger tank doesn't always make them happier. I bought mine a brand spanking new 4x2x2, planted it up etc, they hated it. Much prefer my planted 3ft. Don't ask me why....

Anyway, I've never seen my 'bows fighting and I have loads of the blighters... The males square up to each other as is common in most male species of animal, but never witnessed proper aggression.

My other half took a video - I don't know what started it but they were really pissed off with each other. They were doing that tight nose-to tail circling, locking mouths, chasing and body slamming each other. I guess since the most colourful fish also looked like he was 'winning' that it was some sort of dominance thing. Guess I'll know soon enough which are going to turn out to be males at least!

 

[ChilliPepper]

A bigger tank doesn't always make them happier. I bought mine a brand spanking new 4x2x2, planted it up etc, they hated it. Much prefer my planted 3ft. Don't ask me why....

Anyway, I've never seen my 'bows fighting and I have loads of the blighters... The males square up to each other as is common in most male species of animal, but never witnessed proper aggression.

My other half took a video - I don't know what started it but they were really pissed off with each other. They were doing that tight nose-to tail circling, locking mouths, chasing and body slamming each other. I guess since the most colourful fish also looked like he was 'winning' that it was some sort of dominance thing. Guess I'll know soon enough which are going to turn out to be males at least!

What's your male to female ratio? Maybe you haven't got many females, which is why the boy's are at logger heads. My boys flash at each other etc in the mornings during spawning, but it's never nasty.

 

[Louiseness]

What's your male to female ratio? Maybe you haven't got many females, which is why the boy's are at logger heads. My boys flash at each other etc in the mornings during spawning, but it's never nasty.

This is the thing, I'm not sure. They're about 1 1/2 in - 2 in max at the moment, and apart from the one with the yellow tail they all look exactly the same - silvery-grey, occasionally showing yellow sheen or some dark-blue vertical stripes when they're chasing/playing.

When the lights are off they do go darker but only one colours up to half yellow/half blue. The rest seem to go anywhere between dark greyish-blue all over, or a really uneven mixture of navy blue and creamy-yellowish colours. Just really badly bred boys? All girls? Any tips on sexing other than colour?

 

[ChilliPepper]

What's your male to female ratio? Maybe you haven't got many females, which is why the boy's are at logger heads. My boys flash at each other etc in the mornings during spawning, but it's never nasty.

This is the thing, I'm not sure. They're about 1 1/2 in - 2 in max at the moment, and apart from the one with the yellow tail they all look exactly the same - silvery-grey, occasionally showing yellow sheen or some dark-blue vertical stripes when they're chasing/playing.

When the lights are off they do go darker but only one colours up to half yellow/half blue. The rest seem to go anywhere between dark greyish-blue all over, or a really uneven mixture of navy blue and creamy-yellowish colours. Just really badly bred boys? All girls? Any tips on sexing other than colour?

Well it sounds on the face of it you may have all boys, and the colourful one is the alpha male. You should be able to get more of an idea of sex around 2" big. It's very hard to tell their sex in the LFS as they are always so dull, but when you get them home they should colour right up.

Have you got any pics?

Oh, just to add, females have a vertical stripe and males are half blue and half orangey yellow. They should be quite yellowy by now.

 

[Louiseness]

Have you got any pics?

Oh, just to add, females have a vertical stripe and males are half blue and half orangey yellow. They should be quite yellowy by now.

Here we go (sorry about rubbish phone pics!):

You can see the most colourful fish to the right here - this is the only one out of six that shows this 50/50 split.

The other 5 - they all look pretty much the same, mostly showing some sort of lengthwise stripe.

Closeup of some gold/yellow stripeyness. Some others have a grey/blue stripe in the same area as you might be able to see in the previous pic.

Any ideas?

 

[ChilliPepper]

Looks like you have one male and the rest female. Could be the male trying to persuade the female to mate and not really going about it the best way