Dwarf Neon Rainbows

[sussexgirl]

You can see from my signature what I have in my main tank. I am stocked to capacity now and after posting and receiving advice on the forums here I decided that my final two fish would be dwarf neon rainbows rather than the dwarf gouramis I had previoulsy decided on. Just so you know, when my platy fry have reached maturity I'll be taking them to my LFS and I will be putting my neon tetras into the 28L tank permenantly. I do maintainance on my tanks weekly, check my water, gravel vac and 20% water change.

My 130L tank's dimension are: 62W x 38D x 72H cm

I asked the guy at the LFS all about dwarf neon rainbows and he assured me that you can put two males together with no agression issues whatsoever as they're very placid and an ideal community fish. He said they would be fine in my tank and that my PH 7.4 would be fine for them, although the softer the water the better their colour would be. He told me that he believed my chosen fish were one female and one male. However, after reading this I'm confused........both fish have deep red edging to their fins although one is much more slender than the other. They are dashing round the tank chasing one another and I'm worried that there will be potential agression issues.

Do you think they will be ok in my tank?
Do you reckon I have two males?

I'd post a photo of them but my husband has left our camera at work

 

[STEVIE]

Only males have red fins.Females have yellow to orange fins are aren't so blue.
I've kept males together with no problem but only with a group of females.I think you have one male that is bullying the other male.

 

[brittlestar]

However, after reading this I'm confused........both fish have deep red edging to their fins although one is much more slender than the other. They are dashing round the tank chasing one another and I'm worried that there will be potential agression issues.

Do you think they will be ok in my tank?
Do you reckon I have two males?

Yes I think you have two males, also he should have told you that rainbows are a shoaling fish and realy need to be kept in groups of something like 3 females to one male. If you are overstocked and cannot add more females, then return the two rainbows to the shop.

 

[sylvia]

If you were to keep the rainbows in a large enough group, sex would be entirely irrelevant as the aggression is split between them all. You'll actualy probably find most rainbows (of any species) sold at your LFS are male because they are more brightly colored. Having said that, this species - Melanotaenia preacox - is one where both sexes are brightly colored.

 

[sussexgirl]

If you were to keep the rainbows in a large enough group, sex would be entirely irrelevant as the aggression is split between them all. You'll actualy probably find most rainbows (of any species) sold at your LFS are male because they are more brightly colored. Having said that, this species - Melanotaenia preacox - is one where both sexes are brightly colored.

I had read that this species has been bred so that now females in some cases are demonstrating the red fins also. The guy in the LFS was adament that he was giving me a male and female. I've had them for 4 days now and they seem to be getting on just fine. They've stopped chasing each other round and the smaller one seems to be content to just follow the bigger one around. I'm hoping that they'll be ok together. I'm loathe to return them because they are the fish that I really love in my aquarium and they're both so beautiful.

 

[vix]

Males have red finnage, females have noticably paler yellow to orange finnage. I started off with a male and female and they bred. I now have a little shoal of baby rainbows where as i can tell i have 1 male and 6 females just by looking at the finnage colour.