Experiences On Rainbowfish.

[Fish are friends]

Just want to see if anyone has had experiences with keeping rainbowfish. thinking about adding them to my 90l community tank, am looking to add a bit of colour and a few larger fish. I have 6 danios, 2 platies and a clown pleco.

 

[myrtle]

Beautiful fish! I have Threadfins (aka Featherfins) in my 120l and Dwarf Neons on my 240l. They are somewhat more sensitive to poor water quality than your average fish but otherwise are quite hardy. They are shoaling fish so prefer to be in slightly larger groups and you'll need a nice ratio of male to female (with my dwarf neons I have 3 male and 5 female) so they have a reason to display. Hopefully someone with a better idea of what would fit in your tank will pop along soon, but Rainbows are a fab choice, esp if you have hard water!

Edited to add that my Red eye tetra shoal with the rainbows, they are always together!

 

[Fish are friends]

went and had a look at some red tailed rainbows, I like will soon be adding a few to the tank

 

[drobbyb]

I used to breed and sell rainbows, so I know a fair bit about them. The larger species of rainbows need quite a bit of space to swim, at least 36 inches. You also have to keep at least 6 of them for them to display their natural behavior and thrive. This can take up quite a bit of space.

You could keep a small shoal of the blue eye species with your current stock though.

Be sure to check out Home of the Rainbowfish. Pretty much everything you need to know about keeping/breeding rainbows.

Forktail Blue-eye

Spotted Blue-eye

Pacific Blue-eye

 

[drobbyb]

Before you buy rainbows please read the article found here.

 

[Fish are friends]

just read the article, wow although they say rainbows are easy to keep it seems like the more natural the environment the better. I haven't quite figured out how to add pics yet, but as this is my fist attempt at fish keeping i have gone down the route of artificial plants. It looks good and serves the purpose. The advice from experienced members is fantastic. I think the type i was looking at was the Duboulay's rainbowfish, really pretty but now i am thinking i dont have a big enough tank... hmmmmm

 

[Carlovel1]

just read the article, wow although they say rainbows are easy to keep it seems like the more natural the environment the better. I haven't quite figured out how to add pics yet, but as this is my fist attempt at fish keeping i have gone down the route of artificial plants. It looks good and serves the purpose. The advice from experienced members is fantastic. I think the type i was looking at was the Duboulay's rainbowfish, really pretty but now i am thinking i dont have a big enough tank... hmmmmm

drobbyb our rainbowfish expert has given you some good links and info. Melanotaenia duboulayi will get too big for your tank so TBH you are restricted to the Blue-eye Rainbowfishes. IMO these are prettier than the large rainbows and certain species are stunning (i.e. Pseudomugil signifer or Pseudomugil furcatus or Pseudomugil gertrudae)
Goodluck finding your species!

 

[drobbyb]

Well, the OP could have a group of Threadfin Rainbows. They don't get very large and they have a fantastic display.