Hello And Praecox Question

[kinabalu]

First of all Hi!! I have been reading the forum for a while and am looking forward to hopefully taking an active part here.

I have recently invested in a new Juwel Rio 240 and am looking forward to stocking it shortly (after correct cycling of course). I would ideally like a shoal of 10-12 dwarf neon rainbows as they are truly stunning fish. However, in my previous 2 tanks (a rekord 70 and 120) I have tried a group of 6 and have always had one male become dominant and violent towards the others (especially the females) resulting in the death of 3 fish. I observed breeding in the 70L (even saw a few fry which eventually disappeared). In both cases the fish were separated and returned to the store (for their own safety). As mentioned I'm hoping to try again with these fish in the larger tank and as part of a larger group (and as I'm now living in Switzerland maybe the fish are more chilled here ). I was wondering if anyone else had experienced this behavior with this species as most sources list them as very peaceful fish or if anyone had any advice. I'm also planning on adding 4 red line torpedos, a pair of bristlenoses, a shoal of tetras (probably cardinals) and rummynoses or Odessa barbs (to build a complete tank over 12 months or so). Alternates to this list include a smaller shoal of blue rainbowfish (I love these but can find no source for them) a pair of rams (would wait at least 12 months for the tank to establish) or an oscar (just kidding!!!!).

Any advice or alternate stocking suggestions would be appreciated (especially for a highly oxygenated, well filtered, strong current, planted setup)

cheers

 

[Liam]

I have kept them for a number of years in the past and have had them again for six months, the first time a shoal of eight this time six, with equal numbers of males and females. The males do fight and one male will dominate but I have never noticed the behaviour you describe, sometimes females will hide out in the plants if the males are trying to drive them to spawn. I honestly dont know why yours behaved as they did, but I expect a larger tank with lots of plants and wood for hiding should help and with larger numbers they should be okay. I have never heard of that level of aggression in them before so I am stumped. Cardinals are fine with them. I dont know about the other fish though.

 

[n3ont3tra]

I had 3 in a 29g tank... big mistake.

They were VERY skittish. Whenever I walked up to the tank they would all freak out... One got a fungal infection. Another one disappeared. I had 2 males, 1 female (got them online, couldn't choose). Now I have one male. I'm bringing him to the LFS as soon as I can.

 

[joecoral]

i have a group of 16 in my rio 180 and they get on fine
i've not noticed much aggression, and they dont seem to be at all skittish
maybe its because i have a reasonably large number, or perhaps im just lucky

 

[indigoj]

I've got 6, 3 males 3 females and they are a really friendly group. A bit of fighting but nothing major, plenty of space for the females to hide out if they need to. They are very bold too and will eat from my fingers!

I think they would be fine with any peaceful shoaling fish. Mine were fine with tiger barbs (who all sadly died in a power surge) and are fine with Rams, Corys, Loaches and Killifish.

As far as I know most Rainbows will live happily side by side. In a different tank I have Bosemanis, Reds and a Lone New Guinea Rainbow who I need to find a pal for, they all shoal together and are stunning to watch.