I Love Rainbow Behavior!

[trojannemo]

just wanted to post cause i'm excited about my new purchases.
i've had about 5 different species of rainbow this far, and by far my favorites are the Turquoise and the Boesemani.
my original two (amazing specimens by the way) died unfortunately when an axelrodi rainbow i got some months back brought a bout of disease that killed most of my big fish (rainbows & angels specially).
anyways, they were both replaced with another set of Boesemani and Turquoise males, but unlike before, this time the Boesemani established itself as the dominant one rather than the Turquoise, as had happened before.

yesterday I went and got another set, so now i have two Turquoise and two Boesemani males...and now they all swim together flashing their heads off trying to establish who the new boss is going to be its hilarious i think...i just hope it doesn't harm them to be flashing so much. hopefully they'll decide their places soon and then just be pals like my other rainbows have been.

i know, useless post...but i really like my rainbows Elizabeth II, Bishop II, Steven and Carl

 

[Colin_T]

you named your fish

if you want nice rainbowfish that get big look for Glossolepis incisus, G. wanamensis, Melanotaenia herbertaxelrodi & Chilatherina bleheri.
smaller rainbows that are nice include Melanotaenia praecox, maccullochi, sexlineata, exquisita, nigrans, Rhadinocentrus ornatus & Pseudomugil signifer.

you can also check out the following website for more info and pics of rainbows.

http/members.optushome.com.au/chelmon/Melano.htm

 

[Gazoo]

you can also check out the following website for more info and pics of rainbows.

[URL="http/members.optushome.com.au/chelmon/Melano.htm"]http/members.optushome.com.au/chelmon/Melano.htm[/URL]

Wow, the pictures are nice.

Until recent, I never gave rainbows much attention because I thought their body shape was odd. I'm glad I got over that and can now see how beautiful they are.

 

[kingey]

my tourquoise rainbows have just started flashing their head crest thingys alot again and have reminded me how beautifull thet are.
i dont understand why more people dont keep them

 

[Colin_T]

People don't keep rainbows because they don't know about them, and when they see them in the shop the fish are small and silver. So most people walk past the tank and look at the neons and guppies instead. If the same people are shown adult rainbowfish they usually don't believe the small silver things will turn into the blue, red & yellows of the adults.

 

[trojannemo]

thanks for the replies...i went through the list of fish with my fiancee and we would like two of each of the following:

Kangaroo Creek Rainbow Fish
Incisus (Salmon Red) Rainbow Fish
Lake Tebera Rainbow (Melanotaenia Herbertaxelrodi)

problem is i dont know of anywhere to buy them from never seen any of those in my local stores, though most of them say they'll "custom-order" so maybe i'll look into that.

any ideas of online stores to buy these guys from that'll ship to the US? i found an Australian site that has amazing rainbows (including the above) but they only ship within Australia

 

[Colin_T]

you will have to find a place in the US to buy them from. There are a number of rainbowfish societies in America and most of them have members that are willing to sell or exchange fish. Perhaps contact them or your local aquarium society.

The male red rainbows are red but the females are silver to bronze in colour.
Kangaroo Creeks are Australian and might not be available in the US. The other 2 species are from New Guinea and should be readily available.

 

[trojannemo]

thanks for the info.
i'm passing by a couple of private LFS that i buy from, see what rainbows they have and what they can custom order for me...i'll update you guys if i get anything exotic!

 

[trojannemo]

you will have to find a place in the US to buy them from. There are a number of rainbowfish societies in America and most of them have members that are willing to sell or exchange fish. Perhaps contact them or your local aquarium society.

The male red rainbows are red but the females are silver to bronze in colour.
Kangaroo Creeks are Australian and might not be available in the US. The other 2 species are from New Guinea and should be readily available.

well after many different visits i returned to the store where i got my last two rainbows from and this time walked away with 2 G. incisus and 1 M. herbertalxerodi! i wanted two of the axels but only one available...shipment comes in on Thursday and so will I!

i didnt remember this post when at the store...reading it again now, how do i know if the ones i got are females or just discolored/immature males? they definetively have red in their scales, but they dont look anything like the full-blown reds i see on online pictures...i attributed this to the fact that fish out of the LFS never look as good as they will in a home tank, but your post makes me wonder if i ended up with two females instead? if it helps, the two i got were the "reddest" two of the tank full of G. incisus...what's the likelihood of the LFS having an all-female tank without a sign?

lastly, i need names for the red guys/girls!

so far i have Elizabeth II and Carl (M. boesemani), Bishop II and Steven (M. lacustris), Herbert [and Axel when I get the second one] (M. herbertaxelrodi)...but i'm coming up short on ideas for the red guys. i thought at first of Mars and Mercury but my fiancee is adamant that i not use those names as we have this thing going on where we name our male bettas after greek and roman gods, and so no other fish can have those names

 

[Colin_T]

Male Glossolepis incisus have red, females don't have any red.
G. incisus are silver when young and as they start to mature (when about 2inches long) the males start to show red fins and get a few red scales. As they get older, (1-1.5yrs) then they start to go completely red. By the time they are 2yrs old they should be very deep/ high in the body and have the classic shape you see in pictures.
The females go bronze as they mature and stay slender.

If you are going to get the fish on the day they come in, get them straight out of the esky/ shipping box. If the shop puts them into a tank and then you take them out of the tank and put them into yours, it will stress them a lot. Find out when the shipment is coming in and be there waiting for it. Then get the fish before they go into the shop tanks and take them straight home. Otherwise leave the fish at the shop for a week to recover from the transit and then get them.

 

[trojannemo]

these guys are definetively male then!

when i got my m. boesemani from them (the second one) i got it right out of the shipping bag as well. i had already had a yellow variation of the M. boesemani, and i noticed in the bag they had the orange one, so i adamant about getting THAT one with time and good food i hope i was right and this one turns orange like my original boesemani that passed away.

anyways, so now we know my G. incisus are males...what to call them?

 

[Colin_T]

anyways, so now we know my G. incisus are males...what to call them?

Bill & Ben

 

[trojannemo]

thanks for the suggestion...i'll run that by my girl as all decisions have to be mutually agreed upon you know

i was gonna make a new thread, but since you're so helpful and seem to know so much, i'll just ask you here!

i'm thinking of getting a rainbow book or two...anything in particular you would suggest?

i was thinking about this one from AquaLog
amazon link

this is the short version of their more extensive one. is it worth it to spend the extra $44 for the bigger edition? or is there another better book you'd recommend? i'm looking for something that is shockful of pictures that will help in identifying species and also has information regarding the care of each species and ideal habitat and stuff...you know, the type of stuff we'd look up online but on a book form...

any suggestions appreciated!

 

[Colin_T]

The Aqualog books have lots of nice pictures but not a lot of info about the fish. Also many of the pictures appear to be "enhanced", at least I think they have been. The colours just aren't right on many of the fish. They are too colourful.
The 2nd edition of the Aqualog rainbowfish is much better than the first one. It has lots more pages and pictures. But it does cost more. They are nice books if you want to look at pictures but the book I like best is

Rainbowfishes in Nature and in the Aquarium
By Gerald R Allen
Published by Tetra in 1995
ISBN: 1-56465-149-5

this book has most of the rainbowfish from Australia and New Guinea and covers the Pseudomugils, Glossolepis, Chilatherina, Melantotaenia and all the others. Unfortunately not every fish is in the book because new species have been discovered since it was written. However, it does cover the majority and has heaps of info on each species including where they come from, size, water conditions, and shows a nice normal picture of each species.

The other place to go for info, and this is up to date is Adrian Tappin's rainbowfish site, see the following link.

[URL="http/members.optushome.com.au/chelmon/Contents.htm"]http/members.optushome.com.au/chelmon/Contents.htm[/URL]

you can also check out
www.angfa.org.au

ANGFA is the Australian New Guinea Fishes association and they were the first society to start keeping and researching rainbowfish from the Australia/ New guinea region.
You can become a member of ANGFA and they send you out a couple of booklets each year with info about new fishes found in Australia & New Guinea.

 

[trojannemo]

The Aqualog books have lots of nice pictures but not a lot of info about the fish. Also many of the pictures appear to be "enhanced", at least I think they have been. The colours just aren't right on many of the fish. They are too colourful.
The 2nd edition of the Aqualog rainbowfish is much better than the first one. It has lots more pages and pictures. But it does cost more. They are nice books if you want to look at pictures but the book I like best is

Rainbowfishes in Nature and in the Aquarium
By Gerald R Allen
Published by Tetra in 1995
ISBN: 1-56465-149-5

this book has most of the rainbowfish from Australia and New Guinea and covers the Pseudomugils, Glossolepis, Chilatherina, Melantotaenia and all the others. Unfortunately not every fish is in the book because new species have been discovered since it was written. However, it does cover the majority and has heaps of info on each species including where they come from, size, water conditions, and shows a nice normal picture of each species.

The other place to go for info, and this is up to date is Adrian Tappin's rainbowfish site, see the following link.

<a href="http/members.optushome.com.au/chelmon/Contents.htm" target="_blank">http/members.optushome.com.au/chelmon/Contents.htm</a>

you can also check out
www.angfa.org.au

ANGFA is the Australian New Guinea Fishes association and they were the first society to start keeping and researching rainbowfish from the Australia/ New guinea region.
You can become a member of ANGFA and they send you out a couple of booklets each year with info about new fishes found in Australia & New Guinea.

yeah i had already learned that the most respected book was by Allen, but i was hesitant due to its age...but you're not the first one to suggest it, so i guess that'll be one of the books. maybe i'll complement it with one of the smaller but newer volumes i found in amazon as well.
i do check Adrian Tappin's site, it's great, but unfortunately i cant take it with me to the LFS when looking for rainbows!

thanks for your suggestions, i'll look into ANGFA as well