Rainbow Fish For 50G

[ChilliPepper]

Honestly, I would just buy more praecox. Some people are fans of many species of rainbows in the same tank, but personally I like larger numbers of the same species. Mixed tanks can look great. Single species tanks can be breathtaking.

How many Praecox?

 

[stiddy]

Honestly, I would just buy more praecox. Some people are fans of many species of rainbows in the same tank, but personally I like larger numbers of the same species. Mixed tanks can look great. Single species tanks can be breathtaking.

How many Praecox?

I currently have 9 Praecox with a ratio of 1 male to 3 females, They seem pretty calm till fooding time then go crazy for food. Make sure your tank is well planted so they can hide when they are skittish, it will also help to calm them down (ive found). Also make sure the plants are quite tall as they are middle dwellers. I Currently have a school of Longfin Dainos with them (7) If you want another schooling fish with the Praecox make sure its something that fast as well or they wont be getting any food. I hope this has helped.

 

[ChilliPepper]

I currently have 9 Praecox with a ratio of 1 male to 3 females, They seem pretty calm till fooding time then go crazy for food. Make sure your tank is well planted so they can hide when they are skittish, it will also help to calm them down (ive found). Also make sure the plants are quite tall as they are middle dwellers. I Currently have a school of Longfin Dainos with them (7) If you want another schooling fish with the Praecox make sure its something that fast as well or they wont be getting any food. I hope this has helped.

Thanks, what size tank do you have?

 

[ChilliPepper]

Just to update, I went for a group of 6 Praecox yesterday. Got 3 males and 3 females. Much better looking fish than I realised, even without the lights on they have a gorgeous bluey/purpley shimmer. They have livened up the tank no end, but look a little absorbed in the tank at the moment.

A different, more local LFS than the one I went to yesterday, has smaller specimens of the Praecox in as well. Was thinking to get some more, maybe next weekend. I was looking on another specialist Rainbowfish forum and it was suggested to me I could have 8-10, so was thinking of getting four more. Should I get 3 more females and one more male?

Also, what veg would they like? They had some Hikari tropical micro wafers last night, which I feed to my cichlids. They enjoyed them. Would they like a bit of lettuce or something? Any pellets you recommend? I do have some wafers somewhere but prefer pellets as they don't dissolve in the water and make it mucky.

 

[drobbyb]

Unfortunately pellets are out. While rainbows have large mouths, their throats are rather narrow. Even the large species have trouble eating pellets. I would recommend a high quality spirulina flake as a staple with frozen/live food a time or two a week. With dwarf rainbow species, stay away from bloodworms. Bloodworms have a chitinous head that can easily become lodged in the digestive tract often killing the affected fish.

 

[ChilliPepper]

Unfortunately pellets are out. While rainbows have large mouths, their throats are rather narrow. Even the large species have trouble eating pellets. I would recommend a high quality spirulina flake as a staple with frozen/live food a time or two a week. With dwarf rainbow species, stay away from bloodworms. Bloodworms have a chitinous head that can easily become lodged in the digestive tract often killing the affected fish.

I also have dwarf cichlids in the tank, so would like to give them some bloodworm occasionally as they do enjoy it. What about if I chopped up some freeze dried b/w? Also what live/frozen food can they have?
They liked the micro pellets, which as their name suggests are tiny. They are also rich in spirulina. Do I still need the flakes?

 

[drobbyb]

The freeze dried versions still have that head attached. There's no way to keep your rainbows from eating them when you fed them to your other fish, but I suspect that they would eat brine shrimp just the same, which are safe for your rainbows. I'm not sure about those pellets as I have never used them. For live food, freshly hatched baby brine shrimp, glass worms, daphnia, etc. Basically any small sized live food will work just fine.

 

[ChilliPepper]

I bought the Rainbows some spirulina flakes as you recommended, however they don't like them. Neither do my dwarf cichlids. They really, really like the pellets I give them though.

 

[drobbyb]

When introducing new foods, it's best to not feed for a couple of days, then introduce the new stuff. It's kind of like getting kids to eat their vegetables, sometimes they don't like them at first.

Mine breed on nothing but spirulina flakes supplemented with cyclops or other meaty foods.

 

[ChilliPepper]

When introducing new foods, it's best to not feed for a couple of days, then introduce the new stuff. It's kind of like getting kids to eat their vegetables, sometimes they don't like them at first.

Mine breed on nothing but spirulina flakes supplemented with cyclops or other meaty foods.

Good idea, I see your theory.

Would this be OK for the other cichlids though? In particular my juvi Apistos, who I want to grow a.s.a.p.

 

[drobbyb]

Don't worry, fish can go for up to 2 weeks without food. They are cold blooded, so they don't need the same amount or frequency of food that we do.