Rainbow Fish Questions

[catfish101]

Hi,
1)how do you tell female turquoise rainbows from males?
2)How do you tell female red rainbows from males?
3)How old do rainbows have to be before they start spawning and i think my adult red rainbow(i am asuming its a female)is spawning with my adult male(know for sure its a male) boesemani. They are swimming next to each other and kinda shaking thier tails.
Thanks

 

[rocknurworld2006]

can u give scientific names then ill know what u mean better

 

[Colin_T]

Turquoise rainbow is Melanotaenia lacustris
Red rainbow is Glossolepis incisus

Male rainbowfish have longer more pointed dorsal and anal fins. Their first dorsal fin will often touch or overlap the second dorsal fin. Male rainbows grow a bit bigger than females and end up higher in the body. They also produce a coloured stripe (dorsal blaze) along their snout (between the first dorsal fin and the top of their mouth).

Female red rainbows are bronze or silver in colour and stay narrow in the body. Males get very high in the body and go red. Females have no red at all. The fins are the same for all rainbowfishes.

Rainbows will breed when about 3-4 months old if kept under ideal conditions, however most start at about 6 months old. Many species can live for 8-10 years. Full colour and size is not reached until they are about 2 years old.

All rainbowfish will cross breed and in a mixed tank males and females of different species will display and breed with each other. It is not recommended to cross breed rainbows so if you want young then put a pair of the same species into a separate tank for a week.

 

[catfish101]

then the red rainbow is a male thats "breeding" with the male boesemani. What culd they be doing?

 

[Colin_T]

The male boesemani and incisus are simply displaying to each other. Male rainbows show off to each other and try to out do the competition so the girls will breed with them. If the two fish are similar sized then it is good and they will be fine together. If one is bigger than the other, it will try to dominate the smaller fish. It is perfectly normal and nothing to worry about.

 

[catfish101]

no they ae both the same size