Rainbow Fish

[unspoken930]

If im not mistaken, dont discus need a school of atleast 4-6? and they do better in a species only tank becuase of the cleanliness problem... and each Rainbow fish is a different species... so do 6 of each kind minimum as someone on here sugested earlier. You need to rethink this tank and the way i would go about it is getting rid of all of the tetras you have in there, get rid of the discus (this one is almost a must imo) and get atleast 6 of each type of rainbow. Myabe then if you have room put a school of 6+ neons in. Also... if you get guppies, unless you want fry everywhere, get 5 males minimum to spread agression.... in other words do not get females unless you want fry. The same goes with sword tails i do believe. I dont know much about plecos or gouramis, so if someone else wants to add their two cents in on those...

 

[Rafael Dilone]

If im not mistaken, dont discus need a school of atleast 4-6? and they do better in a species only tank becuase of the cleanliness problem... and each Rainbow fish is a different species... so do 6 of each kind minimum as someone on here sugested earlier. You need to rethink this tank and the way i would go about it is getting rid of all of the tetras you have in there, get rid of the discus (this one is almost a must imo) and get atleast 6 of each type of rainbow. Myabe then if you have room put a school of 6+ neons in. Also... if you get guppies, unless you want fry everywhere, get 5 males minimum to spread agression.... in other words do not get females unless you want fry. The same goes with sword tails i do believe. I dont know much about plecos or gouramis, so if someone else wants to add their two cents in on those...

I have never heard that discuss need a school of at least 4-6. I know plenty of people who have one or two discuss and have lived for many years. Also I though that rainbows of different species being kept was no problem. I do want swordtail and guppy fry because I have a fry tank. I think that neons and tetras do live ok with these species because I have kept them before with these species and they lived fine and for a long time. About the blue rainbow it may be semi-aggressive but this is a blue rainbow that I currently have and he is very peacefull by the looks of it and I have had it for about a year. Also the pleco does fine with these fishes.

 

[unspoken930]

If im not mistaken, dont discus need a school of atleast 4-6? and they do better in a species only tank becuase of the cleanliness problem... and each Rainbow fish is a different species... so do 6 of each kind minimum as someone on here sugested earlier. You need to rethink this tank and the way i would go about it is getting rid of all of the tetras you have in there, get rid of the discus (this one is almost a must imo) and get atleast 6 of each type of rainbow. Myabe then if you have room put a school of 6+ neons in. Also... if you get guppies, unless you want fry everywhere, get 5 males minimum to spread agression.... in other words do not get females unless you want fry. The same goes with sword tails i do believe. I dont know much about plecos or gouramis, so if someone else wants to add their two cents in on those...

I have never heard that discuss need a school of at least 4-6. I know plenty of people who have one or two discuss and have lived for many years. Also I though that rainbows of different species being kept was no problem. I do want swordtail and guppy fry because I have a fry tank. I think that neons and tetras do live ok with these species because I have kept them before with these species and they lived fine and for a long time. About the blue rainbow it may be semi-aggressive but this is a blue rainbow that I currently have and he is very peacefull by the looks of it and I have had it for about a year. Also the pleco does fine with these fishes.

I never said the combination wouldnt work.

Also, on the discus, i found this quote "Discus are very peaceful and should be kept in a species tank, other fish will keep them constantly on guard and they will never fully adapt. It is always best to keep a group of five or six and to disturb them as little as possible. " from this website that i have always found to have reliable information http/badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile14.html

I also never said rainbows couldnt co-exist. I love rainbows so i do alot of research on them. Each rainbow you get, be it the Celebes Rainbow, or the Bosemans Rainbow need to be kept in groups of atleast 6 of each species read up on them here http/badmanstropicalfish.com/rainbow.html

Also, just because a fish lives for many years, like you said with your friends discus, doesnt mean they happily live.

This is not supposed to come across as rude at all, I am only telling you this becuase of the welfare of the fish... just remember a living fish isnt always a happy fish.

edit: spelling

 

[Rafael Dilone]

If im not mistaken, dont discus need a school of atleast 4-6? and they do better in a species only tank becuase of the cleanliness problem... and each Rainbow fish is a different species... so do 6 of each kind minimum as someone on here sugested earlier. You need to rethink this tank and the way i would go about it is getting rid of all of the tetras you have in there, get rid of the discus (this one is almost a must imo) and get atleast 6 of each type of rainbow. Myabe then if you have room put a school of 6+ neons in. Also... if you get guppies, unless you want fry everywhere, get 5 males minimum to spread agression.... in other words do not get females unless you want fry. The same goes with sword tails i do believe. I dont know much about plecos or gouramis, so if someone else wants to add their two cents in on those...

I have never heard that discuss need a school of at least 4-6. I know plenty of people who have one or two discuss and have lived for many years. Also I though that rainbows of different species being kept was no problem. I do want swordtail and guppy fry because I have a fry tank. I think that neons and tetras do live ok with these species because I have kept them before with these species and they lived fine and for a long time. About the blue rainbow it may be semi-aggressive but this is a blue rainbow that I currently have and he is very peacefull by the looks of it and I have had it for about a year. Also the pleco does fine with these fishes.

I never said the combination wouldnt work.

Also, on the discus, i found this quote "Discus are very peaceful and should be kept in a species tank, other fish will keep them constantly on guard and they will never fully adapt. It is always best to keep a group of five or six and to disturb them as little as possible. " from this website that i have always found to have reliable information http/badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile14.html

I also never said rainbows couldnt co-exist. I love rainbows so i do alot of research on them. Each rainbow you get, be it the Celebes Rainbow, or the Bosemans Rainbow need to be kept in groups of atleast 6 of each species read up on them here http/badmanstropicalfish.com/rainbow.html

Also, just because a fish lives for many years, like you said with your friends discus, doesnt mean they happily live.

This is not supposed to come across as rude at all, I am only telling you this becuase of the welfare of the fish... just remember a living fish isnt always a happy fish.

edit: spelling

I do take the best possible care of my current fishes. These fish are my future plan and I am trying to learn as much as I can so I can have a tank with no problem(That does not mean I dont know anything). After much of research with doctors foster and smith I do agree that discus do have to be in school of 4-6 minimum. But even though you showed me a website saying that rainbows have to be kept in at least 6 or more of the same species, my research with doctors foster and smith has told me that they can be in mix species of rainbows. But I dont mind having the way you suggest, so I would probably do it your way. Also I do give the best possible care for my fishes currently. Until I am certain I have everything perfect with the fish housing situation I will not start my 90 gallon tank. Also doctors foster and smith said as followed about discus. A relatively shy member of the Cichlid family, discus prefer to be maintain in groups along with some samller passive fish such as Tetras, Hatchetfish, and rasboras. So I guess that they can be kept with other fishes and they would be just as happy. Thanks for all the help. I appreciate all the help.

 

[Rafael Dilone]

Well out of the 3 Ausrailian Rainbows I bought one died . It died because of internal paracites. But my 3 remaining Rainbows have began to show some amazing colors . I clean my entire tank every week once entirely and my rocks and ornaments another time later on the week. If I have a great aquarium environment my rainbows can live long even if they are not in a school. But all my fish look happy and healthy.

 

[nmonks]

Well out of the 3 Ausrailian Rainbows I bought one died . It died because of internal paracites.

How do you know this? Fish dying from internal parasites is in fact very rare. Parasites have evolved (generally) not to kill their host. There's no point in that happening, since if their host dies, so do they. There are parasites that eventually kill their host, but not nearly as many as people believe.

The top three reasons fish die are: poor water quality, wrong water chemistry, and wrong tankmates. When fish do get diseases and die, it is 99% of the time because of stress through one or more of these factors. Random diseases suddenly springing out of nowhere are very, VERY, rare, just as with humans. We don't often get lung cancer and heart disease for no reason at all, we get them because of smoking, excessive alcohol, poor diet, lack of exercise, and so on.

Check your nitrites. If you just went from 1 rainbowfish to 4 rainbowfish, then your filter has to now deal with 300% more ammonium. That will take a few days, at least, to happen. Now, rainbows are fairly tough fish, so if you cut back on the food, the inevitable spike in nitrites while the filter adapts will be manageable.

Re: discus. Discus are schooling fish when young, and then form fairly loyal, somewhat territorial pairs once they start breeding. It is absolutely standard practise to keep them in groups of 6 or more outside of breeding, with pairs removed to a spawning tank as and when required. Discus should certainly not be kept in ones or twos otherwise.

Also, the other problem with discus is that they need much warmer water than other tropical fish. Whereas standard tropicals need around 25 C, discus have to be kept at no less than 30 C. If you keep standard tropicals at 30 C, they will eventually die through accelerated metabolism and low oxygen concentrations. If you keep discus at 25 C, they will die from opportunistic bacterial infections, because their metabolism isn't fast enough at this temperature to deal with them. There are some tropical fish that tolerate very warm water, such as angelfish and gouramis, but because these fish will bully the discus and introduce bacterial infections, they cannot be used. Adult cardinal tetras, silver hatchetfish, and rummynose tetras are about the safest compansions for discus. Clown loaches can work well, too.

Most rainbowfish need moderately hard, alkaline water to do well. I wouldn't mix them with tetras and other softwater fish. Instead, consider peaceful livebearers, halfbeaks, glassfish, gobies, and other species that need similar water conditions.

Cheers,

Neale

PS. There's no need to clean the entire tank once a week. A 10-50% water change weekly is fine, with the filter medium being rinsed in a bucket of aquarium water once every month or so. Change filter media as infrequently as possible. While a 10 gallon tank is far too small for rainbowfish (many species get to be 8-15 cm long) anything from a "long" 20 gallons upwards should be fine. They're nice fish, and deserved to be treated well. Properly cared for rainbows are long-lived, and should last at least 6 years.

 

[vancouver]

You really shouldn't be trying to brag about how your fish are going to live great lives when they aren't in the proper conditions.... especially when you mention that one of the 3 died within a month.. that's quite the contradiction right there..


When you talk about cleaning the rocks, and cleaning the whole tank every week... what exactly do you mean?

 

[Rafael Dilone]

Well what I mean about cleaning the rock is that I take out the rocks out of the tank and clean it with a toothbrush that I use to clean the rocks and what I mean by cleaning the entire tank is that I clean the filter, siphon the gravel, clean the inside of the aquarium walls with algae sponge, clean heater that sometimes gets dirty, and clean some of the ornaments as well with a toothbrush. But I have to say I gave away my austrailian rainbows and all my gouramies because I have had my gouramis for 9 months and they grew to big(4 inches) and I sold it for store credit (I had such a bond with them that I fell bad that I had to give them away). But it is for the best of their health. Hopefully their new owner takes as much good care as I have. So I am left with my live bearers 1 male swordtail, 1 female swordtail, 2 female guppys, 1 male guppy, and some 9 neon tetras I bought today, also the 61 fry that are almost ready to be sold, well some of them(the old ones).

 

[nmonks]

61 fry! Gosh, you must be doing something right, eh?

I think you've been making some good choices. Even though giving away fish is always difficult, sometimes the balance of the tank has to come first. Good luck with it all.

Cheers,

Neale

also the 61 fry that are almost ready to be sold, well some of them(the old ones).

 

[Rafael Dilone]

61 fry! Gosh, you must be doing something right, eh?

I think you've been making some good choices. Even though giving away fish is always difficult, sometimes the balance of the tank has to come first. Good luck with it all.

Cheers,

Neale

also the 61 fry that are almost ready to be sold, well some of them(the old ones).

Well thanks Neale. I always buy fish that are a bit to big for a 10 gallon. So what I do is I buy them at a very small size and then when they grow I sell them. The bad thing is I have gotton attach to many fishes I have sold and it breaks my heart when I sell them Thanks for making me feel better. I know I am doing the right thing.