Rainbow fish !

[vanalisa]

Celebes rainbows are either good or bad. If you get a good batch they do well. If the fish are not good, they all die. They need hard water with a pH above 7.0 and a bit of salt.

The red rainbows don't look like Glossolepis incisus and could be a hybrid or G. multisquamatus. If the shop doesn't have a scientific name for those fish, then be careful buying them because lots of breeding cross breed fish.

The turquoise rainbows (Melanotaenia lacustris) look ok and are usually a true species (not hybrids).

Yellow rainbows (Melanotaenia herbertaxelrodi) can be hybrids but not always.

The first picture of Melanotaenia boesemani has a fish in the top left corner that looks like a female Glossolepis incisus. Most of the other fish in the tank look like male M. boesemani. Females don't have any yellow.

You can mix rainbowfish species together and they hang out together. I had 3 or 4 species in each tank and they all showed off and displayed to one another. When I wanted to breed them, I moved the fish to breeding tanks for a week before putting them back in the main holding tanks. Just try to keep species together that grow to the same size. You can have 4-6 M. boesemani with 4-6 M. lacustris and 4-6 M. herbertaxelrodi together in a 4ft tank.

I'm sure I can find out about the"Red" ones.
Thanks

 

[vanalisa]

SO excited!
I'm getting a 50 gallon.
Gooooo, fish!
Woohoo
I don't know what I'm going to put in it yet but I'm going to start my first ever journal.
I know it's going to feature rainbow fish, I'm going to get a group, and I'm going to need lots of advice

PS:. The Celebes are gone...

 

[Colin_T]

What do you mean the Celebes are gone?
Have all of them disappeared?
If yes, they probably died.

What are the tank dimensions of the 50g tank you are getting?

 

[vanalisa]

Celebes rainbows are either good or bad. If you get a good batch they do well. If the fish are not good, they all die. They need hard water with a pH above 7.0 and a bit of salt.

The red rainbows don't look like Glossolepis incisus and could be a hybrid or G. multisquamatus. If the shop doesn't have a scientific name for those fish, then be careful buying them because lots of breeding cross breed fish.

The turquoise rainbows (Melanotaenia lacustris) look ok and are usually a true species (not hybrids).

Yellow rainbows (Melanotaenia herbertaxelrodi) can be hybrids but not always.

The first picture of Melanotaenia boesemani has a fish in the top left corner that looks like a female Glossolepis incisus. Most of the other fish in the tank look like male M. boesemani. Females don't have any yellow.

You can mix rainbowfish species together and they hang out together. I had 3 or 4 species in each tank and they all showed off and displayed to one another. When I wanted to breed them, I moved the fish to breeding tanks for a week before putting them back in the main holding tanks. Just try to keep species together that grow to the same size. You can have 4-6 M. boesemani with 4-6 M. lacustris and 4-6 M. herbertaxelrodi together in a 4ft tank.

I'm really not as fond of the "really-pointy-nose" kind, anyway.

I like the ones on the smaller side, though.

 

[vanalisa]

What do you mean the Celebes are gone?
Have all of them disappeared?
If yes, they probably died.

What are the tank dimensions of the 50g tank you are getting?

No, they didn't die...
They looked really good; someone bought them all!

What do you mean the Celebes are gone?
Have all of them disappeared?
If yes, they probably died.

What are the tank dimensions of the 50g tank you are getting?

48 x 13 x 21

 

[Colin_T]

that's a good size tank for rainbowfish.

 

[vanalisa]

that's a good size tank for rainbowfish.

OMgosh
These fish are expensive
I probably should have thought of that, but oh well I'll eventually figure that out.
I can always just have some very very very very happy blue eyes and peacocks

 

[Colin_T]

OMgosh
These fish are expensive

Do what I did, start with 1pr, breed them and sell the young. Use the credit/ money from the young to buy more fish, tanks and gear.

If you sell the fish for a low price, you can usually get rid of lots of them and bring the overall price down at the shops. Then they can sell more and buy more from you.

eg: Melanotaenia trifasciata (Goyder River form) used to sell for about $20.00 each when I first got them. When I was breeding them I sold them for $2.00 each (at 2 inches long) and the shops could sell them for $6.00-$8.00 each or $10-15pr depending on the shop. Because the price dropped so much, a lot of customers started buying them and I sold more to the shops.

I did the same with all the rainbows I bred. The shops and customers loved it but some of the other rainbow breeders were not impressed because I apparently cost them lots of money. They used to sell their fish for a lot more and their fish sat in the shops for months, whereas most of mine would sell within a couple of weeks.

I had a much higher turn over rate of fish but didn't make as much money from them. However, by lowering the price, I made the fish more available to the average customer and ended up selling more fish.

I mention this because most of the bigger rainbowfish can produce 50+ eggs per day for months on end. If you have 2 or 3 females producing 50 eggs per day, x 7 days a week, you quickly end up with hundreds of young to sell. If you feed them well, they grow fast and can be 2-3 inches in 2-3 months.

 

[Sgooosh]

they should be able to request more of a species if a customer wants some.

I’ll try that
I’ll also try to request for more normal guppies since i think i mightve got addicted to buying dumbo guppies since they are the only healthy ones lol

 

[vanalisa]

Do what I did, start with 1pr, breed them and sell the young. Use the credit/ money from the young to buy more fish, tanks and gear.

If you sell the fish for a low price, you can usually get rid of lots of them and bring the overall price down at the shops. Then they can sell more and buy more from you.

eg: Melanotaenia trifasciata (Goyder River form) used to sell for about $20.00 each when I first got them. When I was breeding them I sold them for $2.00 each (at 2 inches long) and the shops could sell them for $6.00-$8.00 each or $10-15pr depending on the shop. Because the price dropped so much, a lot of customers started buying them and I sold more to the shops.

I did the same with all the rainbows I bred. The shops and customers loved it but some of the other rainbow breeders were not impressed because I apparently cost them lots of money. They used to sell their fish for a lot more and their fish sat in the shops for months, whereas most of mine would sell within a couple of weeks.

I had a much higher turn over rate of fish but didn't make as much money from them. However, by lowering the price, I made the fish more available to the average customer and ended up selling more fish.

I mention this because most of the bigger rainbowfish can produce 50+ eggs per day for months on end. If you have 2 or 3 females producing 50 eggs per day, x 7 days a week, you quickly end up with hundreds of young to sell. If you feed them well, they grow fast and can be 2-3 inches in 2-3 months.

Wowzers!

I don't know if I'm that enterprising. I really just want to get my tank setup and get my peacocks and blue eyes in there and sit with that for a while and then research which kind of other rainbow fish I want...

I haven't even picked up my tank yet, it's being held for me while I dig my super massive coffee table out of the garage so I can have something to put it on.

 

[FishBR]

I have Boesemani, Parva, Macculochi, and Kamaka. You can see several videos of my rainbows in my YouTube channel:

Wild Discus and Rainbowfish