Rainbowfish Id

[sykogngsta]

I need some help figuring out which species of rainbowfish I recently purchased. I need to know which species the two rainbowfish with the red/orange striped tails are.

Here are some pics:

 

[Mikaila31]

They look like australian to me.

 

[Colin_T]

The top picture shows a Melanotaenia lacustris with a sinus infection. The other fish have gill problems too. You should check the water quality and make sure the filter is running properly. Maybe do some daily water changes and treat the fish for gill flukes.

The other fish in the pictures are one of the Melanotaenia splendida group, most likely Melanotaenia splendida splendida, (the eastern rainbowfish). There are dozens of varieties of that species and each river system has a slightly different colour form. The only way you would know exactly what they were, is to ask the supplier if the fish had a river name with them, ie: M. splendida from Eastern creek or something like that.

There are a couple of pics in the following link. The bottom pic shows a fish from Davies creek, which is similar but has more blue. Unfortunately yours could be anything

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

 

[mikev]

Colin,

How are you telling M.Lacustris from M.Affinis?
I'm rainbow-ignorant, they look way too similar.......

 

[Colin_T]

lacustris are turquoise blue on the top half and silver white on the bottom half.
affinis usually have a dark line down the middle of the body and are a different colour blue. affinis are also a narrower fish and lacustris get deeper bodied.

 

[mikev]

Thanks Colin,

This was puzzling before and became very obvious once I got M.lacustris and watched them for a day...