Rainbowfish Tank? Tips?

[simonas]

I've been looking at rainbowfish on here and admiring them, I remember my LFS having a display tankwith them in and am considering changing a tank of mine to them

My tankI would have available for them is48x16x19

My question would be would that be big enough for a few rainbows till they reach maturity and I would definately want some Boesmanis in there. Also the big red ones as well not sure of their name

With that group could I also add a couple of my plecs?

what temperature do rainbows require and water parameters

would you suggest keeping just the rainbows as the free swimming fish or add anything else

thanks and if anyone has pics of their rainbow set ups I;d love to see them

 

[minxfishy]

Well I keep rainbows, lovely beautiful fish, so I say go for it. That tank is large enough for life for a good amount of rainbows, you could have 6 boesemani and 6 reds (Iranian) without any problems.

They like temp around 24-26, ph anything from 7.0 up to 8.0 (Been recorded as up to 9.0 in the wild I believe) and obviously the larger the group the better natural behaviour you get.

Somewhere around are loads of pics of mine in the pics section and you can also see some of them in my sig photo.

Personally I have now, 5 boesemani, 5 Lacustris and only 3 remaining praecox, I used to have 10 trifasciata but rehomed them as things were getting a bit crowded in the tank.

As I said lovely fish, can reach up to 5", more likely 4" though.

You could easily add some plecs if you wish, corydoras as well for the bottom, rainbows tend to be mid-top dwelling.

Edit to add: You need to keep on top of nitrAtes with rainbows, or they are prone to columnaris, they appreciate large water changes, I do 50% every 5 days.

 

[simonas]

Well I keep rainbows, lovely beautiful fish, so I say go for it. That tank is large enough for life for a good amount of rainbows, you could have 6 boesemani and 6 reds (Iranian) without any problems.

They like temp around 24-26, ph anything from 7.0 up to 8.0 (Been recorded as up to 9.0 in the wild I believe) and obviously the larger the group the better natural behaviour you get.

Somewhere around are loads of pics of mine in the pics section and you can also see some of them in my sig photo.

Personally I have now, 5 boesemani, 5 Lacustris and only 3 remaining praecox, I used to have 10 trifasciata but rehomed them as things were getting a bit crowded in the tank.

As I said lovely fish, can reach up to 5", more likely 4" though.

You could easily add some plecs if you wish, corydoras as well for the bottom, rainbows tend to be mid-top dwelling.

Edit to add: You need to keep on top of nitrAtes with rainbows, or they are prone to columnaris, they appreciate large water changes, I do 50% every 5 days.

excellent think I will go for it, I have a discus set up in there at present but goingto do them another day with a bigger tank

I have an L128 and L25 which could go in there, itst he BOESMANI AND THE REDS i WOULD WANT ANYWAY
Just need to sell my discus then to a chap whos after them anyway and find some rainbows

 

[minxfishy]

The boesemani are pretty easy to find, they look all washed out in the LFS, so sexing them isnt too easy, the Iranian reds are less common (least they are round here) and the females tend to be more orangy in colour than red.

Forgot to add, they enjoy plants, although mine seem non too bothered since I removed all mine, they also like some vegetable matter in their diets too, I just use veggie crisps which they love.

 

[simonas]

my LFS used to have them years ago as I kept the bosemanis about 10 yrs ago or so can;t remmebr what happened to them though.. I'll check out the shops over the weekend

 

[loachman]

If you can, get a dark substrate as well. They'll have better colors then. They seem to get washed out a little with a real light sand/gravel. It's not terrible, but it's something to think about.