Rainbowfish

[GAB99]

How big is this tank by the way?

 

[tom130691]

Can you isolate her? I'm worried about her having internal problems. Maybe I'm a bit cautious, but I wouldn't want an unknown pathogen or parasite killing my fish 1 by 1. Maybe post in the emergency section and have wilder take a look.
[/quotei can i have a smallish tank around betta size

had a look this morning she wasn't so high in the water and the stringy poo has gone i will be keeping an eye on her

i will post a vid of her swimming at the surface in abit





mojo the tank is a 64 litre i no it is abit small but they are the only fish in the tank

 

[Fish&ships]

I had 4 dwarf neon rainbows and 3 died leaving me 1 healthy male. When i went back to the shop a lot from the same batch looked unhealthy. I found another shop stocking them some time later and bought 1 male and 2 femal to make up a comunnity shoal. They all died and the 1 mature male i had chased them a lot. I would like to introduce some more again from a fresh healthy batch. does anyone have any recommendation on stratergy? introduce only male or female? or a mix, or multipuls or 1 at a time? The tank is 12 inch x 30 inch x 18 inch, it has 5 scissor tails, 2 king tetra's and 5 corydoras. The 1 mature male dwarf Neon Rainbow thinks he is the boss...

 

[drobbyb]

I had 4 dwarf neon rainbows and 3 died leaving me 1 healthy male. When i went back to the shop a lot from the same batch looked unhealthy. I found another shop stocking them some time later and bought 1 male and 2 femal to make up a comunnity shoal. They all died and the 1 mature male i had chased them a lot. I would like to introduce some more again from a fresh healthy batch. does anyone have any recommendation on stratergy? introduce only male or female? or a mix, or multipuls or 1 at a time? The tank is 12 inch x 30 inch x 18 inch, it has 5 scissor tails, 2 king tetra's and 5 corydoras. The 1 mature male dwarf Neon Rainbow thinks he is the boss...

It's not necessary to add them all at once. Adding too many fish at one time will cause a mini cycle, and dwarf neons are very sensitive. A good rule of thumb is to add 1/3 of your current stocking at a time so that you don't experience a mini cycle. What that means is if you have 9 fish in your tank and you want to add more, only add 3 fish. You can always add more fish later on.


If you are going to keep both sexes, you need more females than males. This spreads the stress around from the male's attempts to breed. I'm sorry to hear that yours have died. I hear a lot of stories about praecox dying when they are taken home and acclimated to their home tank. What happens is these fish are sensitive and demand very clean water. Usually, the LFS doesn't keep them well or feed them properly. When rainbows are kept in less than ideal conditions and fed an improper diet, they become weak and prone to illness. The better you keep them, the better they thrive.

Quarantine needs to be done to prevent any unknown pathogens to enter your tank. You should quarantine for at least 4 weeks as some pathogens take that long to show. You can always take the risk and add them to your tank straight away, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Rainbows need at least 50% of their tank's volume changed weekly. I know it sounds like a lot, but it really only takes a few more minutes. They also require a special diet. Yes, they can survive on tropical fish flakes alone, but they really need about 60% of their diet to be vegetable matter. This can be easily achieved by feeding a high quality spirulina flake as a staple, supplimented with blanched shelled peas. Frozen foods like brine shrimp and blood worms should only be fed once a week. Also, you have to be careful with bloodworms. They have a chitinous head that can get lodged in the fish's digestive track creating a blockage. You can feed more vegetables than just peas.

Sometimes rainbowfishes can be encouraged to experiment with unfamiliar food items by withholding other preferred food items. This works well, for example, when feeding parboiled (soften) zucchini (a good source of B and C vitamins) for the first time. Simply withholding their regular food and offering the less familiar zucchini usually results in rapid acceptance (1~3 days) (source: Home of the Rainbowfish (http/members.optushome.com.au)

You can experiment with different types of vegetables to find what your fish will eat.

 

[satish]

Very good info about the dwarf rainbow fish. thanks drobbyb.
This info I did not find anywhere on the web.

all over the web, I read these fish are hardy but now discovering they are not.

I currently have 7 dwarf rainbows, 2 males and 5 females. Within 2 weeks after adding them
to the tank 2 of the females developed Ick. One in bad shape. The other seems to be recovering.
I am treating my tank with heat and salt (low dosage 1/2 tbsp per 5 gallon). Heat is up to 85F
and the rainbows seem OK with it. Its been 2 days since I started the treatment.
Keeping my fingers crossed. Very frustrating having to face this ick problem, myself being
new to this hobby. I researched a lot, spent a lot of time getting the tank cycled and everything.
did not imagine this hobby would take so much of my time. At this time, I am up for the challenge
though and determined to not let this ick attack discourage myself with this hobby.

I do enjoy when my male dwarf rainbows activity level and their beauty.

 

[nyx2k]

i have 6 lake kutubu rainbows and youve got me worried now so should i go out tomorrow and get some spirulina flake urgently to keep the rainbows healthy

 

[drobbyb]

My intention wasn't to worry you, rather I just wanted you to know some vital information about them. I love M. lacustris. That's what I mostly kept. I went to my favorite LFS earlier to check on my stock. I was happy to see that they looked great with the blue color starting to dominate their coloration. I gave 50 juveniles to the same LFS a few months back, and the few he has left look pretty good (although not as good as the juveniles that I kept from that spawning, being that mine are half an inch longer and considerably thicker.) But the LFS owner isn't a rainbow guy, his forte is African and South American cichlids.

The sooner you can start feeding the correct diet the better, but it's not like they are going to die before you can get some spirulina flakes. One great thing about your Kubutus is spirulina is naturally chock full of color enhancing pigments that enhance the blues and greens in fish. So it's a win/win!

Here's a short video of my tank.

 

[nyx2k]

my fish are very colourful. all juveniles but still very pretty.
ill get some spirulina flake from local maidenhead shop. i was thinking of adding some praecox but i may get some 3 more lacustris at a later date to increase the small shoal i have.

 

[tom130691]

just check the fish males are getting very competitive now and harrasing the females well they try then other males get in the way

ill have to pick up some more females in the next few days by the look of it