Suggestions For Rainbow Tankmates

[zesty]

Hi, I am in a fishless cycle at the moment and am trying to decide on what to stock when the cycle is finished.

My tank is 95g and 5 foot long, when it has finished its cycle I will add plants.

The tank also has black gravel and a black background if that helps with any choices.


I would like at least one type of these fish : Turquoise Rainbow, Boesemani Rainbow, Banded Rainbowfish


I have a few fish I have seen that might be suitable to go with them : Giant Danios, Rosy Tetras, BN Plec, and Denison Barb although I dont know if its suitable because of its lower temperature requirements.

Im after your suggestions as to what I could add, I do want at least one of the rainbows I have listed though and something thats going to stand out with my dark substrate and background.

What quantities should I be looking at?

Thanks

 

[minxfishy]

For that size tank you could have a really nice good group of any of those rainbows, 10 being a nice round number. Personally I wouldnt add giant danios to the mix, very fast active and could be a little nippy, Denisoni would be a lovely addition and colour contrast with the boesemani or lacustris. A BN plec would also be fine with them. Rainbows are fine in a temp range from 23 - 26c, they prefer slightly higher ph up to 8.2 and alkaline, but can be acclimatised to a wide variety of parameters.

You will need to keep on top of water changes with them, as they can be prone to mouth fungus if the nitrAte rises too high, I do a minimum of 2 x 50% w/c weekly on my rainbow tank.

 

[zesty]

For that size tank you could have a really nice good group of any of those rainbows, 10 being a nice round number. Personally I wouldnt add giant danios to the mix, very fast active and could be a little nippy, Denisoni would be a lovely addition and colour contrast with the boesemani or lacustris. A BN plec would also be fine with them. Rainbows are fine in a temp range from 23 - 26c, they prefer slightly higher ph up to 8.2 and alkaline, but can be acclimatised to a wide variety of parameters.

You will need to keep on top of water changes with them, as they can be prone to mouth fungus if the nitrAte rises too high, I do a minimum of 2 x 50% w/c weekly on my rainbow tank.

A minimum of 2 x 50% water changes? Thats more than I thought, I was hoping to be able to do my water changes at the weekend. Do all rainbows require such frequent water changes?

Would you suggest 10 of the same rainbow or a mix, and what ratio of male and female or could I go same sex only?

Thanks

 

[minxfishy]

You can do 1 50% weekly and see how they go, I just do 50% 2 x weekly as I notice they prefer it.

You could mix the species, I have 5 boesemani and 5 Lacustris (turquoise) with no problems, also used to have 10 trifasciata (banded) rainbows in with them, but they will interbreed, so you wouldnt be able to sell on the fry. If your not planning on breeding, then by all means mix the species.

Its normally recommended 1m - 2f ratio, to spread the males attentions around. I have 4 males to 1 female though, but thats just have they turned out, as when young they are not easy to sex, until they get their colours.

 

[zesty]

I havent any plans to breed any.

The males are supposed to colour better, do you find that?

If i had male only would that cause any problems?

I plan to put them in a newly cycled tank, do you see this as being a problem?

Can you suggest any other tank mates I could consider?

Sorry for all the questions.

Thanks

 

[minxfishy]

All males is fine, but they colour up to show off to the females, so might not be as colourful without any female company.

The males are definately the more colourful, no doubt about it, the females being more drab, particulary in the case of boesemani.

Providing the tank is completely cycled then it shouldnt be a problem.

Other tankmates, barbs, tetras, corydoras, SA cichlids, gouramis, livebearers, they can go with alot of other species are they are peaceful and adaptable fish.

Mine have lived with severums, thorichthys species, ghost knife, corydoras, rasboras, tiger barbs to name a few.

 

[zesty]

Thanks for that. I will do a bit of research on some of your suggestions.

 

[drobbyb]

You don't have to do 2 50% waterchanges a week. IME I found that doing too many waterchanges had a negative impact on my rainbows. Once I cut back to one 50% a week, the problems went away.

As to adding them to a newly cycled tank, you should be fine as long as there are no sipkes of ammonia or nitrites. I used a pouch of bio-spira when I started my last tank and had no problems. Too bad they don't make it anymore

I suggest a single species as you can contrast your other fish and make an impact. For example, I have Turquoise rainbows mixed with odessa barbs. The red compliments the greens and blues nicely (sometimes gold ).

I just so happen to breed turquoise rainbows, and they are great fish. It is true about them not showing all their color without the opposite sex since they do not flash their breeding stripe that often when they are single sexed.

You can keep a community and have a seperate breeding tank if you wanted to breed them and keep a few species. Just don't pull eggs from the community tank and you will be fine.

 

[zesty]

Ok thanks for that. I think I would prefer a single type of rainbow and then have something different with them. I really like the denison barb so might consider that along with maybe some gouramis and corydoras. Just doing my homework at the moment while my tank finishes its cycle.

 

[trojannemo]

i'm with drobbyb on the water changes. the OP who recommended 2x 50% water change has over 20 fish in a 53 gal tank, whereas you're looking at less fish in a much bigger tank. it's a matter of stocking. i keep 10 rainbows and 2 large angelfish in a planted 75 gallon tank and have no problems.
i do a single ~50% water change on sundays and by the amount of spawning and flashing my rainbows do, i can only believe that i'm doing something right.

i had been looking at denison barbs too, i have seen them fully grown with adult rainbowfish and angelfish and they make a great combination together...so go for them! i would also recommend angelfish as tankmates, i keep them together and have no problem across the species, the angels stay to themselves and so do the rainbows.i've also seen this combination in many other tanks and it tends to work out well.

good luck!

EDIT:

if i had to pick one rainbowfish species to keep, it would be M. lacustris over the others i have kept. i have in the past, and now, always kept many different species together (right now, 10 'bows - 6 diff. species), rather than schools of one type. lately I've found myself considering switching to only 2-3 species in schools, rather than many species with only one pair of each...so that's something to consider...

 

[minxfishy]

The OP, me, yes does now have the rainbows in a smaller tank, however, up until a few weeks ago, they were in a 130g 5ft tank and I still routinely did 50% w/c 2 x weekly, thats just me, I do it on all my tanks.

I didnt recommend it, I stated it was what I do and that the nitrAtes need to be kept an eye on with rainbows as they can be prone to mouth fungus if they rise too high. What works for some people doesnt work for others, I was giving my experience of these fish, which Ive kept on and off for years.

 

[Amunet]

For tankmate, you could definitely get some giant danios.
Have them in our 125 along with the rainbows, and they're all absolutely fantastic. The rainbows are equally as hyper and active as the danios are.
The rainbows and the danios school together. And the entire time I've ever had danios (giant and regular), I've NEVER had a problem with them being nippy. They chase, but never nip.

You can really put anything with them though. I've never seen any kind of aggressive behaviour (other than chasing) from the rainbowfish.