Tankmates for Rainbow Shark and Hatchetfish

[flchamp89]

Not to stir the pot but....a 40 is not appropriate for a rainbow shark. If you addressed this issue your bioload would be greatly reduced. Thus opening up more options.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

[KopDS]

The 2 smallest species of rainbowfish that I know of are Threadfin Rainbowfish (iriatherina werneri) and Dwarf rainbowfish (Melanotaenia maccullochi). Threadfin get to about 1.5 inches with dwarfs getting up to about 2.8 inches.

 

[TekFish]

Edit: TekFish, I just saw you recommended the Neon Dwarf Rainbowfish. Nice!

Yeah, I've never kept them before, but I have seen them in my LFS before and they seem to be what you're looking for.

 

[Byron]

Before I get to the species, fichamp is correct, and I had deliberately passed over this because you were keeping the Rainbow regardless and a 3-foot is better than the 10g or 20g that some attempt with this fish (and which will absolutely not work). I so often recommend against this fish (and even more its cousin), so here I turned a blind eye as I think you can work around it if you're careful, though it is not something I would suggest beforehand. Keep in mind that it should attain 6 inches though.

To the fish. Gold Barb is the developed strain of the wild species Puntius semifasciolatus [some sources will follow Kottelat's (2013) proposal that Barbodes is the genus] and fairly peaceful though active like all barbs. It may fin nip slower fish however, and here we have the hatchetfish. I personally would not risk this [back to that "risk" issue I described previously]. I am especially fond of the hatchetfishes, and have or have had m ost all of the species from the three genera. But once acquired, tankmates must be very carefully considered; I have moved mine to different tanks, or moved other species to different tanks, more than once. Otherwise peaceful lower fish seem to find it amusing to sneak up and nip the hatchets periodically, and of course this sort of "bullying" causes severe stress which means poor health and often death. The poor hatchets can be heard jumping into the tank cover to escape--not good.

I am not as familiar with the Atherinids (rainbowfishes) as I am with others, but the Neon Dwarf, Melanotaenia praecox, should be suitable. A group of 6 or more (I would say 7-8 here) to ease its skittishness, with a ratio of more females than male to prevent over-harassment. So you could have 3 males and 4-5 females. The Threadfin, Iriatherina werneri, is a very pretty fish, and though preferring soft water (softer than the other species) it should be OK here, if you can keep the pH down.

Byron.

 

[wakerider47]

I inherited a 10g plastic tank from an aquaintance who had a decent sized angelfish, 5 zebra danios, 2 adult skirted tetras, a 6" pleco, and a single hatchetfish, and had just added the juvenile rainbow shark. I knew this was bad and immediately got a larger tank, but was literally brand new and did not realize a fish as small as the (at the time) 2.5 inch rainbow shark would require 55g or larger. The pleco died shortly after the tank change, as I did not know any better and did a fish in cycle at the advice of a petco employee. Long story short, I have since re-homed multiple fish, got a few more hatchets (I have more on the way as well), done a ton of research, driven all over hell to get some really nice pieces of driftwood and the "right" kind of sand for substrate, and plan on upgrading my tank to a 75g after my upcoming move in 6 months. Trying to do everything right but it was put on my plate in a pretty sorry state.

That said, I have since fallen in love with the Rainbow Shark, the hatchets, and fishkeeping in general. The RBS's personality is really fantastic, and seeing the hatchets flit about peacefully at the surface is beautiful and calming.

Thank you all for the suggestions. You all have been very helpful at pointing me in the right direction. I am leaning towards either the Cherry Barbs (don't love how the gold barbs aren't seen in nature), the Lemon Tetras, or some of the suggested Rainbowfish.