Anyone Keeping Rainbow Fish?

[Marc]

I was thinking this morning that it's funny that we all keep exotic fish, but Australian native rainbow's seem to be overlooked. OK of course the African's / American's etc have some nice colours etc and that may be the only reason?

I'm thinking of setting up a small 3 - 4 ft display tank with nice cabinet for some Rainbows. Does anyone have any experience with them. What are the ideal water conditions / substrates / to plant or not to plant and so on?

Any advice from someone with experience much appreciated! :)

[subnormal]

Ive got 4 rainbows at the moment, a neon, a salmon red and two with a name i cant think of at the moment, but they are almost clear with yellow and black fins. Mine are happy with the regular tropical conditions. Very peaceful fish. Most of the time you buy them small and have to wait for the colours to come out as they grow.

[Blonde Kid on Morphine]

A good mate of mine used to keep rainbows and his seemed to really love a fast current he had going with a power head at one end of his 4ft tank.

He just had some drift wood and Java fern in the tank and they seemed really happy.

[GoGuppy]

I was thinking this morning that it's funny that we all keep exotic fish, but Australian native rainbow's seem to be overlooked. OK of course the African's / American's etc have some nice colours etc and that may be the only reason?

I'm thinking of setting up a small 3 - 4 ft display tank with nice cabinet for some Rainbows. Does anyone have any experience with them. What are the ideal water conditions / substrates / to plant or not to plant and so on?

Any advice from someone with experience much appreciated! :)[/b]


</span>Cheers</span>

[subnormal]

what type of rainbows are you looking at getting Marc?

[wombat1100]

I am thinking of selling off my remaining cichlids and making my 5 footer into a planted rainbow tank , I seem to have fallin in love with plants and have always liked rainbows so the cichlids will go and when I move house the tank will be set up for rainbows&#33;
Dazz

[joz]

Although I&#39;ve never kept Rainbows they do have quite a following.
If my memory serves correct,they prefer slightly acidic 6.8 with some hardness.From what I can tell they have no nasty vices,so plants are the go&#33; :)

[Marc]

Thanks guys .... I&#39;m not which Rainbows I want yet, I need to get a book or two of the different types and learn about them first.
I&#39;m also looking for another tank at the moment that will become the Rainbow tank.

All in good time.

[silkieboy]

Hi Marc, heres a link with a huge list of rainbow fish species. It&#39;s good stuff as they give you loads of info about the individual species and their requirements.

http://members.optushome.com.au/chelmon/Melano.htm

I&#39;m interested in the Iriatherina werneri to go with my 4foot tank :)

[Marc]

Thanks heaps silkie, that&#39;s exactly what I&#39;ve been looking for&#33; :)

[silkieboy]

No worries. Glad it was useful :)

[wombat1100]

So Marc, did you start your rainbow tank yet???
My rainbows are looking great now the Tetra Colour bits are bringing out the colours well.Almost time to add some more to the rainbow family&#33;&#33;&#33;
Dazz

[bettamuse]

Couple of things I&#39;ve learnt over the years with breeding and showing rainbows.

Rainbows stress very easily when transported.

Watch for fungus after introducing them to the new tank. On rainbows it is common to see it appear around their mouths as they tend to crash into the glass or rub their faces in the gravel when put into a new tank. Most of the time it will heal itself but keep an eye on it.

NEVER handle blue-eyes with your hands.

Rainbows and most natives for that matter enjoy a little salt in their tanks.

If you want to breed them, keep male and female apart and feed her up. Once put together you should get eggs within a day. It&#39;s good way of controlling spawns and their hatch times. It&#39;s much easier to feed lots of young at once then keep micro food up to a trickle of fry.

Also if you are thinking of keeping threadfin rainbows, just make sure you feed them tiny food. Almost the size you would feed cichlid fry. They have tiny mouths, I&#39;ve seen them simply starve to death in tanks that the people were feeding tropical flake regularly but not crushing it up for them. My half beaks can handle bigger food then the threadfins can.

That out of the way. I&#39;ve also seen a 4x2x2 planted tank with about 200 threadfins in it and it looked spectacular.



Cheers
BM

[subnormal]

Thanks for the info bettamuse.
Id love to see a picture of your threadfin tank if you ever get a chance.

[Marc]

So Marc, did you start your rainbow tank yet???
My rainbows are looking great now the Tetra Colour bits are bringing out the colours well.Almost time to add some more to the rainbow family&#33;&#33;&#33;
Dazz[/b]

Not quite, the tank is setup and running but I got carried away with some Americans .... LOL

all in good time :)

[Mjay~Fish-Freak]

what about ANGFA? they have information on rainbows.