capekate

I just have to say that I really love these rainbow fish! I have been watching them for three days now and am amazed that I have found a fish species that totally gets along with everyone including their own! So many of my fish groups nip and chase each other around being aggressive for whatever reason. These guys are so peaceful and fun to watch playing in and out of the plants and totally respecting everyones space.
I just love these lil guys! And would recommend them to anyone!

~ kate

jack11

Congrats that it is working out well. are you still planning on getting some more so they can potetnially school?

Jack

armadillo

Wow, you got rainbows? I had no idea. Congrats! They're awesome. They're native from Oz, right?

capekate

Hi Jack,
thanks... I do plan on getting more asap. I called Petsmart the day I brought these guys home and the girl there said that she was sure I took the last three home. I will have to check back every delivery day to see if more come in. I noticed a link in one of the topics under rainbows that had some very beautiful assortment of rainbows there, I will have to do some research and maybe find them at another FS.

~ kate

capekate

Hi Armadillo
Yep I have rainbows! I am so excited by these lil guys. I love the personality. If you mean " OZ" being from Australia then you are correct. I have some photos of them under the rainbowfish photo section, you can check out if you would like. I brought them home on friday and they are very happy in the Discus tank and doing great. What peaceful fish they are and active swimmers all over the tank.

hmmmm.. btw.. what is the Oz connection to Austrailia?? lol

~ kate

Butterfly

Haven't been able to figure that out myself but everybody seems to understand what it means congrats on the rainbows.
Carol

capekate

Thanks Carol...
Yep maybe an Aussie will let us know! lol...
btw.. you have rainbow fish right? I think that I have seen your photos of them. Can you let me know what you feed your guys? I have been giving mine the tetra color flakes. Is there something else I should give them?
thanks,

~ kate

armadillo

I dont' know. That's always what we call it for short.

capekate

LOL...
hmmm... like in "Aus"..... = Oz

~ kate

jack11

yep you have it there its austraia-aus-oz, i suppose we are just lazy lo

armadillo

Yep.

boff

The best thing to feed your rainbows is any thing live or frozen if you cant get live, good quility flake , pellots and they like some veggies .They go crazy for live food its amazing to watch them because they flash colours down there sides in excitment .If you feed them white worms make sure its only once a week because they have lots of protein in them ,give the live food a go good luck boff.

capekate

HI Boff
thanks so much. I was wondering what else to feed them besides the tetra flakes. In my freezer I have frozen brine shrimp, bloodworms and krill, beefheart. I have not found white worms here, what other foods would you recommand, and if any of those I mentioned would be good for them?
thanks for your help,

~ kate

boff

Hi ,well rainbows will eat any insect that they can get in there mouths ,so the ones that you have are great some more are krill ,mysis shrimp, daphnia , cyclops/cyclopeeze ,artemis .
In the day they like to nibble algae on the leaves so put some floating plants like duckweed or frogbit ,it all helps towards a mixed diet and will show there best colour .
As for flake lots of people use flake from BrineShrimpDirect.com which they say is excelent and contains astaxanthin which is a very good colour enhancement for reds and oranges ,hope this helps boff.

capekate

It helps alot!! Thanks for the suggestions... I will check out the site.

~ kate

boff

You know i was saying about rainbows will eat any insect that they can get in there mouths .This is a picture of a Boesmani with a fly ,the flies get in to this blokes tank and the Boesmanis go crazy for them .

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capekate

Hi Boff,
great photo!! Thanks for sharing...

~ kate

Butterfly

Yep the Thread fins will try to eat just about any thing but their mouths are really small.
I had mixed up veggie flakes, color flakes, shrimp pellets, freeze dried blood worms and veggie wafers and put them in the food processor(shhh don't tell ) until it was just about dust for small fry.
I had read that rainbows had a smaller throat than their mouth so needed small food and have been feeding them this mixture, maybe just the threadfins.
Boff do you think this is true?
Carol

capekate

Hi Butterfly
I also read that the rainbows had smaller throats and needed the small bits of food. I also used the freeze dried bloodworms, they really like them. I cut them up real tiny and fed them. They do like the tetra flakes a lot too.
You called them thread fins... is this a nickname for these type of fish?

~ kate

Butterfly

The scientific name of one group of mine is Iriatherina werneri commonly called Threadfins.
They are impossible to photograph well and this is the best I've seen on the 'net http://fishbase.sinica.edu.tw/summar...y.php?id=22673
They will get 1-1/2 to 2 inches, they are really active little things.
I have 10 in the 75G
Carol

boff

Hi that's true about there throats ,i know this by the hard way ,one of my boesmani picked up a pellet that was for my clown loaches and got it stuck in his throat and died ,so now i break them in half they still pick them up and eat them, but it does make me panic some times to see them with such a large thing in there mouths but it soon dissolves .I now have a new baby boesmani which is about 2" and he has no problem with flake or live-frozen food its quite funny to see him swimming around with a bloodworm hanging out of his mouth like spaghetti have seen a good recipe for a rainbow feed a bit like yours Butterfly so i will find it a post as soon as i can .boff

capekate

Hi Butterfly,
thanks for the photo, now I know why that species is called thread fins!
Very unusual fins and very pretty.

~ kate

Butterfly

ok this is the best I can get of my rainbows
pseudomugil furcatus and Iriatherina werneri (threadfin)
the thread fins tend to throw that top fin up and quiver it like a flag at other fish.
Carol

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capekate

Hi Butterfly
thanks for the photo. I love the green on that p. Furcatus. Very nice!
lol on the top fin of the threadfin, yep it looks like its waving a flag. These fish are so kewl.. I just love them.
And that site, Thatfishplace has so many varieties of rainbows there, its great to be able to check out all the different types there are.
Do all your species of rainbows get along with each other? I would like to get different types for my tank and would like to make sure they are all compatible.

~ kate

Butterfly

All of them do real well together and even school together. Where the threadfins throw up a "flag" the furcatus tend to turn red in the throat and belly. their cool to watch.
carol

capekate

Thanks Carol
I would really like to get a number of the different types of rainbows, thanks for letting me know that they all get a long.

~ kate

suer

Try putting a tank full with around 27 males & 5 to 6 females togather. The males square off with each other & chase each other around trying to protect what they have decided is there java moss. No real fighting but there always squaring off with each other. The dominat male is a Glossolipes multisquamatus (Emerald rainbow) & he gards the jave moss. The other day I watched my praecox spwan in the moss while the emerald was not paying attenion, it didn't take him long to eat all the eggs out of the moss. He's a bratt but there has to be a dominat. If you want to keep your tank peaceful buy females.

susitna-flower

Yes, but if you want color buy both! I have rainbows in each of my tanks, and love the variety! They get along with all the other fish, other than when my mollies have fry, the rainbows have eaten some when small.