Fourth Type Of Rainbowfish?

Relatively new fish keeper here, you can look at my posts to find my 155 gallon bowfront tank thread in the aquarium builds to see more details about the aquarium.

Gave my 10-year-old daughter choice of which of several different groups of fish would be the "feature" fish for this large tank that came with our house. She chose rainbows. We currently have:
6 Dwarf Neon: I think they are split three and three
6 Boesemani: I think we have 2 male, two female
4 Millennium: three male, one female

Note the sex identification above is still somewhat tenuous, these are all still juveniles and I am simply not good yet at telling. I also yell roll call to try to get them to line up and would not you know it, they just do not listen. 16 rainbow fish swimming around each other are certainly Energetic, at least they are in my tank.

I have a quarantine tank that should be done cycling in a week or two, and it is another three to four weeks before I can add any fish to the main tank, So my thought was to try to pick something up as soon as the ammonia nitrate readings drop to zero for the quarantine tank and get the group of rainbow so I can watch them. I have already had one bout of ich in my first month with this tank, so not anxious for a repeat of that – thus the quarantine.

I know the recommendation is to get two more millennium to bring their group to 6, but I easily have enough room in the tank to add another group of six. I wondered what type you would suggest? I am in Florida at that makes a difference for how easy it is to acquire different species. I would like something that added a different color or set of colors.

What would you suggest for the final group of rainows?

 

Chilatherina Rainbowfish? Bedotia Rainbowfish?

 

ParkinsonI rainbowfish.

 

You have an interesting mix, because boesemanI is orange or yellow. praecox blue and milleniums red. That means males don't dislike each other. Similarity breeds conflict.

Florida is a land of fishfarms, so if you have non Petwhatever stores, you have a good chance of good rainbows. What has similar behavior but different colours?
Melanotaenia maccullochI (browns and reds, but very nice)
Chilatherina bleherI (variable colours)
M splendida (mixed colours)

You want to avoid male on male aggression. I love Melanotaenia kamaka, and it may or may not have conflict with praecox. M lacustris, another blue beauty, can be more aggressive.
I like both herbertaxelrodI and parkinsoni, which I also expect would work.

 

What would you think about emerald rainbow fish? Glossolepis wanamensis is I think the scientific name. I think the two larger species I have will get to five or 6 inches long, with the dwarf neon closer to three. These look like they would be larger than the dwarf neons yet smaller than the others, and that emerald green color would certainly be a different main color.Beyond a few photos of them that I have seen I do not know much else about this particular species.

I am grabbing pictures of each of the kinds suggested from the web to share with my family. I am also reading up both on the species I have and those suggested so I can learn more about rainbow fish as a whole. There is also, of course, a question of how easy some of these will be to get and/or at what cost. I greatly appreciate the suggestions already made as well as any more that come in.

 

Melanotaeniidae and Pseudomugilidae

That is an outstanding site for info.

G wanamensis. I didn't mention it because it is extremely rare and costs an arm and a leg. There is a hybrid out there, between wanamensis and multisquamata. Since wanamensis is an endangered fish that is much sought after, they are sold under the wanam name. They are beautiful fish in their own right. I bought some in Canada a few years ago for $14 each. As hybrids, they were way less costly.

There are tons of rainbows, as you can see, and some that are available (most aren't) will cost an arm and a leg. I have pedigree boesemanI from a wild collection, and if you look at these completely undoctored pictures, they can be different from the pet shop versions. Ones like this or rarer species can start at $50 each and go up.
The ones I suggested are all generally affordable.

 

Thanks, that helps! While we have invested an awful lot in getting this tank up and running, I do not think I am willing to drop $300 to get a school of six Emerald at this point in time. I liked a bunch of your suggestions as well, I was just trying to get a step before I bring my daughter down to decide on a couple and then to start looking around to see if they are available.

On a side note, I am already starting to see color in the millennium after having them in the tank for only three weeks. It was little if any color when they were first added. I was told stress and of course, the fact that they are juveniles both meant that the color really did not show. Our boesemanI have the yellow tales and are starting to get markings on their anterior, it looks like they will be the fairly typical farm red blue yellow's. I am hoping that they do show some variation as adults. The red fins on the dwarf neons for the males have become very distinct from those of the females or I just became better at spotting the difference. They have started to really show their iridescence as they flash in the light.

 

Thanks, that helps! While we have invested an awful lot in getting this tank up and running, I do not think I am willing to drop $300 to get a school of six Emerald at this point in time. I liked a bunch of your suggestions as well, I was just trying to get a step before I bring my daughter down to decide on a couple and then to start looking around to see if they are available.

On a side note, I am already starting to see color in the millennium after having them in the tank for only three weeks. It was little if any color when they were first added. I was told stress and of course, the fact that they are juveniles both meant that the color really did not show. Our boesemanI have the yellow tales and are starting to get markings on their anterior, it looks like they will be the fairly typical farm red blue yellow's. I am hoping that they do show some variation as adults. The red fins on the dwarf neons for the males have become very distinct from those of the females or I just became better at spotting the difference. They have started to really show their iridescence as they flash in the light.

Can I have a picture of your boesemanis? I want to see if mine are looking as good as yours. Would that be okay?

 

the bowfront I just tried to take a few pictures, and the fish are not cooperating! When I am far enough back that there and focus I am far enough back you cannot tell many details. When I try to get closer the camera on my not super expensive smart phone could not keep up with the changes and mostly got blur. That having been said here is a couple that show two of the boesemani:

Boesemani

• BrettMad
• Aug 4, 2017

Boesemani

• BrettMad
• Aug 4, 2017

And I ended up getting one nice one of one of my millennium...

millennium

• BrettMad
• Aug 4, 2017