Neon Dwarf Rainbow fish for a 29 gallon high

Hello,

I have a well established 29 gallon high that is completely empty atmo, and I was thinking about getting 6 Neon Dwarf Rainbow fish.

The tank would just have the rainbow fish, along with shrimp, and maybe a few Oto's. There aren't any live plants in the tank currently but I plan on getting some before adding any fish.

Would this be ideal? I have 0 experience with rainbow fish but I know they are very active - I wanted to hear peoples personal accounts with keeping this fish in similar sized tanks.

 

I have some in a larger tank with other larger Rainbowfish but I think a 29 is big enough for that stocking. You'll need some dense plants/moss for the shrimp to hide in.

 

Hello,

I have a well matured & empty 29 gallon tank which I plan to grow lots of live plants in. There are so many options of fish, but I was just wondering if anyone had any thoughts or experience with my current stocking ideas for this tank. I am looking for fish that aren't too demanding, are peaceful, and will thrive in a planted 29 gallon high - the goal is to understock and keep it simple. I usually do 30% water changes every few weeks with my tanks.

Option 1: 5-6x Dwarf Neon Rainbow fish, and some shrimp

Option 2: 5-6x Columbian tetras, maybe some Cory Cats

Option 3: 8x ember tetras, maybe shrimp and Cory cats

I'm pretty open, but I want to stay away from dwarf cichlids as I want it to be a very peaceful tank.

 

I quite like option 3, but with more embers and maybe galaxy rasboras as well?

 

I quite like option 3, but with more embers and maybe galaxy rasboras as well?

I have never considered Galaxy Rasboras but will look into them, thank you.

 

My wife likes rainbow fish and we decided 4 feet is the minimum length with 200 litres/ 55 gallons being the size of tank we feel is minimum long term. They are very active and still reach almost 4 inches with a tall body.

What I did when my wife wanted rainbows and we were looking at larger fish is cut out cardboard fish and place them on the outside. Doing this we decided a school of large rainbow didn’t look like what we wanted to see In a 55 gallon.

6 dwarf rainbow fish is not a school. It’s nothing like enough in my opinion to show the natural behaviour. Remember these guys spawn every day and the males display to each other to decide how’s the man about town.
Unless you can have a school of 12 dwarf rainbows in a bigger tank pick another species is my opinion.

How about the Pacific blue eyes and pseudomugil or tread fin rainbows in a large school for the 29?

pseudomugil
Pseudomugil gertrudae

 

My wife likes rainbow fish and we decided 4 feet is the minimum length with 200 litres/ 55 gallons being the size of tank we feel is minimum long term. They are very active and still reach almost 4 inches with a tall body.

What I did when my wife wanted rainbows and we were looking at larger fish is cut out cardboard fish and place them on the outside. Doing this we decided a school of large rainbow didn’t look like what we wanted to see In a 55 gallon.

6 dwarf rainbow fish is not a school. It’s nothing like enough in my opinion to show the natural behaviour. Remember these guys spawn every day and the males display to each other to decide how’s the man about town.
Unless you can have a school of 12 dwarf rainbows in a bigger tank pick another species is my opinion.

How about the Pacific blue eyes and pseudomugil or tread fin rainbows in a large school for the 29?

pseudomugil
Pseudomugil gertrudae

I appreciate your take on this. I am exploring threadfin rainbow fish as an alternative for a single species tank, I'll have to keep researching them. If you or anyone else has any experience with threadfin rainbows please add any input on them.

 

They are very active and still reach almost 4 inches with a tall body.

Dwarfs? Mine have maxed out at a little over 2.5" (about 7cm).

 

Yeah GlennO there is definitely some variation in size. I have them from four sources that I believe all came from the CSIRO project to try and keep the species alive from a few years back. A group raised by my local club member without any heavy feeding is staying smaller into adult life than those I spawned from a similar CSIRO bloodline and power feed baby brine . Another lot brought at auction from a , how can I say this “ organic “ fish keeper that hardly feeds his adults at all failed to thrive past 12 months.

Something I should mention to our international readers is in Australia the recreational fishing community measures fish including their tails. I believe the US does not count the tail.
I know where you live GlennO and like you it’s been many years since I used the imperial system of measurements.

I am not about to catch my biggest male to put him a tape measure. You are probably correct he may be closer to 3 than 4 inches.?