Rainbowric

Melanotaenia maccullochi...pronounced McCulloch - eye, not mac - cul - lo'kee. Got to try and be exact here as there is a lot of confusion in the hobby about this species. Similar to trifasciata there are many variations to this fish. It was introduced into the hobby in 1935 so there was lots of time to create confusion about it. The maccullochi is a dwarf rainbowfish very seldom exceeding 6 cm in length. Most people up until a couple of years ago would recognize this fish looking similar to this... The full name for this variation was M. maccullochi "Harvey Creek". It is very important when discussing this fish that the location is added. This thread is mainly dedicated to the M. maccullochi "Skull Creek" Over that last few years this variation, Harvey Creek, has gotten quite weak and very unfortunately it is slowly disappearing from the hobby in Canada. What has happened in the hobby over the last couple of years.... not sure where the fault lies buy what the LFS is labelling and selling for M. maccullochi is a fish that looks similar to this.... The reason that I am mentioning this is that LFS all over North America are mislabelling this fish. This fish that they are selling I believe is called " Melanotaenia australis " and there are many variations of this fish also! Another common name used for the M. australis is "The eight line Rainbowfish" the "Red tailed Rainbowfish" and now they are calling them M. macculochi. When I went google searching for a picture of the M.australis I was shocked to see the many variations, in addition when I googled searched M. maccullochi there was many pictures that resembled the M. australis. So I do not believe that it is the LFS that is at fault for this. This mistake has been noted in Rainbowfish forums all over the world. Yet today I know of 2 LFS that still have this wrong label on the M. australis. I brought the M. maccullochi "Skull Creek" to Alberta almost 3 years ago. Bred hundreds of this fish and have distributed colonies throughout Canada. Have sold many to the LFS and they have asked for more! They are a great Rainbowfish if you have smaller tanks. A colony would survive quite nicely in a 20 gallon tank. This has been a very popular new fish to the hobby! They are a little shy and feel much more comfortable in a group, or if you have a pair they are always close together. Below is a M. maccullochi "Skull Creek" most are calling them "Skull Creeks" The male again has a little more fin...but cann't say that he is a whole lot brighter. The female of this species is as colorful as the male even when the male is displaying for her. The other thing that I have noticed is the female is usually larger than the male. Not so noticeable until she starts to produce eggs when at which time her appetite doubles to triple. Make sure she gets lots to eat at this time if you want eggs As I mentioned it is a dwarf Rainbowfish.... about the size of a M.praecox or common name "Neon Rainbowfish." Like I also mentioned they are also stick pretty close together and I have never seen any interbreeding between this fish and my other dwarfs in the community tank. Other males may try but the female will have nothing to do with them. I hope that I have cleared up some confusion about this species of Rainbowfish and I hope that you have enjoyed my pictures! Best regards Ric -------------------------------- "Melanotaenia boesemani from Lake Aytinjo" The Aytinjo variant does have stronger colours!

Melanotaenia trifasciata "Wonga Creek" .....quite popular in the USA. They regard it as there Red, White, and Blue Rainbowfish. Actually they figure in the USA that it is the second most popular trifasciata as I indicated in the Running Creek thread, I thought it would be third with the Running Creek second and the Goyder River first here in Canada. They all have similar personalities when it comes to sparing with other males and being a show off. The Goyder River is the biggest showoff of them all though! It is hard to get a decent picture of this fish and if you google them on the web you will not see many good pictures. My two pairs are in with two pairs of Goyder River, 1 pair or Running Creek, and my two, two year old boesemani. They are a little smaller and far from being the dominant fish in the tank. However they are gettting a little more bolder as they are a bigger fish then the Goyder River and are getting close to the same size. Below is a picture of one of my males.... And of course a female who's colors arn't quite as bright and like most females of other species of Rainbowfish the fins are shorter. I am looking forward to the day when they will start to challange my Goyder River and then see some real colors come out of this species! They make a great display when combined with other trifasciata's, showing lots of energy sparring with each other all day. Hopefully in a couple of months they will be sparring with the 2 Goyders that are in the same tank with them now. Even now though they are pretty nice to watch and still have a good attitude! Hope you have enjoyed! Best regards Ric -------------------------------- "Melanotaenia boesemani from Lake Aytinjo" The Aytinjo variant does have stronger colours!

Hard to say Jason without knowing where they come from. Some variations are really quite pale when young, some even white, even the strain I got from Gary's collection that came through Jeff, that I believe is the closest variation to the real thing, was quite pale at 2.5 inches. The one variation that I am running with from the LFS practically glows in the dark, another reason why I went with them besides them being so vibrant and prolific! Ok..... I am running out of tank space and they are smaller.... Other reasons for pale herbies and even the Running Creek. Stress! it has been a while since the auction so the stress of that should be over. Something in the tank may be bothering them. Taking a while to adapt to new surroundings. Hope you didn't get a pair of females! Two males could stress each other out. Doesn't take much to make yellow fade out to white with the yellow fish. I think my male herbies would be a lot more pale with out a female to play with! Eugene .... In most cases my Running Creeks have always been brighter then my herbies. Same reasons for the herbies to be pale, in addition maybe some of the weird live food you feed your fish might have upset him If any of the yellow species feel a little ill.... they will get pale. I have a Running Creek in my upper tank, eye level, brother to one in my lower tank, near the floor, and you would never think they were brothers. Is your praecox in with the larger fish. Usually they are okay with them but I have seen them fade out with the stress of being with bigger bows. I am sure that your fish are enjoying all the effort you put into giving them live food Eugene... Still to soon to right off your herbies Jason! Oh almost forgot, I think both of you have fairly heavily planted tanks so this shouldn't be an reason. But if you have lighter colored substrate. I was intending to put this in keeping Rainbowfish, but "Rainbowfish 101" the darker the substrate the more they will display there colors! This goes for all Rainbowfish! Ric

Hey Ron, I have about 3 different commercial kinds of brine shrimp hatcheries that you can look at. One for sale and the others I can tell you where to pick them up on line. Send me a PM if interested. Ric

Melanotaenia herberaxlerodi ...Mostly called the "Yellow Rainbowfish" in most of the LFS. However as you may have noticed with the trifasciata "Running Creek" they look fairly similar in coloration. What is worst is that there are a number of variations of this fish seen in the hobby. Like changes we have seen with the parkinsoni, boesemani, and trifasciata there are a number variations with the herbertaxlerodi. Breeders selectively breed to what they think that fish should look like and since the herberaxlerodi is at the top of the list for popularity and has been around since 1980 you can understand why there are so many selectively bred variations. A few members of ANGFA are suggesting that the fish should be collected again from the wild. Unfortuantely, I doubt if it would look like the originals! My first colony of the herberaxlerodi came from, as a lot of my species, Jeff Burch in London, Ontario. Jeff was very much into Genetic pooling and had 3 or 4 different variations that came from 3 or 4 very reputable breeders. They all appeared to look quite different so the group that I got from him, which I don't have today came from the Gary Lange collection. I do have a not very good picture of them, taken a couple of years ago with a point and shout camera, which also at the time, the only setting I knew on the camera was "Auto" ! The picture does not do this fish justice! This was fairly large fish when it's picture was taken...more than 4 inches which I have not seen any variations of the herby in any LFS that matches the size of this strain that Gary is preserving. This strain is still in Alberta and AA member geleen in Edmonton is maintaining it and has in the past offered it for sale. I have another strain which I obtained from the LFS. I was quite surprised at how nice it looked and figured that if I raised some myself from the egg in local water, I might even improve it more, however it never exceeded 3 inches in lenght. But it did breed true and there was no signs of any of the over 150 fish bred from it that might suggest it was a hybrid. I have a number of times in the past bred a fish that looked pure and was shocked at the young that it produced. This herby is one of the few species I have that originate from the LFS where as most of the rest of mine are traceable. It is an exciting little fish with lots of color and attitude! The thing that caught my eye in the LFS is they were spawning, just about all of them in the tank!!! and I didn't buy them the first or even the second time I saw them but every time I came in the males were lite up chasing the girls around and the girls were loving it!! Still today they are one of my most prolific species I have, spawning and providing a show for us daily. Below is a male from this strain.... The female ..... Every morning it is the same thing....male with the strip down his nose ......want to do it here dear.....! Can't we have a little privacy..... This herby and most of the other variations are a very happy Rainbowfish ....no not because it is so prolific! They are great as a target fish when you have a bunch of shy fish in the tank, helps the other fish to relax. One of the best community fish to obtain from the Rainbowfish group! They are... yes, very easy to bred and raise and no LFS will turn you away ... having a bunch to sell! They add a lot of color to your tank in more than one way. That is why I keep this LFS strain! Hope you have enjoyed! Best regards Ric -------------------------------- "Melanotaenia boesemani from Lake Aytinjo" The Aytinjo variant does have stronger colours!

The Melanotaenia trifasciata "Running Creek" in my mind is probably the second most popular trifasciata in Canada, Goyder River being first! The USA may argue that the Wonga Creek is second but in my Journal he will be published third. The species description was published in 1922 by Hialmar Rendahl, on the basis of one single specimen from the Mary River, in the Northern Territory. Why he proposed the name trifasciata, meaning literally "three-banded", is not very obvious when you look at live specimens. Many of you may think that the labelled yellow rainbowfish in your LFS ... is this fish. However prior to three years ago I have never seen this fish in any LFS and the yellow rainbowfish seen much was a variation of the M. herberaxlerodi which I will publish next after this one. I had this fish about 10 years ago that I recieved from Kent West in LA, California. At that time Kent was operating more than 500 tanks of Rainbowfish. The last male that I had from that bunch was huge, well over 5 inches. Largest fish in the tank, bright like the sun, and was god over all my other fish. I named him at that time Apollo ..the sun god! When I lost him I search many more years to obtain this species again. Three years ago .... again thanks to Jeff Burch in London, Ontarion I was able to get a mop of eggs from him and was able to bring the species back to Alberta. There were well over 200 fertile eggs in that mop and I raised every one of them. They were distributed amonst all the LFS in Calgary and a few of them labeled them "Yellow Rainbowfish" I have breed this fish a number of times over the last three years and have never had a disappointed LFS owner! Below is a picture of a couple of back up breeders that I have that are about 3.5 to 4 inches in lenght and about 1.5 years old. In my living room show tank is one of my first originals from Jeff that is almost 5 inches now at 3 years of age. The female Running Creek ....like most Rainbowfish females has shorter fins and not quite as bright in color. This pair has been together now for almost 3 years now and spawn weekly ! He is a pretty mellow laid back fish, nothing like the M. trifasciata "Goyder River" or the "Wonga Creek" unless someone is messing around with his girl! The lateral line on them gets quite dark blue almost black and the yellow really starts to glow when they get worked up. The two young males down in my fish room are like this most of the day as neither will back down from each other. Still one of my favorites and probaly my largest Rainbow ....The M. trifasciata "Running Creek" Hope you have enjoyed! Best regards, Ric -------------------------------- "Melanotaenia boesemani from Lake Aytinjo" The Aytinjo variant does have stronger colours!

Melanotaenia parkinsoni is another very old and still quite popular species of Rainbowfish. I was out this weekend and saw them in two of the LFS in Calgary. The parkinsoni was collected in 1978 by Gerry Allen and most of the population today would be from that collection. So this makes it one of the oldest rainbowfish species in the hobby. Like a lot of the first collected rainbowfish ...boesemani, Goyder River, and praecox it has deterioted considerably over the last 30 years. I have been outcross breeding parkinsoni now for almost a decade trying to bring it back to it original beauty. Three years ago I recieved a female from Jeff Burch who had recieved his colony from Gary Lange. I outcrossed it with my best male and today I think I have pretty much one of the finest parkinsoni around having inquires from the USA after posting some pictures on the US forum. This species is a very prolific breeder producing 100's of fry from a single pair quite easily in a few days. They do well in our declorinated Alberta tap water. Temperatures from 76 to 80 degrees is the best for these fish but they can do okay in cooler temperatures down to room temp. The fry are smaller than most rainbowfish species and will take a few more days on powder food, before taking to baby brine. Like the boesemani there are many designations on this species...Orient, Rot/orange, Red, Yellow, Marci, however there was only the orange and yellow variation collected. Even though the Marci is seen quite often in the LFS ...it is a hybrid! It is not in any one of the Science Journals today. Not a terribly bad looking fish, but being a hybrid one never knows what might come out of it breeding or what kind of behavior it might have. Below is a picture of my oldest male.....about 3 years of age and almost 5 inches in length. The next picture is him with his girl. They have been together since birth. They are in a community tank with many other species and they will not interbred with any other species .... only with each other. The female does not have as much, or any of the color of the male, and she also has much shorter fins. Seeing a female in the LFS, all you might see is a silver minnow. She may not be quite as pretty but if you don't have a girl for him you will miss much to be seen with the parkinsoni. Happy with her male she is not totally colorless. I was able to capture a picture of a Marci Rainbowfish a few weeks back. This one was well looked after, I don't think I have ever seen one in such fine shape... Still nothing though compared to the real parkinsoni! I wonder what these two are up to now !!!! These two definitely keep my catfish well feed with fresh eggs Hope you have enjoyed....will have some pictures of some young from this pair to post soon and some pairs looking for a new home! Best regards, Ric -------------------------------- "Melanotaenia boesemani from Lake Aytinjo" The Aytinjo variant does have stronger colours!

Just got a message from AA member syno321! I guess he will have a couple of young pairs in the Edmonton Auction this weekend! And he says they are sexed ...might not notice it in the bag though as being as young as they are...stressed ...they probably won't show so much color. I hope that when I do my thread on care and raising Rainbowfish he will let us know what diet he has these fish on as it was not long ago that he bred them. They might be a little pricey but they are of the same generation that my 2 year olds are .... for an idea Gary Lange put up a couple of trio's on Aquabid not to long ago .... same generation and probably about the same size as the pairs that syno321 is putting up. Check out how they went for bidding.... http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/closed.cgi?view_closed_item&fwrainbows1349484862 You guys have a great weekend up there in Edmonton ... sorry I can't make it! Good to hear from you Paul! Ric

Melanotaenia boesemani " Lake Aytinjo " Ok now for the most popular Rainbowfish of all .... and the most rarest of all M. boesemani !! Lake Aytinjo There are many M. boesemani available today. GRB : selective breeding in Germany Le Corte's : selective breeding in the US Red boesemani ...Super Red boesemani ... etc. etc. If you would like to see some pics of all of these different boesemani follow this link.. http://www.rainbow-f...r=asc= But actually most boesemani today originates from either the Lake Ayamaru collected in 1982 or Lake Aytinjo collected in 1998. Again the credit for preserving this great fish goes to Jeff Burch in London, Ontario. Jeff received some eggs in 2005 from a fellow ANGFA-NA member (Kevin Hosmer). Kevin said they were newly collected and would bring new blood to strengthen blood line in North America. Early in 2008 Heiko Bleher who discovered the Lake Aytinjo strain visited Jeff in London and identified them as being the Lake Aytinjo strain. You can read about this visit of Heiko, that he published in; http://www.aquapress...d=382&Itemid=65 The eggs were given to Jeff to raise and then outcross with the current M. boesemani stock in North America to strenghten, but Jeff kept them separate from his other stock. About 3 years ago while visiting Jeff in London he gave me 12 fry to bring back to Alberta. Of the 12 fry I ended up with 4 males. One trio went to a Master Breeder in Quebec, another trio went to a Master Breeder in Regina, and one went to AA member Syno321 who in my mind exceeds most Master Breeders, and of course I kept a pair. Later spring of 2011, I met AA member geleen who asked if I might be able to obtain some for him. I called my fellow breeder in Regina and he sent 20 of them back to me of which from I provided geleen with a colony. I kept a couple of pairs of that 20 as well and below is a few pictures of them. This male is almost 2 years old now... Of course like most of my species I have twins or triplets.... These fellows get a little excited when a female gets close to this mop! I still have my original pair that is about 3 years old now and still spawning at least every water change! below a pic of the male. He is in my living room community show tank and occasionally he might challange the C. fasciata "Faowi Village" for Alpha male position in the tank! Remember this Faowi is almost 5 inches in length! The Faowi is the Alpha male in the tank but I don't think that this boesemani would back down if he moved in on his female! This strain of boesemani is very rare ...why?? ... they take a very long time to mature..... and when they are young, they don't look a lot different then some of the $10.99 boesemani sold in the LFS. So breeders don't bred them often. geleen told me last month that he had 3 pairs that needed a home, without hesitation I told him that they were sold! I hope you have enjoyed this post. Best regards, Ric -------------------------------- "Melanotaenia boesemani from Lake Aytinjo" The Aytinjo variant does have stronger colours!

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Lake Wanam rainbowfish.....Glossolepis wanamensis ....Emerald Rainbowfish On with the wanamensis...This fish has had quite a few names. It was first collected by C. Ellway in 1975 but it wasn't until 1979 that they were scientifically described. Today they are extinct in the wild and there has been many efforts to restore them, with all of them failing! It was thought that this fish was even extinct in the hobby in North America until just a few years back a colony was discovered in London, Ontario by a Rainbowfish breeder by the name of Jeff Burch. Jeff has been maintaining his colony for well over a decade. They were identified by Heiko Bleher who originally discovered them in the wild while he visiting Jeff's fishroom in London. They are not easy to breed .... well I think that we have figured out how to now. Raising them are not that easy as well....but I think that we have figured out how to do that as well. I obtained my breeders from Jeff about 3 years ago, actually both my breeders and Gary Lange's breeders are from Jeff. So all of the "Pure" wanamesis being sold today in North America originate from Jeff's colony. Last year I bred and raised about 140 of them. I shipped them to breeders in the USA, Eastern Canada, and BC. Plus many of them were distributed here in Alberta. You will have seen many in the LFS over the years but it is doubtfull that they were pure. Pure strains many years ago ended up being crossed with other species from the Glossolepis family by mistake and it also made it considerably easier to breed, and the slight changes in the fish were hardly noticeable. I did post a number of pictures last year in the Livestock Classified section.. you might recognize this one. He was about 6 or 7 months old then. Well they have grown and starting to look much more like the wanamesis pictures published in the Science Journals. Very hard to capture the true color of these fish with a camera. They look much better in a dark tank with black substrate and when you use a flash...you need a fair amount....and if you use to much they reflect some of the flash back at you. A have two males that are almost twins that like to pose for me These two are great to watch! Even though I have none available and won't be breeding any soon I believe that we will see these again soon available in Alberta! Hope you have enjoyed these photo's Best regards Ric -------------------------------- "Melanotaenia boesemani from Lake Aytinjo" The Aytinjo variant does have stronger colours!

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M. trifasciata "Goyder River" .......Lets see what can I say that hasn't been heard about the Goyder River? Being that it is probably in the top 3 most popular, most common species of Rainbowfish along with the M. praecox and M. boesemani joining it. It was one of my first Rainbowfish and I have bred it more times than any other species. Very easy to bred ....I had one female once that would spawn in the bag while being transported! Adapts to just about any water conditions .... Alberta tap water being one of it's favorite. Fry are pretty large .... feed a couple of days with power food then it will take live baby brine. Then watch it grow. In 4 or 5 months you have a brightly colored fish! If you are ever worried about breeding a fish and not finding homes for it don't even think about it with the Goyder River. I have sold many to all of the LFS in Calgary and when I advertise on AA ...they go the quickest of any species I have advertised. The Goyder River was famous in Australia when it was first collected. People would steal the fish out of there National Aquarium. It has been collected numerous times throughout the years and slight variances of this species is present in the hobby. However the one variance that is most desirable amonst collectors is the original "Royal Regal". Why Royal Regal ...because of the deep dark blue in it with the brightest red which is found in most variances. The deep blue is what appears to be missing in other variances of the Goyder River. I have been blending many variances over the years to try and obtain that one variance that made the Royal Regal Goyder River. I have blended at least 4 different variances and through the years got rather close. Gary Lange lost his colony of his originals a couple of years back but fortunately the fish left some eggs in a mop in the tank before they were lost. Gary raised them up and sent me a mop of eggs 7 months ago. I am pleased to post some pictures of this strain that Gary has been preserveing now for almost 15 years. These fish are still only 7 months old .... you would think that they were fully mature! Another reason why the Goyder River is so popular is they are very active and always showing themselves off! These pictures are of them just sparring with each other .... bring a women in the picture and be amazed at the colors from this fish. I have been looking and working very hard for almost a decade now to obtain the Royal Regal Goyder River.. now finally I have them! I hope that you are enjoying them as much as I ....will be sure to get some more photo's up when they finally mature! Regards Ric -------------------------------- "Melanotaenia boesemani from Lake Aytinjo" The Aytinjo variant does have stronger colours!

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Ok I promised you some pictures of some young C. fasciata "Faowi Village" ......but first! I heard that there will be some bags of young C. fasciata "Faowi" at this weekends auction in Edmonton! There will be probably more rainbows as the president of the Edmonton Club has good stock and is a pretty good breeder of Rainbowfish. Anyway the ones I know that are going up are from a very good breeder here in Calgary. He uses even more live food for his young then I do so these fish will have a good start in life. Many ask me why buy young white unknown minnows when I can buy them larger with more color in the LFS. First... most of these young whiter minows are from reputable local breeders. Jayba once did a post about some baby plecos he had for sale. He stated that you could buy them from him now at much less then 1/2 the price or later when they are grown at full price. So price is usually cheaper! In the USA now to buy any quality rainbowfish from a reputable breeder you would be lucky to find one over 1.5 inches. They usually sell them in a bag of 6 and you usually recieve 7 or 8. Well you can raise them for a couple of months, pick out the nicest pair .....or two and sell the others to help pay for your initial investment. Fish take a major beating being transported to stores. Sure they may be alive when you purchase them, but for how long, or will they ever produce young for you, or will they look there best when they are mature. When you get them young they will be raised in your care, so they will probably be better fish and live longer. Must breeders aren't going to be breeding hybrids or the weak, so the fish you get from them will probably be pure and of good genetics. The other reason why breeders are selling fish so young is shipping costs. The bigger the fish, the more water and water is weight and up goes the cost to ship. Lately in the states the fish are even getting smaller as shipping costs are rising. Ok so a pic of a young.... this young one is not even 24 hours old yet! What you can't see it ......well lets blow up the pic a bit. It is amazing what you can see with a Canon T4i with a 18 megapixel sensor and a 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens. Jayba was kind enough to give me access to his photobucket account and permission to use any of his pictures in my Journal! This is a picture of a young Foawi Village boy he once had that was almost 2.5 inches.... Here is shadowed by a Angel fish about 3 times his size. Here is a picture of one of my young males ....this fellow came right off of one of Gary Lange's breeders...almost 3 inches long! Interesting how I acquired this nice group of 3 pairs that came right from Gary's breeders. AA member jcdg won a bunch of eggs that Gary auctioned off last year at Calgary's 2011 Spring workshop. Justin raised them up to almost 2 inches, then gave them to me! I don't think he realized what he had. Here is another male with a female just above him. And now for the picture that I promised you that was 1 in a billion ever to be taken!!! Wish I could claim taking it You can see the small herring that the whale is feeding on jumping around the boat....Don't go Kayaking in a school of herring...I guess the Kayaker did make it back to shore safely..... When I get around to my care and raising rainbowfish post I will pass on a number of tips that will help you bring out the colors like I have with these pictures of young males that I have just posted. Best Regards Ric -------------------------------- "Melanotaenia boesemani from Lake Aytinjo" The Aytinjo variant does have stronger colours!

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This thread is about a specific species. I was wondering which species I should put in first. My first thoughts were to go with the most popular however after attending last weekend's Calgary Aquarium Society Auction I thought I should do a thread on this species right away. I was surprised and noticed that there was a number of bags of this fish that went up for auction. I found out who put them up and they came from a good breeder. I thought I would let those people know what they really got! It does not look like much up until about 2 inches in lenght and the ones at the auction weren't much more than an inch. Actually up until an 2 inches they look rather pathetic.. Jayba did a thread of this species last year in the Freshwater Photography section .... unfortunately he removed many of his good pictures of the fish when it was young. But there are still many pictures posted by other owners left, showing what the fish looks like after 2 inches. http://albertaaquati...opic=32406&st=0 This fish is relatively new to the hobby and was first collected by Gary Lange in 2005. I brought this fish to Alberta around 2010 after recieving a colony of them from a fellow breeder of Rainbowfish in London, Ontario. The colony that I recieved had been bred down already 2 generations from Gary's breeders that Gary had collected. The ones in the pictures would then be ones that I bred, now 3 generations down from Gary's. This fish is amazing with colors ...not bright brilliant but ever changing multiple colors changing all the time with his mood, personality, and the conditions he is in. Of course he looks his best in a planted tank and worse in a bare tank. Probably won't see many of these in the LFS because of that. Very high energy for a Rainbowfish, swimming circles around most other rainbowfish. He is one of the easiest Rainbowfish to breed .... in fact he is one of the few species that will let young live and grow up with them. Most will eat there own eggs and if the egg survives, the fry make a tasty snack. I am not going to say much more about this fish as there is plenty been said about it in the thread that Jayba posted......except there are at least two other very good breeders in Alberta ...besides myself, that are breeding this species. So a person should be able to acquire this fish rather easy. This is a picture of my older guy, three generations from Gary's breeders, would be a brother to the pics in Jayba's post, now about 2 years old! The female to this species has less color and finage, unfortunately as most of the other species of rainbows. The more females he has around ...the more he likes to show off! And you will probably never see him in full color like this without a female in the tank with him! If you think this fellow looks nice .... well he does ...but I have a young colony of this species that are direct from Gary's breeders that are starting to look pretty nice. I hope to add some of there photos to this thread later this month. Hope you enjoyed and for the ones who the bid on all the young at last week's auction ....they will be of the same generation as this one above and the breeder who bred them knows what he is doing ....... you got yourselves a good deal! Best regards Ric -------------------------------- "Melanotaenia boesemani from Lake Aytinjo" The Aytinjo variant does have stronger colours!

Many of you know of me now ... and many of you have obtained fish from me in the past. In addition there has been a number of breeders that have started up in Western Canada that have obtained stock from me .....actually I have shipped fish all over Canada to breeders. I have bred over 40 species of Rainbowfish, some that are quite difficult and others that do it quite simply on there own. There is not much challenge left in breeding Rainbowfish for me. The only challenge left for me is to restore some of the older severely inbred, weakened species that were once beautiful fish, and then maintain them. Recently I have become, with the assistance of some very good photography equipment, very intrigued with the hobby of photography as well. My time with breeding and raising Rainbowfish has become quite limited. I still breed a few species but considerably less then I have in the past. I hope with the information I will be posting in this section it will assist people that have started to keep and raise Rainbowfish to continue to enjoy this fish as much as I have over the years. Rainbowric's Journal ...... What am I going to add to this journal? Threads on specific species of Rainbowfish with pictures of course! I will be starting threads on caring of Rainbowfish.....on breeding Rainbowfish....and obtaining Rainbowfish. Threads will be directed on shipping of fish and obtaining specific supplies. The latest information on new Rainbowfish to the hobby. ie.. the stripped praecox has been collected and will be distributed next year. And of course "Photography of fish"....and not just Rainbowfish! I welcome posts from other Rainbowfish owners but also urge many to PM me to discuss there comments before posting them in this section. Since I am the only one that can start a thread in my Journal, if anyone has something of interest that they would like me to post, please PM me and we can get started on it! I hope that every post can be of interest to all. I hope to start a breeders thread so that people will know who has what fish and where and when they might obtain them. Breeders will be welcome to post in this thread. Sincerely Ric -------------------------------- "Melanotaenia boesemani from Lake Aytinjo" The Aytinjo variant does have stronger colours!

Great shots Irene! I can see that you are on your way to being a Pro! Regard Ric

I have a few, could probably ship them up to you Parcel Post. What size do you need?

Looks like a home that any rainbowfish couldn't turn down, however these are not just any rainbowfish. The Great G. wanamensis (The Emerald Rainbowfish) from Lake Wanam a very warm lake that averaged around the 80 to 82 degree range. This is the temp that this rainbowfish really excells at. The wanam is now extinct in the wild and many efforts to restore has failed and up until recently is was assumed in the USA that the true wanamensis was very close to being extinct from the captivity. But a we found a group of the last remaining species, and figured it out, that this fish likes warm water. This guy pictured below is still young and only just over 2 inches in length, and fins still short, but starting to grow out quite nice. I believe your wish for a school of these guys to fill this tank is going to come true Jay! Regards, Ric

Hey Vince, has Dan got any fry yet? If your hatching tank is around 80 degrees, no fry in 8 days the mop is empty. Oh btw plecos love to eat fish eggs out of mops at night!