Rainbowric

Congrats guys, you are just starting to see these amazing prolific little fish. When the girls start to produce they eat like little pigs. If they don't get enough they will eat their eggs. Maybe invest in a package of frozen spiralina enhanced brine shrimp. Sally's is the best. I was getting 100 eggs in less than a week from one girl! Ric

Last winter when I bred this fish, Jayba and jcgd posted a number of pictures of the young ones they got from me at the start of this thread, to share with you. They have grown!!! Not sure what Jayba and jcgd fish looks like now but I thought that I would post a picture of the brother to the ones they have. He was not happy that I was taking his picture Guess he would be getting close to a year old. There are a couple of breeders in Alberta...breeders in Edmonton and Calgary that have some young from this strain! Regards Ric

No...have not thought about that...maybe...will have to put some thought into it. Ric

Four new species of Rainbowfish in Calgary, new to Canada this year! This boy still a young fish at 1.5 years of age. Will get to 5 inches in length....at least 50 gallon tank required. A number of Rainbowfish collectors in Alberta have this species. Might reach 5 inches - at least 50 gallon tank required. This boy is the only one here that is an F1, couple of pairs of these went for $500 last week on Aquabid! This fish can get up to 6 inches. This fish is a little shy, needs a girl or two, and some competition to really bring out his colors! Geleen I believe is breeding out a bunch of these this fall in Edmonton. Maybe 4.5 inches...at least 50 gallon tank required. This is just a small sample of some of the Rainbowfish in Alberta! Best regards Ric The Lake Aytinjo strain of M. boesemani colors are by far more intense!

I agree with jcgd about the heater choice. I have at least 30 or 40 of them. I can set up a egg hatching tank for 82 degrees in a moment by just plugging in the heater. Right on to what it was set at before, over and over again. As far a thermometers, + or - 2 degrees may be fine for a standard fish tank setup but for hatching I don't want to exceed 83 degrees but want at least 82 for quick hatchout. I have at least 30 of the different cheap thermometers available in the LFS, but I bought two, but only really needed the one from Dynamic Aqua Supply in Burnaby BC. http://www.dynamicaqua.com/thermometers.html#lab Bought one of the 12 inch General Purpose Thermometers @ $15.50 to use to check all my thermometers and then I bought the 18″ PRECISION THERMOMETER $45.00 to check my 12 inch general purpose thermometer..... last year. Since then they still both read within 0.1 degrees of each other. Good stuff, accurate and repeatable but careful they are glass and can break easily. Play with the cheap ones and take out of the china cabinet the good one only if needed. Regards Ric

I'm starting up a tank of shrimp specifically for feeders for my rainbows to see if it has any effect on their coloration. If nothing else, at least it's another source of live food. For the last couple of weeks I have been feeding live blackworms to the brothers and sisters of these fish and all the colors have intensified considerably , including the yellow! Not to forget to mention considerable growth. No doubt blackworms are not only for the stingrays and discus. :thumbs: I think that I will have to try and convince one of these photographers to come over and take a picture of mine.

Water flowing conditions is not important to rainbowfish as I move mine back and forth from my show tanks to breeding tanks. Breeding tanks are sponge filter only. High flow is not wanted, as less eggs will be fertilized. They spawn in both flowing conditions, so they must be happy. There is a Melanotaenia herbertaxelrodi and there is a Chilatherina axelrodi. I am assuming you would like the M. herbertaxelrodi. Be aware that pure herbys are very hard to find in the LFS. There are many yellow rainbows available in the LFS. If you see a white one in a LFS it might be a herby! Herbys take a long time to develope the bright yellow colors they have. Probably why you don't see them in the LFS much. If you are fortunate to get a real one, and you are patient enough, you will have a very beautiful rainbowfish. If you talk nice to geleen, I know that he acquired a dozen juveniles of a very nice strain of M. herberaxlerodi a couple of months back. He might be able to sex them now and maybe he might be able to provide you with a pair.

Awesome shots Jay!!! More please.... :thumbs:

Add to that list: Chilatherina alleni"Siriwo", Glossolepis maculosus. And I'm presently hatching out Melanotaenia macullochi( the real ones). Very much look forward to working with these species. It is good to see everyone post the species of Rainbowfish that they have in there collection. Again we are so fortunate that Gary Lange has brought all these excellent "purebred" fish to Western Canada. He has however potentially added some confusion to us as well by introducing strains of the same species that look quite different from each other. It is important that we include the name of the strain of the species. One example is the Glossolepis maculosus. We have two strains in Alberta now. The strain that syno321 and jcgd got from Gary is the G. maculosus "ANGFA strain". We don't want to crossbred these two strains and end up with a G. mac "Alberta strain" :rofl: Oh yes, I have had a number of people ask me lately what does ANGFA stand for? "Australia New Guinea Fishes Association" and for more information about ANGFA go to: http://www.angfaqld.org.au/ Glossolepis maculosus " European Strain" After finding out from Gary that there was two groups of the ANGFA strain coming up I was able to convince him to bring me a group of the European Strain. As you can see they look quite different than the ANGFA strain. The ones I got are about half the size of the ones that the two of you acquired. Maybe by Christmas with a lot of luck I might have some juveniles available. The G. maculosus, either ANGFA or European is a great little rainbowfish. It is the smallest species of the Glossolepis Genus with a maximum size of about 3 inches but is usually around 2 inches in size. You could house and bred a nice group of these in a 20 gallon tank! Buy any chance the strain of Melanotaenia maccullochi that you have wouldn't be the "Skull Creek" as I have the nicest female of one that needs a male? M. maccullochi, what ever strain is another nice little rainbow that you could raise and breed nicely in a 20 gallon tank. M. maccullochi "Skull Creek"

Those appear to be eggs from a species of rainbowfish that lays very large eggs. Also they are probably not freshly laid, more likely 4-7 days after the spawn as they grow daily after spawn. I never trust my eyesite with a mop that is still in the tank. As Adrian Tappin suggests in his book, take the mop out and gently squeeze out excess water or allow to drip dry. The eggs will then stand out like little glass beads against the dark colored strands of the spawning mop. In the very first post that Jayba made, at the end of his post he gave everyone a valuable link to a free downloadable book. Here is that link again.. http://rainbowfish.angfaqld.org.au/Book.htm The book, just under 500 pages is written by a fellow who is very respected amonst experienced breeders of Rainbowfish. Download the screen version which is a PDF and I believe starting Page 88 of the PDF file or Page 80 of the book is all the information you will need with illustrations and pictures to help you to identify rainbowfish eggs, how to handle them, what to do with them, etc. The book is very easy to read and understand. If you have a rainbowfish, this book is a must have! :thumbs: The screen version is 55 MB while the print version is 170 MB so either will take some time to download. I printed out about half of it, running out of a number of ink cartridges, it came to the size of a small phone book. The best book you will ever need and it is FREE!

I got some M. parva from Gary as well, ~20 of them as I picked up a group for a breeder in Regina, and a member of AA here in Calgary. They are on a heavy diet of live baby brine 2 to 3 times a day and are growing like weeds. Most have colored up and I have even seen one displaying which makes you think possibly some eggs might happen. I do think that they are still a little young to produce viable eggs though. Rainbowfish eggs are quite distinct and as Syno321 said they don't look much like snail eggs. Google "Rainbowfish eggs" and you will find lots of info on rainbowfish eggs and even some good pictures.

No...they do not require a planted tank, but they will look a lot nicer in a planted tank. Rainbows love plants. In my grow out tanks I will place a couple of pieces of anubias in with them. Anubias doesn't require much light and is quite hardy and I can move them easily from tank to tank. Hanging a mop of green yarn in the corner excites them quite a bit as well. :rofl: Another mistake that a lot of people make when they buy rainbows from the LFS is they buy the brightest colored ones with the most finage. These are usually the males. It really saddens me when I see a tank of rainbows in the LFS with females only in it. If you buy just males you will not see them color up and show off to the females. They will probably look better in your tank as they will not be as stressed as they are in the store. But you will never see them at there best! The females in the LFS will usually look horrible, they have less color and the fins are not as long and most times no color at all in the fins. They are quite stressed with all the males in the tank and usually don't get as much to eat as the males. In your tank, alone with a male, feed properly they will look considerably better, probably better than what the male looked like in the store, and the male will respond to her much more. As well a community tank full of males usually ends up being quite stressfull and will put considerably more load on your bio-load. Thus a bad taste for rainbowfish developes with the owner. Unfortunatly also for the LFS owner he needs to increase his price on the fish to compensate for poor sales. Some will even stop bringing them in especially if there tank of females does not sell. A hate to think what might happen to the girls then. For an example I have seen tanks of the millenium rainbow (males bright red, females white)a week or so later with only white females left in it. A real shame as the females will turn a real pretty gold when happy with a male, and the male will turn the brightest red ever with her.

Thanks John for volunteering the information as to the where about of some of the eggs and fish that Gary brought up. Looking forward to doing a trade with you for a pair or two of those Melanotaenia splendida splendida "Deepwater Creek" I like to add a few words about the Melanotaenia boesemani " Lake Aytinjo" that we now have as I have a number of people asking me about them. What is significant about the "Lake Aytinjo"? You are now 1 of the 3 breeders of Lake Aytinjo that I know of in Western Canada preserving this beautiful boesemani. I have noticed in the LFS many names placed on the M. boesemani, just Boesemani, Red Boesemani, Super Red Boesemani, etc. etc. Most of these I believe, some washed out F10 - 20 , some hybrids, and possibly some hormone treated. The boesemani that you and I have came from Jeff Burch who lives 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-bleher.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=382&Itemid=65 Heiko's article "JEFF BURCH – RAINBOWFISH BREEDER IN LONDON, ONTARIO" also highlights Jeff's efforts in preserving the C. bleheri and M. lacustis for which he has strains that he collected in 1983. It was in 1983 that Jeff changed his focus to Rainbowfish from breeding Discus, managing up to 225 tanks and selling fish wholesale to the LFS. Oh yes Jeff has many more species than I. Back to the Lake Aytinjo boesemani, I have never seen a more vibrant coloured boesemani anywhere which is natural. When these guys light up for the female you would think that it is a salt water fish. They are pretty fast as a bird could see them from quite a distance when they would light up in the lake. Unfortunately they take a long time to mature, probably why we don't see them in the LFS. However they can live a long time. Jeff still has a group of fish living today from those eggs that he got as a gift from Kevin. I have attached a couple of pictures of my young males, that unfortunately are not displaying for females or other males in a unplanted tank. I would also like to thank Paul Mansfield for taking these photos with just a point and shout camera when he visited my fish room during the CAS workshop. There is however another M. boesemani strain that we should watch for as eggs were sold at the Calgary Aquarium Society spring workshop. Gary Lange brought up a egg kit for the "Lacorte Strain" I hear that they are very nice boesmani as well!

Very nice post Jay. Hopefully we will get some good discussions about rainbowfish going with it. I like the way you have it set up that if you click on any one of your images it will take you to your photobucket collection of photo's and I must say you have got some of the nicest images of the M. trifasciata "Wonga Creek" that I have seen. Not to forget to mention that he has been in your tank for less than a week. Google M. trifasciata "Wonga Creek" and you will see what I mean. Maybe someday when you are by you can show me how to do this with photobucket? What I would like to add at this time to your general discussion of "Introduction to Rainbowfish" is a few words about the Genus "Chilatherina". We were doing a little bit of discussion about the Chilatherina fasciata "Faowi Village" in your post in the Freshwater Photography section. http://albertaaquatica.com/index.php?showtopic=32406 I think that this post will be better suited here in General Discussion. Up until fall of 2009 the only species from the Chilatherina Genus that I have seen in Alberta, and when I am on business trips to B.C, Sask, and Man. I would stop into a number of different LFS, is the Chilatherina bleheri. Seldom seen, and the quality of them was less than good. Characteristics of this fish is very similar to that I what we have spoke of the Chilatherina fasciata "Faowi Village" in the Photography section, peaceful, swift moving, and changing colors with the different moods of the fish. The first pair I had many years ago when the wife and I didn't have a lot of fish and we named them all, we named this pair Fred (Astaire) and Ginger (Rogers). In comparison to our other rainbows in our tank they moved around the tank like Fred and Ginger on the dance floor. I think that it is wonderful now that we have available in Alberta, four species from the Chilatherina Genus and possibly 5 by the end of 2011. Thanks to Gary Lange and his efforts in coming up to Alberta to both the Edmonton and Calgary spring workshops to tell us about rainbowfish and also bringing specimens of them with him, donating the sales of a dozen plus egg kits to each club he gave presentations to, we now have excellent strains of: Chilatherina bleheri Chilatherina fasciata "Faowi Village" Chilatherina alleni "Siriwo" Chilatherina campsi "Wahgi River" Thanks Gary and hopefully we will see you again up here in Canada. :thumbs:

All these great pictures of juveniles...well they are about 9 months old and I hear that they are spawning regularly! Against my better judgement I thought that I would post a couple of pictures of dad. He is getting close to two years old and almost 5 inches in length. He has not got quite as much yellow as the picture of Gary's male posted in my earlier post. Maybe to much meat, but then I think that he needs lots of high quality protein as his two girls keep him on the go. He does like veggie flake but then he likes to eat what ever I give him. I haven't got much of a camera, just a point and shot and as mentioned in earlier posts these fish are a very fast moving, so please try to overlook my photography expertise. I won't be breeding him for a while as someone from Calgary got an egg kit at the CAS spring workshop from Gary Lange and I hear that he has got a bunch of healthy fry from it! This species of rainbowfish, genus "Chilatherina" is very prolific, and it is quite easy to obtain 2 to 3 hundred eggs from a trio in a week. They are a lot of fun and quite easy to breed.

Nice pictures Jayco especially since this species of rainbowfish is very hard to catch on film. They are a very fast moving fish. Your guess at 4 inches is the best I could do as that is a good estimate for the species Chilatherina fasciata. That is all we have to go on as it is quite new to the hobby, part of Gary Lange's 2005 collection. However the father to these young of yours which is about 1.5 years old is almost 5 inches and he is cramped in a 50 gallon tank. I believe he is quite happy, mind you he has two girls to play with :heart: Hope to see more pictures from your young as the coloration of these fish change all the time and get brighter with mood, age, and diet. I believe this picture that Gary Lange took he was on a heavy diet of green vegetation.