geleen Posted April 16, 2011 Report Share Posted April 16, 2011 Great info Ric! I was debating over Lake Atynjo versus Lacorte but decided on the former, because the Lacorte may be a linebred Boesmani (I am not sure about that though) Gorgeous for sure as well! Your Melanotaenia splendida splendida "Deepwater Creek" are reserved I am trilled to have picked up the M. Nigrans; while only 1.5 " now they are showing some color on the fins and are very active and curious. J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syno321 Posted April 17, 2011 Report Share Posted April 17, 2011 There will be quite a variety of rainbows including: P. Gertrudia Aru 2, M.Nigrans, M. boesmani Lake Atynjo, M. herbertaxelrodii, M.splendida deep water creek, M. Aru 4 ,M.preacox and others, in the Edmonton area in the next year or so. I and several others are working with these as we speak. Getting fish from Ric in Calgary right now is always possible as there are free rides available. John 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebelThunder Posted April 17, 2011 Report Share Posted April 17, 2011 great article guys! I was wondering if you can post a how to care for rainbowfish. I always wanted to take care of these marvelous fishes. thay just seemed to fragile to me(lack of knowledge). and are the prices different for each kind? what are the price ranging at? thanks RT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geleen Posted April 18, 2011 Report Share Posted April 18, 2011 great article guys! I was wondering if you can post a how to care for rainbowfish. I always wanted to take care of these marvelous fishes. thay just seemed to fragile to me(lack of knowledge). and are the prices different for each kind? what are the price ranging at? thanks RT Actually very easy to take care of. 1./ WC 40- 50 % per week 2 ./ give food clean poop Fry need very small food to start 50 - 100 microns in size. Then live BBS after about a week to 10 day's,BBS make a huge difference for growing up from my recent personal experience. You can also rear them with vinegar eels, white worm and crushed fry food and green water. Juvi's over 1 inch can eat 1/5 or 1mm pellets or a good quality flake food. Live foods seem to make a great difference when growing up and feeding life foods several times per week for ever, makes a difference that is visible. They will do fine and even thrive with a high quality pellet however. In your local fish store they run from $8 -20 each as juvi's. for the common variety's. On line a bit less but then there is shipping. From breeders depending on the variety and size from 1-15 each. You also find the not so common fish from the local breeders. Hope that helps John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayba Posted April 18, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 18, 2011 You could contact rainbowric, he has some for sale. They usually cost around 12-14 dollars. There are also guys in Edmonton you can contact Their care for me has been rather easy for me so far. I find that alot of the common sense things you apply to cichlids, you apply to rainbows. For instance, two males that are the same color or genus in a tank is not a great idea. They see each other as competitors. This can create aggression problems. So avoid things like this. But for the most part, alot of it is common sense and/or logical. Just start at the beginning, and see what happens. I feel that different genus have different personalities and temperament. The C. fasciata "Faowi Village" is a pretty laid back character. I chucked 4 of them from tank to tank once, and they never skipped a beat. My 3 Melanotaenia trifasciata "Wonga Creek" "Running Creek" and "Goyder river" spar and shove a bit, but they are all a M. trifasciata, so they see each other as competitors. But everyone in my tank that aren't the same genus seem to ignore each other. One thing you must keep in mind is that the fish we are talking about in this post are pure. There are a some that are very very rare, and bloodlines must be kept pure, hybrids are a bastard child that can't happen. There are some that make a career building bloodlines, so that these captive fish are strong and viable. So if you are prepared to keep them, you should be prepared to cull them if needed. Sorry, just had to point out the dark responsibility that comes with them. If you don't mind hybrids, there are tons at the local fish store to choose from.;-) They have been troopers so far, I know they love water changes, and black worms, I have been told blood worms make them crazy and they eat NLS pellets no problem. So I would think that you just need to get some experience with them under your belt, and away you go. There are always good people to ask questions right? So dont panic about what what you've heard, and go for it. Jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebelThunder Posted April 18, 2011 Report Share Posted April 18, 2011 thanks for the info. I will try them out. I am going to Calgary next month and probably pm rainbowric first. but I might be going to Edmonton on friday of this week. I might try Big Als or AC. thanks for the info guys. RT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebelThunder Posted April 18, 2011 Report Share Posted April 18, 2011 I forgot to ask, do they need to be put in a planted tank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rainbowric Posted April 18, 2011 Report Share Posted April 18, 2011 I forgot to ask, do they need to be put in a planted tank? 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcgd Posted April 18, 2011 Report Share Posted April 18, 2011 I forgot to ask, do they need to be put in a planted tank? 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. I can vouch for this. I bought my first four rainbows from a LFS and by fluke I got all males (I don't pick and choose. I prefer the random buys unless I'm looking for a breeding group or something.) and after Ric hooked me up with a nice group the colours were amazingly bright. Even my existing rainbows coloured up, just having females of another species to display to! You don't know what potential a rainbow has until you see it coloured up for spawing... which is most of the time if you feed quality food and take good care of them. It's not like cichlids where the best colours come out during spawing every couple weeks because rainbow scatter eggs everyday. Species that are closely related or the same species from different collection points will also display to each other. Say you have two different trifasciata males, such as a running creek and a faowi; they will display to each other to win over the female. This opens up stocking combinations that allow you to have many different males that all look different, that will colour each other up. However, this can lead to crossing if you hatch eggs produced in the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebelThunder Posted April 18, 2011 Report Share Posted April 18, 2011 alright! this thread is very informative. now I know what will I put on my extra 55gal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ishkabod Posted April 19, 2011 Report Share Posted April 19, 2011 I'm now thinking of converting my pride and joy of an 80 gallon tank into a rainbowfish tank. I tnink i'll be patient and sit on this a bit but it's looking more and more like a possibility. I also got a breeding group of M Parva from Gary Lange and they have allready started to colour up beautifully. I have a mop in the tank but i am having a hard time figureing out if it's rainbowfish eggs or snail eggs since the gel glue like consistancy is the same as the ones the snails lay on the glass. Can someone help with this?? I am hoping to breed these to contribute to the availability of them in alberta. Thanks L Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syno321 Posted April 19, 2011 Report Share Posted April 19, 2011 I can't think of any snail eggs that look like rainbow eggs, but removing the mop to a hatching tank after a week should result in fry hatching out on a daily basis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rainbowric Posted April 19, 2011 Report Share Posted April 19, 2011 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hippoherder Posted April 20, 2011 Report Share Posted April 20, 2011 found this pic on the net. I'd like to see what they look like while still in the water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hippoherder Posted April 20, 2011 Report Share Posted April 20, 2011 forgot to upload the file lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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