Boesemani Rainbow Fish Not Swimming Around

[Clarissa531]

Hey everyone!
I'm new to the forums and I've been having a hard time getting advice about my two boesemani rainbow fish. I bought them maybe 2-3 months ago and haven't really had any issues with them. While other fish have been added and removed during that period (some too aggressive or just not compatible), the rainbow fish seem to be fine.
But I've really just come to realize they're not very active and I've been told that they supposed to be active fish. They normally stay in the front part of the tank towards the bottom. During feeding, they will swim up but I think they're a bit shy of the zebra danio we have in the tank as well and are a bit more hesitant to get food. We've also noticed that they do not keep the dark blue color they have whenever we have their light turned off at night. As soon as the light comes on their color disappears and they go back to the iridescent white in the front with the orange/yellow in the back. Aren't they supposed to eventually keep that blue color?
What we do:
Once a week we do a 25-30% water change, always adding Tetra AquaSafe to the new water, always cleaning off any algae on our decorations or the tank walls, and always using a gravel vacuum.
Food: a pinch of Top Fin tropical flakes and a little snack of Top Fin freeze dried bloodworms. For our cory catfish we have algae tablets.
Temp: Our temperature is around 75F.
Lighting: We recently changed our overhead light to make it less bright and intense. It's not as harsh as the one that comes attached to the hood. We have the option of changing the intensity as well as the colors.
Decorations: We have decorations more in the back with three live plants which give them plenty of room to hide since they can be shy. It also frees up a lot of space towards the front to swim. No plant is too high they can't swim up top.
Filter: We change the filter regularly (when the dial turns red) and we have the intensity set towards the middle so the current isn't too strong for them to swim near it.
Water: We've had our water tested a couple of times and minus the one time it came back with a high level of nitrates cause a fish had just died, it's been coming back perfectly fine. That's why we bought some live plants to continue to help with nitrate levels.

I just want to know what we can do to make them more active. If you have any tips, let me know! I want to make sure they're happy!

 

[Byron]

Welcome to TFF.

First issue is numbers. Rainbowfish are shoaling fish which means they live in large groups and must have several of the species in an aquarium. A group[ of six is minimum, but with even a few more the males will be more colourful as they interact. This brings us to the tank size, which is not mentioned. This species is larger than some rainbows (males can reach 4.3 inches, females 3.2) and a group of 6-8 requires a tank with a length of 48 inches (120 cm).

Overhead light can be an issue for most of our aquarium fish. Floating plants are the answer here. Substantial plants like Water Sprite, Water Lettuce, Frogbit, or some of the stem plants allowed to grow floating work; the tiny floaters like duckweed really don't help much. Stay with basic natural light, by which I mean between 5000K and 6500K (Kelvin) which approximates mid-day sun. Blue lights or other colours don't usually work, and it can affect fish which are very light sensitive. Having the tank light on during a set period each day also helps, as it provides for the fish's circadian rhythm. Several hours of complete darkness are also necessary.

Bloodworms are not a good food and should only be fed once a week, more as a treat. The fresh frozen are better than freeze-dried. A good basic flake or pellet food is fine for daily feeding, and it is a good idea to alternate two or three types for variety.

You mention nitrates...what is the nitrate level in the aquarium? Tested prior to the weekly water change? Nitrates do negatively impact all fish, to varying degrees, depending upon the species and the level. I would recommend you increase the volume of the weekly water change to 50-60% of the tank volume; this is regardless of nitrates, it is just good maintenance and husbandry.

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

As mentioned by Byron, the number of rainbowfish and danios you have needs to be increased to at least 6. With rainbowfish try to have even numbers of males and have males that are the same size. (eg: 2, 4 or 6 males). If you have an odd number of males, you will usually have 2 fish that bully the third. If you have different sized males, the biggest one will bully the others. Having even numbers that are the same size will prevent any one fish from bullying the others.
You should also have females in the group to encourage the males to show off.

Rainbowfish don't show full colour until they are 1-2 years old. Young males will show off and colour up when displaying but they don't get full colour and won't remain fully coloured up until they are at least 1 year old.

The colours you describe when the lights come on are the fish's nocturnal colouration. Rainbowfish usually go darker at night.

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Stress from tank lights coming on when the room is dark can be an issue. Fish don't have eyelids and don't tolerate going from complete dark to bright light (or vice versa) instantly.

In the morning open the curtains or turn the room light on at least 30 minutes (or more) before turning the tank light on. This will reduce the stress on the fish and they won't go from a dark tank to a bright tank instantly.

At night turn the room light on and then turn the tank light off. Wait at least 30 minutes (or more) before turning the room light out. This allows the fish to settle down for the night instead of going from a brightly lit tank to complete darkness instantly.

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Rainbowfish need plant matter in their diet. You can leave algae on ornaments or on the back and side glass and the fish will pick at it. Feed them a goldfish food or an algae flake or vege flake. If you can grow Duckweed on the surface, they will eat that too.

You can feed other foods too but use the goldfish or vege flake as the main diet and add other foods to supplement that.

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Rainbowfish become nervous and stress out when the pH is too low (below 7.0) or there is water quality problems (ammonia, nitrite or high nitrate).

Make sure the GH (general hardness) is over 150ppm and the pH is 7.0 or higher.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every week to keep disease organisms down.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

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You mention that you change the filter regularly. You should never change filter materials unless they start to fall apart. If you replace filter media you remove the beneficial bacteria that help keep the water clean. When you remove the bacteria you get ammonia and nitrite readings and that will stress and possibly kill the fish.

Most external power filters can have sponges added to them to increase the filter media. You can get round/ cylindrical sponges from internal power filters and these can be put on the intake strainer of the filter to add more filtration media.

Filters should be cleaned at least once a month and every 2 weeks is better. Wash filter media in a bucket of tank water, then put the media in the tank. Wash the filter case under tap water. When the filter case is clean, reassemble the filter and media, fill it with tank water and turn it back on.

If you have filter pads with granules in them, cut a small slit in the top and pour the contents in the bin. Then wash the filter pad in a bucket of tank water and reuse it.