How Do You Sex Turquoise Rainbowfish?

[fshinggrl]

I just got 6 5 (one didn't survive the transport home) turquoise rainbows and asked for 2 males. The guy laughed at me. I have two that are about 1.5" long and 3 that are tiny. Is there any way of finding out what I got right now? The guy obviously went by size.

 

[helterskelter]

Once their mature from 2+ then you can sex them but not 100%.

Males are brighter than females but only slightly most of the time.
When in breeding mode the alpha male brighten up to an shocking electric blue and the forehead turns yellow. This yellow is flashed on and off to attract the females.

So with small fish it's a guess

 

[fshinggrl]

Thank you! Is it important to have a 2:4 ratio? I thought it was.

 

[helterskelter]

No it's normally the alpha male which dose the chasing. If they have enough space their be happy.

 

[drobbyb]

You are just in luck! I happen to breed and sell turquoise rainbows, and I can distinguish the sexes from a young age.

Pictures would help though as when they are small the differences are subtle.

Check out the pictures found in this thread on another forum: (http/rainbow-fish.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1269&sid=a094bc69b440717384e74f4b14b38b4) copy and paste minus the parenthesis


The top post has pictures of a mature male and female (both my fish.)

 

[fshinggrl]

I don't know how good my pictures are.. but here are 4 of them. The other one is a little shy.

 

[fshinggrl]

Here is the other one.

 

[drobbyb]

They are very young, so sexing them without having them in my hand is going to be difficult, but I'll try

To sex them at this age you have to go by fin shape. Females have rounded fins whereas males have more pointed fins. I can't tell for sure the fish in the first picture, but the fish in the second one appears to be male. Rainbows have two dorsal fins. In males the first one is longer than the one of females, long enough in fact to overlap the second dorsal fin by a little.

One thing concerns me though, you can be sure that these fish are from the same spawning meaning that they are brothers and sisters. They should be roughly the same size, but from the pictures they appear to have quite a bit of difference in size. This means that the breeder probably didn't take care to ensure that all of his fry got enough to eat to grow properly. Make sure you get enough food to all of them so that they can grow properly from this point forward. Feed them three to four times a day until they all reach 2 inches in size.

It is important to feed them a proper diet. At this size rainbows need massive amounts of protein. Feed them crushed high quality spirulina flakes, finely chopped earthworm, daphnia and other high protein foods. This is important if you want them to grow properly and display stunning coloration.

 

[fshinggrl]

Thank you!

 

[fshinggrl]

Oh, I have to ask Robby, why do you assume they are from the same batch? I got them at a LFS. I know that this store recently got a new batch of fish.

 

[drobbyb]

You would have to ask the LFS if they got in a new batch of turquoise rainbows with the last order. Generally speaking, rainbows don't usually sell very fast due to their cost and requirements. It's possible they are from mixed batches if they did get in a new shipment. You didn't say that you got them from a LFS in your first post so I thought that you may have gotten them from a private source.

So with that being said, they will still need to be fed multiple times a day. I'm suprised the breeder let them go before they got their coloration.

Here is a shot of one of my grow out tanks. As you can see, they are colored up and ready for sale:

 

[fshinggrl]

Yes, I was amazed on how small the three were when I got them home!!! Wow! When I go back and exchange the one that died on the way home (I suspect my daughter had something to do with it) I will make sure to get a big one as a replacement.

Thanks!

 

[fshinggrl]

I did a big water change due to ammonia levels today and afterwards my Turquoise Rainbows looked like they were "Yellow" Rainbows! I did pick up one more today to replace the one that died. I got the biggest of the tank which means that several of them had been purchased since I got them less than a week ago because it was no where the size of my 'big two.'

 

[drobbyb]

Rainbows lighten up dramatically when stressed. Get their water parameters under control and let them settle down and they will turn back to normal coloration.

 

[fshinggrl]

Rainbows lighten up dramatically when stressed. Get their water parameters under control and let them settle down and they will turn back to normal coloration.

Yep.. it didn't take long. They are good now.