Lone Rainbow Shark with Rainbows

[Eridinus]

Hi again.

Just looking for a little insight as to how this setup might sound for a 55 gallon (hard water at 13 degrees G, near 7 pH, 101cm x 41cm x 50cm, live plants, lots of driftwood).

I currently have:

8 Bronze Corys
6 Duplicareus Corys
6 Otocinclus
6 Neon Dwarf Rainbows

I was wondering if I could further add:

3 Lake Kutubu Rainbows (1M/2F)
1 Rainbow Shark

Let me know what you think. I've spoken to some rainbow keepers and they said that the sharks are usually fine with corys and rainbows, but wanted some further opinions or suggestions.

I do 10-20% water changes about twice a week.

Thanks!

 

[Colin_T]

yes to the new rainbowfish (M. kutubu).
no to the rainbow shark.

the shark will be the biggest fish in the tank and your tank is already carrying a lot of fish.

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You should do bigger water changes.

You do water changes for 2 main reasons.
1) to reduce nutrients like ammonia, nitrite & nitrate.
2) to dilute disease organisms in the water.

Fish live in a soup of microscopic organisms including bacteria, fungus, viruses, protozoans, worms, flukes and various other things that make your skin crawl. Doing a big water change and gravel cleaning the substrate on a regular basis will dilute these organisms and reduce their numbers in the water, thus making it a safer and healthier environment for the fish.

If you do a 25% water change each week you leave behind 75% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 50% water change each week you leave behind 50% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 75% water change each week you leave behind 25% of the bad stuff in the water.

Fish live in their own waste. Their tank and filter is full of fish poop. The water they breath is filtered through fish poop. Cleaning filters, gravel and doing big regular water changes, removes a lot of this poop and makes the environment cleaner and healthier for the fish.

 

[Eridinus]

yes to the new rainbowfish (M. kutubu).
no to the rainbow shark.

the shark will be the biggest fish in the tank and your tank is already carrying a lot of fish.

---------------------
You should do bigger water changes.

You do water changes for 2 main reasons.
1) to reduce nutrients like ammonia, nitrite & nitrate.
2) to dilute disease organisms in the water.

Fish live in a soup of microscopic organisms including bacteria, fungus, viruses, protozoans, worms, flukes and various other things that make your skin crawl. Doing a big water change and gravel cleaning the substrate on a regular basis will dilute these organisms and reduce their numbers in the water, thus making it a safer and healthier environment for the fish.

If you do a 25% water change each week you leave behind 75% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 50% water change each week you leave behind 50% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 75% water change each week you leave behind 25% of the bad stuff in the water.

Fish live in their own waste. Their tank and filter is full of fish poop. The water they breath is filtered through fish poop. Cleaning filters, gravel and doing big regular water changes, removes a lot of this poop and makes the environment cleaner and healthier for the fish.

Okay - would you say go with a trio of Kutubus and increase the number of Praecox then? I would be worried of the bigger turquoises being intimidating to a small school of praecox.

I have activated carbon in the filter and recently added one of those Purigen pouches (I know this isn't a fix-all solution but it's better than nothing). I rinse the filter media in tank water about once a month.

Its hard to do bigger water changes for me as I live in a second floor apartment with an old water tank boiler. I've been really careful about overfeeding recently as I would hate to be the cause of an ammonia spike.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Colin_T]

Sorry I was thinking Lake Kamaka rainbows not M. lacustris (Lake Kutubu).

M. lacustris (Lake Kutubu) will be fine too because they are really peaceful. I would get another male M. lacustris so you have 2 prs and the 2 males can show off to each other. Then I would leave it at that. Have a total of 10 rainbowfish plus the Corydoras and Otocinclus.

If the tank is newly set up, then don't get the Otocinclus yet, wait a couple of months and encourage algae to grow on the glass and ornaments before you get them. If you already have the Otocinclus, then try to get algae growing on the glass and ornaments.

 

[Eridinus]

Sorry I was thinking Lake Kamaka rainbows not M. lacustris (Lake Kutubu).

M. lacustris (Lake Kutubu) will be fine too because they are really peaceful. I would get another male M. lacustris so you have 2 prs and the 2 males can show off to each other. Then I would leave it at that. Have a total of 10 rainbowfish plus the Corydoras and Otocinclus.

If the tank is newly set up, then don't get the Otocinclus yet, wait a couple of months and encourage algae to grow on the glass and ornaments before you get them. If you already have the Otocinclus, then try to get algae growing on the glass and ornaments.

Tank will have been up and running for a month tomorrow! I insta cycled with old tank media and stuff (I made sure to quadruple check before adding fish).

Tank has loads of algae and the Otos are keeping it in check, though I find they tend not to focus on the algae just above the substrate annoyingly, as this is also the hardest bit to scrape off!

The corys lay eggs once a week, and I've definitely seen the Praecox breeding just days after being in the tank.

Okay thanks! I'll look to get some similar sized Kutubu rainbows (2M/2F)

 

[Colin_T]

If you don't have the M. lacustris (Lake Kutubu) yet, you could wait a few weeks and collect some of the M. praecox eggs and grow them up. Then you could increase the number you have or sell them and use the money/ credit from their sale, to buy something else.

The eggs hatch after 5-7 days and the baby rainbowfish will eat powdered fry food, green water, infusoria or boiled egg yolk. Powdered fry food and boiled egg yolk are the quickest foods to get, whereas the green water and infusoria take a month of more to grow.

The following link has information on culturing live foods for baby fish, and includes a section on boiled egg.
https://www.fishforums.net/threads/back-to-basics-when-breeding-fish.448304/