Rainbow Fish.

leakintank · Dec 1, 2009

Hi saw some fish at lfs today called blue rainbow fish what category do they go into i was told they get to 4" and are good community tank fish but i wamnt to find out more before making any decisions
Has any body got any? they are a lovely pale metalic blue with a dark stripe along the body.very active swimmers.

drobbyb · Dec 1, 2009

I just happen to have bred rainbows. The best thing I can do for you is point you to this site found here. Look under the Contents section. The site covers every aspect of rainbow care and breeding as well as pictures of all known species.

If you have any more questions, I can try and fill in the holes and answer your questions.

leakintank · Dec 1, 2009

hi robby.
wow i didn't realise there are so many varieties.
could you tell me if they are ok in a community tank as it said that males can get territorial in breeding season.
The ones that i saw were small about 1" and a silvery blue.

minxfishy · Dec 2, 2009

Generally rainbows make good tankmates, but it depends on what size tank and other fish you have, can you tell us tank size and what fish you already have please?

Males can be a little territorial when trying to attract a female, but nothing serious, they race around chasing the others males, displaying to each other generally, they are a beautiful sight when in full colours. The blue rainbows are often M.Lacustris (as in drobbyb's avatar) but often they can also be M.Boesemani, read thru that link the Drobbyb gave you, it will list all the species with photographs so you can identify which fish they are referring to in your LFS, Go thru the Melanotaenia species list first as these the most likely.

leakintank · Dec 2, 2009

its a jewel 190.
have guppies(breeding like guppys!)
5neons,3 platys,5 halequins,6 panda corys,1filter shrimp,2 bamboo shrimp.and 4 armano plus two big apple snailsand 6 tiddler apple snails.have a power filter600 plus external filter.
Yes they do look similar as they have the band half way along the body.
They are only babys at the momentthey said the colur would intensify as they matured.