Some Questions On Rainbowfish....

[Mr Melt]

Allright lads; the other day I bought a red rainbowfish from the LFS (to replace an aggressive three spot gourami). He/she is currently 2/2.5 inches long.

My question is: when do they start to display their dark colours? Furthermore, when does their sexual characteristics start to show (eg. the hump for the males)?

Heres a pic of him/her at present:

From this, can anyone answer my questions? I would like to know a rough estimate for when his/her colours would appear. Furthermore, I've no idea what sex the fish is =/

If anyone has any advice I'd greatly appreciate it!

 

[Box]

Sunday I reckon

 

[MBOU]

Take photos of it in a month or two once its really settled in...

You need to get another two red rainbows at least though or i wouldnt bother expecting it to colour up, they only colour up when they are happy...

 

[Louiseness]

Agreed, a few more friends will help it to colour up, plus they can be quite nippy and aggressive, especially when not in shoals.

At that sort of size I would expect them to be showing at least the beginnings of whatever colours they're going to get, once they're settled in of course.

 

[Jamepsss]

I think that's a male but difficult to tell from the pic. The top two fins should touch/overlap on a male. Female incicus don't have much colour at all. Rainbows grow pretty slowly but regular water changes and a varied diet will help him mature more quickly. I reckon you're looking at at least a year before he starts getting the deep body, maybe more.

Agree that he needs more rainbows for company.

 

[Mr Melt]

He has a Boesemani Rainbow as company at the minute. I dont think I can add anymore without overstocking the tank!

Regarding food and maintenance, I feed them brine shrimp and bloodworms once a week, with flakes in between. Furthermore I do a 10-20% water change weekly (for my pleco's sake - he's a bit sensitive to poor water quality).

At the minute the Red Rainbowfish is actually swimming about with my Congos (who are all similar in size). He's even taking to playing with them, darting in and out amongst them! I've never seen such strange behaviour before =P

PS - I checked for injuries on the other fish in case of aggression; none can be found =)

 

[soybean]

He has a Boesemani Rainbow as company at the minute. I dont think I can add anymore without overstocking the tank!


At the minute the Red Rainbowfish is actually swimming about with my Congos (who are all similar in size). He's even taking to playing with them, darting in and out amongst them! I've never seen such strange behaviour before =P

Then you'd be better off having neither, or at least 2 the same - they're two different species, not company for each other. It's likely swimming with the similar Congos as there is safety in numbers, even if it has to be with others of a different kind.

I'd return both rainbows as you can't put a large enough shoal of either in, and get a couple more Congos if you really want more fish.

 

[Mr Melt]

Update: last night I was in a rush to head out (family drinking session/ I mean dinner) so I hurriedly dropped a few brine shrimp/spirulina cubes in both my tanks.

Before heading out I switched the lights off, but not until I saw my Red Rainbowfish begin to colour up. I reckon he must be male, as he was VERY vivid red =)

To be safe I stayed put to check for aggression or any other negative reason for his colouring. I couldn't find any so I left. As of this morning he has dampened down a bit again, but this little event has cheered me up significantly =)