Turquoise and Boesmani Rainbowfish

[luxum]

In my continuing quest to decide what i'm going to stock my tank with (going to start the fishless cycle tonite) i came across some information on rainbowfish that seems too good to be true. Now, i'm aware that dwarf neon rainbowfish can be kept in fairly small tanks, i've had a group of them and they are lovely. But i've also seen on quite a few sites now a minimum tank recommendation for turquoise and Boesmani rainbows of 20 gallons! 20 gallons? For real? I was always under the impression that they needed at least a 55... My tank is a 20 long, which is 30 inches long, so that would be more swimming room than a normal 20 gallon. I'm thinking it sure would be gorgeous to have 2 or 3 of these larger rainbows and a school of small fish, cardinals or glowlights or the like. Or even a species tank with 5 of them and no other fish. Are either of those stocking ideas reasonable? Or are these sites listing a minimum tank size that really is too small?

Edit: sorry if this is in the wrong forum, i didn't see one that seemed to cover rainbowfish specifically.

 

[luxum]

Hmm, nobody knows? Should i have posted this in a different subforum?

 

[Teelie]

I'm sure you could keep a pair in a 20 long but not much else except perhaps bottom dwellers. I was going to stick a pair in my 30gallon but I ended up going with some 3 Spot Gourami instead.

 

[luxum]

Thanks for the response. Could you elaborate on why you recommend only a pair? Are they phenomenally dirty for their size like goldfish? Is it purely an issue of swimming space? According to surface area calcs i have room for 30 inches of fish. I was considering a pair of turquoise or boesmani, which would be approximately 8 inches of fish at maturity, and i would cede them the rest of half the available stock (i.e. i'd say that the 2 fish take up 15 inches of stocking if that makes sense, i'm phrasing it poorly) to accomodate their deeper bodies, then would have 15 inches to get say, 10 glowlights. Is that unreasonable? I was going to go with a dwarf gourami and 2 females as the showcase fish, but they seem to be very low quality here, even when the other fish in a store look great.

 

[silver]

Those fish get to about 4 inches, am I right??

I think in a 20 LONG you could surely have 3 of the rainbows, 4 may be pushing it, and as long as the other fish in the tank are small guys then I'm sure you'd be fine, maybe a couple ottos and a very small school of small fish!???

But if you were gonna put 3 in a regular 20 gallon tank, they are 24" I believe, then I would say that it's probably not a good idea puting fish that are 4" possibly 5" at maturity in a tank that short Not really enough room!

As long as it's a 20 LONG I think you'd be okay!! Do you have a good filter?? You could always opt. for a filter for a 55 gallon and use it one the 20 that way you know darn well that it has good filtration!!

HTH and Good Luck!

 

[luxum]

Yes, it's a 20 gallon long, and i have an Eheim ECCO (2232) canister rated up to 35 gallons, plus the tank is planted, it should be plenty of filtration. If a canister can't handle the bioload i would find them a new home or consider trying to squeeze a little bigger tank into my apatrment. (Shhhh, don't tell my honey that! ) The information i get on these 2 species gives varying figures for length, but it seems 4 inches is average, with an occasional rare male reaching 5 inches in the wild perhaps? Thanks for the reassurance, i think it is a viable option.