Dwarf Neon Rainbowfish

[Antipofish]

Hi, here is a question for Sanj or any other rainbowfish buff please

1) Will Dwarf Neon Rainbowfish display shoaling behaviour and if so what size group would be needed ?

2) As the males are the more colourful and fish space is always a premium in my tanks, would it be ok to have just males ?

Thanks.

 

[thelats1981]

Hi Antipofish, no expert but have had Praecox for 6 months or so. Absolutely great fish with brilliant personalities.
1) They do shoal, but not tight like tetras, and tends to be if something disturbs them or if one of them moves off to investigate something - they all follow! I have 14, 9 males and 5 females and would happily add to them.

They are most active first thing before lights on and when there is some ambient light in the room, the males display constantly to each other and to the females and have minature spinning battles in the middle of the tank (think Gandalf Vs Saruman). They flare their fins, open their mouths and flash a white stripe on the top of their head and back it's awesome.

2) It's fine to have all males, they will still display to each other, although I guess this may be less than if females are present. The females are still really nice looking fish and add another dimension to the tank with their own behaviour, I like having them in there but I guess this is personal preference. If you have a large enough shoal - 12+ I believe its less critical to worry about 2 -1 ratios. My females don't get too harrassed, in fact I'd go as far as to say they encourage the males sometimes by swimming close to one, then another, and leaving them to wrestle!

Can't recommend them enough, if you move near the tank they follow you round all pointing at you like the shoal of fish in Finding Nemo, hilarious.

HOWEVER, (Sanj may be able to recommend someone) UK stocks of these are generally terrible. Don't bother with the chains, as the fish are generally weak Asian imports which won't last long at all. I got mine as young fish from Rare Aquatics in Crewe, apparantly UK bred. They are growing well, active and absolutely no signs of any trouble.

 

[sanj]

Pretty much as mentioned. Like most shoaling fish in the hobby, they arent consistantly tight shoalers, but they do group more tightly at times.

You can keep all males if you like, I prefer to keep mixed sexes for better social interaction and more intense displays. The bright blaze mentioned is used my males when displaying to females and against other males.

Keep at least a group of 6, more the better and if mixed sex usually 1:1 ratio or more females.

I keep and breed F2 Pagai population of M.praecox. Gorgeous hardy fish with intense red fins on males.

 

[thelats1981]

Sanj, they look absolutely amazing. I'm really happy with mine and the personalities are what really works for me, but the colours of your males are ridiculous! I'm a very jealous man. BTW loved the massive Rainbow tank in PFK, unreal!

Apologies if I'm stealing the thread, based on your ratio, I would like to increase the number of females in the group. I had read somewhere that large groups made this less important but can definitely see where you are coming from. Whats the best way to go about this, in terms of introducing them - will it matter if they are younger etc.

 

[sanj]

Generally when speaking about rainbows it is advised to keep more females to males or at least an equal sex ratio. However I think this varies from species to species and the conditions they are kept in. Large tanks are more forgiving. In regard to praecox I have kept more males to females without any issues.

If you do want to add more and the new fish are smaller, add them as a small group. I dont find praecox particularly aggressive.

 

[SmallestFrog]

Sanj, I'm preparing to start breeding Praecox, and wonder if you had any advice?

 

[Garuf]

I did nothing special at all and mine bred, as long as they're well fed enough and there's something for them to lay into then they'll breed in my experience.

 

[sanj]

Rainbowfish will generally spawn quite easily, but if you want to breed them it is a good idea to condition them well for a few weeks, more regular feeds of live food, frozen blood worm and krill. After this period think about the breeding. Spawning is easy, but raising fry successfully in numbers can be more tricky especially in the first few weeks. They also tend to grow slowly.

Culturing infusoria is a immediate first food, vinegar eels, white worms. Powered fry food like Sera micron. TA Aquaculture sell fry foods for egg laying fish.

There are different approaches to breeding and raising, but you only want one species in the breeding tank. If your main tank only has praecox in then you can have them spawn in there. Either use live plants like java moss or add in a synthetic mop. Leave in with parents for a week or so. Then check the mop for eggs. If you have a lot of eggs, remove the mop to a raising tank, fry will hatch in a week or so. I tend to prefer to hatch eggs in smaller tanks intially because it is easier to feed the tiny fry, but you need to change (~50%) water every other day. After a couple of weeks when they are feeding on the likes of newly hatched brine shrimp I move them into larger tank. All depends on what tanks you have to hand.

It is a long process from fry to 1" fish, could be around 4-6months, sometimes longer. Some species only reach 1" after a year. Still i think it can be rewarding raising your own.

It is probably better if you ask me more specific questions, otherwise I might ramble on about stuff that you dont need to know.

 

[worwood]

Sanj - do you have any advice for what to look for when buying these guys?

I'm keen to avoid weak Asian imports but not sure what to be looking out for. Also I'd love to find some as intensely coloured as yours but am i right in assuming they're likely to look pretty drab as youngsters?

 

[sanj]

Hi,

they are comparitively drab as youngsters although the ones I recently bred did seem to show promising colour, just not the intensity of the adults.

I always used to check the quality of all the fish in the LFS tank, I would usually watch them over a few weeks if they were new in. Otherwise if they had already been in the dealers tanks for some time look out for any ulcerations or fish that look emaciated. If any in the tank show any signs of disease I would avoid any from that stock.