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A few of my Rainbowfish...

Mark, there are a few stores around that stand out from the others; MA Crowland, Sweet Knowle Aquatics and Wildwoods. The latter two can send fish by mail. Even though they are better than most other LFS for rainbows I wouldnt say they are yet where they could be in regard to these fish as they still occasionally get Ids wrong and some of the fish they sell can be hybrids.

Ollie, I will take some photos of the females and post on here.
 
As requested here are some pictures of female boesemanis:

femaleboesemani2.jpg
femaleboesemani1.jpg
femaleboesemani3.jpg
Male and female.
pairboesemani.jpg

More of the trifasciata's all still only around 2" and will end up much larger:

Melanotaenia trifasciata "Goyder River" This is a very popular and sought after form.
Goyder.jpg

Melanotaenia trifasciata "Habgood River" second attempt
Habgood.jpg

Melanotaenia trifasciata "Coen River" a couple of photos
Coen1.jpg
Coen2.jpg

Another of a M.inornata "Flat Rock Creek"
flatrock.jpg

These buggers are difficult to capture, these are a blue- eye species Pseudomugil. gertrudae "Aru II". I bred these ones and they are about 6 months old, the male fins and extensions are not fully developed yet, the photos are blury but you might get an idea. They also show colour variation with yellow, orange or while accent markings. They will grow to arond 4cm.

gert5.jpg
gerttwomales.jpg
gert4.jpg
gertorange.jpg
gert3.jpg
gertgroup.jpg
 
All stunners sanj. Interesting to see your success in breeding. Clearly patience is the key with Rainbows as most are almost colourless when young. What temp do you keep your tank at?
 
Great photos Sanj. I really do like Rainbowfish, most are a bit too big for my tiny tanks so will stick with my Pseudomugils for now.

Cheers
 
Thanks all,

Edvert, I dont keep a biotype, you can get some plants that are found in the respective habitats, but harder to find for the Papua species. A lot of rainbows dont actually live in areas with a lot of dense aquatic vegetation.

Regarding cross breeding, rainbows can even do this across Genera, but the spawning shenanigans I have observed indicate that given a choice they prefer their own species, even strain. However in mixed communites with different bows eggs get eaten, but even if they survive the fry are highly unlikely too. I have never yet seen any in my larger community tanks.

Breeding always takes place by taking species out into their own tank then removing the eggs or the parents after spawning.

So you can keep strains together, but if you are going to breed from the fish, dont keep strains or species that have females that are difficult to tell apart. Alway breed in a seperate environment.[DOUBLEPOST=1396010690][/DOUBLEPOST]
Great photos Sanj. I really do like Rainbowfish, most are a bit too big for my tiny tanks so will stick with my Pseudomugils for now.
Click to expand...

There are several Blue-eye species, but also some small Melanotaenia although not as small as the Blue-eyes, more like 2"ers.
 
Love the photos. A couple questions:
Where are the best places to buy rainbowfish in the UK?
What is your usual feeding pattern?
 
Hi sanj
Great thread
What do you think of these my friend bought 4 pairs from qss koi in bradford(one of the main importers of fish in my area and most of their stock comes from europe) and their great to watch
B24B1857-4306-41A1-9077-B56D8648069B_zps4sdti7xv.jpg
Your right about the lack of colour in juveniles putting people off, i've passed by many a tank because of the dull colours but i'll be looking more closely in future
 
nice boesemanis , did it breed for you ?

also the Pseudomugil. gertrudae "Aru II" breed in 24 -25 temps ? any more info on your water parameters ?
 
Big clown said:
Hi sanj
Great thread
What do you think of these my friend bought 4 pairs from qss koi in bradford(one of the main importers of fish in my area and most of their stock comes from europe) and their great to watch
B24B1857-4306-41A1-9077-B56D8648069B_zps4sdti7xv.jpg
Your right about the lack of colour in juveniles putting people off, i've passed by many a tank because of the dull colours but i'll be looking more closely in future
Click to expand...

I got mine from the same place when they were a lot smaller and 6 for £15, this is probably the same batch I got 6 months ago haven't seen them get more in. They tend to look very white under the amount of light they have in the shops. Under the right lights they do flash neon and have lovely orange and red colour. They are very interesting fish, very very active. I think the right food helps, I use new era and life spectrum, they're not shy at feeding time.


201404195_zps71851eff.jpg
 
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Sorry, I missed all these posts.

mikka23 said:
Love the photos. A couple questions:
Where are the best places to buy rainbowfish in the UK?
What is your usual feeding pattern?
Click to expand...

There are a few reasonable places, but the more unusual species appear every now and then as opposed to routinely stocked.

Maidenhead Aquatics Crowland (near Peterborough)
Sweet Knowle Aquatics
Pier Aquatics
Wildwoods.

I generally feed adults once/twice a day with a staple good quality flake supplemented with a whole variety of different foods( dried, frozen, live): krill, black worms, blood worms, daphnia, spirulina flake/pellets, seaweed, duckweed, blanched peas. I dont feed high protein foods (like frozen bloodworms) everyday but two three times a week, more often when conditioning fish for breeding.


Big clown said:
What do you think of these my friend bought 4 pairs from qss koi in bradford(one of the main importers of fish in my area and most of their stock comes from europe) and their great to watch
Click to expand...

Sorry, probably a bit late now, but from what I can see they seem ok. It is better to buy stock that has been in dealers tanks for several weeks and where fish do not show signs of lethargy, emaciation and certainly no sores on the body. If any do stay well away.[DOUBLEPOST=1399932644][/DOUBLEPOST]
limz_777 said:
nice boesemanis , did it breed for you ?

also the Pseudomugil. gertrudae "Aru II" breed in 24 -25 temps ? any more info on your water parameters ?
Click to expand...

Yes, the Boesemani are "Lake Aytinjo" strain, generally more orange-yellow and can be almost black on the front half under certain moods. I have bred them in small numbers.

The P.gertrudae do breed at 24-25c and the eggs hatch ok. The eggs and fry of psuedomugils tend to be larger than that of Melanotaenia and Chilatherina rainbowfish, so they tend to be more hardy, but the numbers of eggs produced are fewer.
 
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