Threadfin Rainbow fish

[Matt1994]

Hi all,

Hope everyone is well.

I am currently in the process of setting up
My newest tank the Aquael Ultrascape 90.

I have always been fascinated by Threadfin rainbow fish however I have never seen them
In a store in person. I have kept dwarf neon rainbow fish in the past and loved them.
I am wanting to keep a large group of them in my new scape when finally set up and cycled.

The tank will
Have the Oase Biomaster 600 thermo with the Chihiros Glass lily
Pipe and skimmer on the right hand side of
The tank the inlet and outlet placed close together toward the front glass of the tank and on the opposite side of the tank positioned at the rear of the tank (hopefully getting good co2 distribution around the whole tank)
I will have an Oase Biomaster 350 thermo with Chihiros Glass inlet and outlet .

I have not decided on plants as of
Yet but going to be going for a heavily planted triangular composition. I will be running pressurised Co2.

Others that have kept these fish, I would love to see photos of your fish and also wanting advice on the best way to induce natural behaviour such as the flaring between males. The best number of M to F to keep.

Any advice, tips and help would be appreciated. I would be planning on keeping mainly species only as I have read they have small mouths and can therefore miss out on food with other larger fish.

I would however like to keep whiptail catfish in the tank with them
Along with my ever growing group (in my current waterbox) of Red Onyx shrimp.

Thanks for reading and any advice, pointers will be much appreciated.

Thanks
Matt

 

[Liam]

They are great little fish and pretty shrimp friendly, they may snatch a tiny one if it swims. I had equal amounts of males and females, the males are so busy with each other that they didn’t seem to bother the females, the females choose so the males have to impress but extra females would be good too. Once the water is good and they have enough food they will start spawning, mine used to spawn mostly on moss or fissidens. I kept them with other nano fish. The whiptails may look menacing to the threadfins at first but they will probably get used to them. Their mouths are small but as in the picture they can eat adult brine shrimp. I used to give them lots of micro worms as they were one of the few adult fish that would bother eating them, they move and eat fast so nano fish do work with them.

 

[Qwedfg]

I love threadfin rainbows I want some pretty bad but I’ve always been leery of adding fish other than otos with my shrimp. Seems like in your experience they can get a long fairly well. I have about 100 or more cherry shrimp in the 60p I’m thinking of adding them too I just don’t want the colony to collapse if I add some threadfins.

 

[Gill]

Threadfins are a great little fish with big personalities.
The M/F ratio is not that big a deal as the males spar with each other alot. And as stated the females choose who to spawn with.
They love micro foods and live foods. Just watch them chasing after daphnia and bbs and its great to watch. And you can always grow your own in buckets of old tank water in the garden. And you'll get free mozzie larvae anyway in any standing green water.

They feel safe amongst tall stems and valiss and hygrophilia are great plants to use. watching them swimming in and out of tall stems is very cool to watch.
just wait for the dom male to show up. And then youll really see their colours tart to mature and get the tiger stripe etc

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I love threadfin rainbows I want some pretty bad but I’ve always been leery of adding fish other than otos with my shrimp.

I think you <"should be all right">, they have a very small mouths.
edit: and what @Gill says.

cheers Darrel

 

[Wookii]

I started keeping Threadfins recently for the first time - they are beautiful little fish. My males are really starting to colour up and get their 'tiger' stripes, and are regularly flashing and flaring at other males and the females.

Their mouths are absolutely tiny, to the point that they are only able to eat the smallest baby daphnia, and don't even seem able to eat the larger Grindal worms I feed - selectively picking off the smaller ones.

As with all fish, live foods are the key to get the best colouration and promote breeding activity.

Not the sharpest photos, but:

 

[tam]

I agree, they're not going to bother shrimp at all. I don't think they'd get a tiny shrimplet in if they wanted to and they aren't hunters. You will need to make sure you have very tiny food available though.

 

[Qwedfg]

That’s great to hear. Will they do ok in a rimless tank?