There are many, many species that go by the common name of rainbowfish. They are all schooling fish from Australia and some rare ones Madagascar. The common ones at local fish stores are boesemani, praecox, lacustris, or red rainbowfish. They are VERY VERY hardy and easy to care for. A big plus is that the males have fantastic colors and the females are also not so bad looking compared to some of the female cichlids from lake tanganyika. They love planted tanks and prefer pH on the upper basic end. They are also very colorful in the morning when the sunlight first hit the tank so I suggest you put your tank by a window. They are a very fun fish so expect a lot of males dancing around for the females and flaring their fins at each other. They are very peaceful and I have not seen a single torn fin from my males displaying to one another.
Also be sure to verify the source of these rainbowfish. Most of the ones (especially bosemani) that are farmed are somewhat ugly. Getting them from rainbowfish breeders is the best way to avoid the ugly ones (hopefully this is where your LFS got theirs)
Here is a great website with alot of information.
http://members.optushome.com.au/chelmon/
Inbreeding with rainbows can be (is) a problem for most of the chain stores such as walmart,petco, etc, so be careful. You can find great quality rainbows online. There is even a website where you can see a webcam set up on a large rainbow tank---
www.loumarks.com/rainbowfishcam.html. It is neat to watch. A place to buy them online is
www.Oddballfish.com and even can find true good quality (no inbreeding/crossbreeding)on
www.aquabid.com (just check the feedback first) I've purchased from oddballfish and those arrived healthy as well.(my Turquoise rainbows.) I used to have 5 of them but the other 2 died. The other 2 were purchased at our LFS...hmmm...makes me wonder(?)
Rainbows do get big so a 55g min is what I started with.I now have a 185g and my rainbows are ranging from 3-5" right now.(all different ages...from 6-8 y/o) The males HAVE killed eachother on occasion (as well as damaged and killed some females---but haven't harmed any other fish in the tank) because of their constant, daily, spawning and sparring.They literally ram eachother in the sides.It is a daily occurrance and it is out of our control. It is just something they do. A rainbowfish could be happy one day and belly up the next day. I even had a healthy Bosemani that was fine, then I fed them, and within less than an hour, he was belly up! I was shocked! Just like that! So my poor 5" Boesmani (7-8 y/o) lost his partner. (sad) I hate that part of it. I had several species and had about 40 total rainbows but over the past 6-8 years, I've lost the weakest,smallest,youngest males and females and I am now down to 10--a variety(maybe 6 males and the rest females)They continue to do their daily ritual (many times per day---especially after water changes and even after new tank additions or decor being moved around) of spawning and only the fittest will survive.I've NEVER lost any to ich or parasites or fungus. Only from the roughness of spawning and sparring.They are beautiful and it 'broke' me when that began to happen (and I have a large tank-but they are slow growing) As a community fish, they are very great and gentle with other fish.They just get aggressive when spawning/breeding. I've done alot of research on them and have many books.I suggest to read up on the different species too. Not all of them can handle the same tank parameters, etc.My largest (Boesmani is about 5" at 8 years old) The smallest ones are my 3 Turquoise and they are about 3" at the same age of 8. All of them are around the same age as the others.(I wanted every rainbow I could find and most were about 1.5-2" at purchasing) Some get bigger than others. I feel like I rambled here, but I hope it helped you a bit. These fish are very tempting to get but for some reason the spawning gets out of hand causing demise in home aquaria which is uncontrollable.If you buy rainbows, expect to get a tank of a minimum of 55g.The males love to race back and forth from end to end as if to say ''I look better and am faster than you!", trying to show off for the females. It is part of the breeding ritual also.
You can buy them small but they will outgrow a 55 pretty quickly over a couple of years.Another thing is it is very hard to tell if you have a F or a M because the coloring doesn't get really bright in the males until they are a few years old.The females are very bland most of the time with hardly any color. So trying to sex them when they are young fish is a guessing game until they grow up a bit.
I would say to buy at least 5 of EACH species. I started that way but since so many have been bullied to death literally--the remaining 10 that I have just school around together. My lone Boesmani seems to think he is a clown loach now. He follows them everywhere. It is pretty funny. BUT, if I had unlimited tank space I'd get more of the Turquoise rainbows. They stay smaller and are very beautiful in color.They can go from a pale blue to a green-blue to a dark blue to almost black. It is amazing to see this happen right before your eyes! A few of these would suit your smaller aquariums for a little while. I have one Female Turquoise rainbow and she is just as bright as the males.(this debunks the females are paler than the males in this species! LOL)
So, I know I ramble alot but this is simply my experience with them. It makes me wonder if anyone else has had the same thing happen. There is also a rainbowfish forum called
www.bowheads.com . It is full of information too. Dont hesitate to ask any questions as everyone is very friendly and know what Rainbowfish need, etc. Good Luck. I hope I didn't scare you off on getting any because they really are wonderful, peaceful fish when they aren't trying to be dominant LOL
