24x neon dwarf rainbow, anyone own these fish?

[gagaliya]

the barbs i have just dont cut it anymore, they lack a punch or wow factor now that my tank is done and fully aquascaped (everything is covered in plants! will post some updated pics later). When friends come over they admire the plants but dont even notice the fish.

So i plan to give away the 10 gold barbs and add 24X dwarf neon rainbow (melanotaenia praecox). This will put my bioload at max, maybe slightly overstocked which is fine as water param will never be an issue with so much plants.

Anyway some question for the current owners of praecox rainbows:

1) do they look nice under good lighting? shiny? rainbow color?
2) how well do they school together? loose or tight groups
3) any ever jumped out of the tank?

thanks

 

[TropicalNorth]

I don't own neon dwarfs but I keep many other species of rainbows.

1) All rainbows (from what I can tell) do better in subdued lighting, if your plants are making some areas shaded then they will look good. In a bare tank with strong lighting they just get completly washed out.
2) Usually they school in loose shoals but it often depends on their mood. Really comfortable fish will school less tightly and visa versa.
3) Rainbows will jump but usually only if they're new to the tank or frightened. Calm fish that are used to their surroundings are unlikely to jump (in my experience anyway).

I currently have 6 Dwarf Maccullochi (they grow to the same size as neons) in my 50G (along with other rainbows). Personally I would put less then 24 in that tank.

 

[Hannys_Papa]

.... as water param will never be an issue with so much plants.

...

Not true. There is more when it comes to water quality than just nitrate levels. Thats really the only thing plants will help with - not levels of pathogens or organics.
But... there are always frequent and large volume water changes to take care of that.

 

[twig]

I have six dwarf neon rainbows and they are awesome!

They are way more active than my boesmani rainbows and they are definate jumpers. Keep that tank covered at all times. If they are just cruising around they might jump out. I lost my biggest brightest Boesmani that way and I think most rainbow keepers have had a few crispys ...

Feed them very fine food. They are small and do not eat big chunks of food like bigger fish. Flakes should be broken up real nice ...

I recommend adding six first then adding a pair every week so they won't be as frightend. I noticed when introducing them that unlike my Boesmani they are more frightful when beign transported and much like my Cardinal Tetra they took a good day to come out of hiding and another day after that to realize I was a source of food.

Like Cardinals, they will stress a lot less if you add the first six and establish a school there first. The new additions will panic a bit but they will all school up and the new guys learn MUCH quicker that way.

I would ease on the stocking, too. When you start getting a lot of neons watch them. Rainbows are always all over the tank and Dwarf Neons seem to be a bit faster than boesmani (at least my boesmani)

Give them some current but plenty of room to get out of it. They are intelligent and will grow bored easily without stimulation. Rainbows like to swim against current to ease their boredom sometimes. Looks a LOT nicer than bored fish swimming up and down the glass. They will also school up against the current too which is absolutely gorgeous.

Keep in mind that they are likely to spawn and you can leave room for some of the fry you might raise.

 

[TropicalNorth]

Agree with twig good current (with some place to get out of it) is essential for rainbows. I sometimes go and watch the rainbows in the creek at the back of my property, they spend nearly all their time schooling against the current. They feel the most comfortable there. And at night they sleep in the areas of very low current next to the bank.

 

[gagaliya]

Looks like we have some rainbow fans

I do weekly water changes so not concerned about water params.

About the stocking level, i am actually trying to convert partially to walstad's planted tank method. Started this tank with co2 injection, 2x weekly dosing of flourish macro/micro. Once the plants "settled in" so to speak and started to grow rapidly, i gradually reduced all nutrient dosing and eventually stopped (havent dosed in 2 months now). All plants are still healthy and continue to grow just the growth rate has slowed visibly. Before it takes 1 week for all the stem plants to reach water level and require trimming, now it takes 2 weeks or so.

Now i am focused on reducing co2 level. It's down to 1 bubble per 2 sec from 2 bubble per 1 sec without any detrimental effect on the plant.

The idea is to eventually do away with co2 injection as well. Large group of dwarf rainbow is perfect for this type of tank as they are relatively high oxygen fish and will produce more co2.

The final goal is to be completely hands off. So can just enjoy the tank instead of working for it! Only thing required is a quick water change every week with the python. The tank should be:

1) Fully planted with lush healthy green (so far so good)
2) 24 hr automated lighting (done)
3) 2x daily automatic feeding (done, thanks to eheim autofeeder)
4) No nutrient dosings (2 months and going good)
5) No co2 injection (half way there)
6) Fish produced co2 and waste to maintain a tank of healthy plants (25% done, pending more fish and removing co2 injection)


Hmm..just babbled on for a bit there. Thanks guys for the answers to my questions, think i will pull the trigger on the rainbows, can get a very good deal of $3 per fish currently.

 

[loaches r cool]

I am not too familiar with this method your trying with your tank, sounds interesting. Just make sure that the O2 levels are decent for these fish. I think rainbowfish in general are my favorite species besides loaches and I had many of them up to when i had a CO2/O2 problems. The first version of my planted tank wasnt good enough for pearling and I had to agitate the surface at night to prevent all the fish gasping at the top in the morning. One night the powerhead deflector came off and was no longer agitating the surface. I lost half of my rainbows and 1 or two other fish. Then more recently I havent been agitating the surface much since I do have pearling now and very high oxygen levels (I assume) but my CO2 difusser became cloged on day at some point and the plants didnt get much CO2 which i assume led to low O2 levels overnight. The next day several more fish died including most of the rest of all the rainbows I had. Although the dwarf neons faired the best (3 lived, plus one madagascar). So I have decided I will not try to keep any more fish that are high O2 fish just incase, even though I will be taking more precations in the future. They are great looking fish when kept in good conditions. 24 seems like a lot but maybe that is required in your theme. They do get fairly good size, just a bit smaller than most other rainbows, sometimes i think the 'dwarf' part is a bit misleading.

 

[twig]

I disagree with the post that states that bright light washes out a rainbows colour. I feel the best way to show off a colour (just thrugh testing) is put the light int he back and angle it towards the front of the tank.

Unlike other fish, Rainbows have a rainbow gloss that makes them really colourful and they won't wash out easily if you have a dark substrate.

 

[gagaliya]

I am not too familiar with this method your trying with your tank, sounds interesting. Just make sure that the O2 levels are decent for these fish. I think rainbowfish in general are my favorite species besides loaches and I had many of them up to when i had a CO2/O2 problems. The first version of my planted tank wasnt good enough for pearling and I had to agitate the surface at night to prevent all the fish gasping at the top in the morning. One night the powerhead deflector came off and was no longer agitating the surface. I lost half of my rainbows and 1 or two other fish. Then more recently I havent been agitating the surface much since I do have pearling now and very high oxygen levels (I assume) but my CO2 difusser became cloged on day at some point and the plants didnt get much CO2 which i assume led to low O2 levels overnight. The next day several more fish died including most of the rest of all the rainbows I had. Although the dwarf neons faired the best (3 lived, plus one madagascar). So I have decided I will not try to keep any more fish that are high O2 fish just incase, even though I will be taking more precations in the future. They are great looking fish when kept in good conditions. 24 seems like a lot but maybe that is required in your theme. They do get fairly good size, just a bit smaller than most other rainbows, sometimes i think the 'dwarf' part is a bit misleading.

sorry you lost all the fish

yes i already have two tiny powerheads running by the water surface. They both plug into the same timer as the lighting so when lights turn off they turn on automatically and vice versa. Each produced more than enough surface movement for oxygen exchange. I use two for redundency.

 

[loaches r cool]

I use two for redundency.

If I was smart, I probably should have done that! Yes, it was a sad day when many of my fish died... I am getting good pearling now and have an almost fool-proof CO2 diffusion so maintaining O2 levels now shouldnt be as problematic unless the power goes out, and one of my up and comming purchases will hopefully be a generator. But I go from one problem to another, now I have a terrible algae outbreak. Man, I just cant win. lol. Good luck with walstad's planted tank method, I'll have to research that one.