Bosemani Rainbow
- Thread starter sthawke1
- Start date
Roan??
I would say five would be good as they get 5" and like thier own company. They also appreciate highly oxygenated water so live plants are always a plus when keeping them.
I would say five would be good as they get 5" and like thier own company. They also appreciate highly oxygenated water so live plants are always a plus when keeping them.
Roan has 14 in her 75 long and she told me she wished she had 12 so i stocked myself with 12 boesmani ...
Boesmani do get up to 5 inches but they are slow growers. The big monster five inch linked on roans bb shows a pic of one but he is 9 years old!!! or something...
I think a rainbows size is a bit deceptive too. They have a funny body shape and are quite thin. They shoal but they use the entire tank just so you know. My 12 (one of them is 3 inches the rest are 2.5 or under.. mostly 2 inchse) school together a lot but spread out all the time.
I think it's important to have a nice high current in the tank so the active fish can burn off it's energy. For good parts of the day my rainbows will get together and all swim against the current ... it really looks neat but the other half of the day they are everywhere always looking for food or displaying for one another.
Males spar but its not violent at all. They flare up and stare each other off while flexing their two i think dorsal fins?
No one gets hurt but they come at each other pretty hard once in a while.
anywho, boesmani definately get big if you keep them long enough but you need to remember they are not thick like plecos or something. It's a unique body shape and i find the females are a bit more square ...
Give them lots of spots to get out of the current but have a nice stream.
Also,
they always look starved to death. Don't be shocked if they attack their food with ferocity every time you feed them. They eat anything you feed them. I haven't found a food yet they won't eat.
They zoom up to anything that moves and stop last moment if it doesnt fit in their mouth (which is big but they have narrow throats apparently?). They instinctively charged my ottos the first time i added them to the tank. It would scare the crap out of my otos but the 'bows learned soon enough they were not food.
I heard a neat trick of turning off the lights when adding fish to the tank to trick the bows. I feed my Cory and shrimp that way now 0.o
how big are your boesmani? Mine are all a year or less except for one big stud thats the closest to 3 inches. Some of them practically look like danio hahaha...
They also come from highly planted waters so they LOVE planted tanks and are used to the growth btw. Don't get them without having plants ... if nothing else just throw moss in there to encourage spawning behavior.
Boesmani do get up to 5 inches but they are slow growers. The big monster five inch linked on roans bb shows a pic of one but he is 9 years old!!! or something...
I think a rainbows size is a bit deceptive too. They have a funny body shape and are quite thin. They shoal but they use the entire tank just so you know. My 12 (one of them is 3 inches the rest are 2.5 or under.. mostly 2 inchse) school together a lot but spread out all the time.
I think it's important to have a nice high current in the tank so the active fish can burn off it's energy. For good parts of the day my rainbows will get together and all swim against the current ... it really looks neat but the other half of the day they are everywhere always looking for food or displaying for one another.
Males spar but its not violent at all. They flare up and stare each other off while flexing their two i think dorsal fins?
No one gets hurt but they come at each other pretty hard once in a while.
anywho, boesmani definately get big if you keep them long enough but you need to remember they are not thick like plecos or something. It's a unique body shape and i find the females are a bit more square ...
Give them lots of spots to get out of the current but have a nice stream.
Also,
they always look starved to death. Don't be shocked if they attack their food with ferocity every time you feed them. They eat anything you feed them. I haven't found a food yet they won't eat.
They zoom up to anything that moves and stop last moment if it doesnt fit in their mouth (which is big but they have narrow throats apparently?). They instinctively charged my ottos the first time i added them to the tank. It would scare the crap out of my otos but the 'bows learned soon enough they were not food.
I heard a neat trick of turning off the lights when adding fish to the tank to trick the bows. I feed my Cory and shrimp that way now 0.o
how big are your boesmani? Mine are all a year or less except for one big stud thats the closest to 3 inches. Some of them practically look like danio hahaha...
They also come from highly planted waters so they LOVE planted tanks and are used to the growth btw. Don't get them without having plants ... if nothing else just throw moss in there to encourage spawning behavior.
on the feeding part id just like to mention that they have delicate mouths so dont feed them anything hard like a pellet,i have a small archer fish wich i was told to feed floating pelltes, good idea but in the feeding frenzy one of my turquoise rainbow hit one dislocated his jaw rendering it permantly open ulcer dead. not fun watching your fish die. i also have boesemani's and they are a great rainbow to have.
Boes will get large. You should be able to have 10 easily in a rectangular 75 gallon. As for feeding, mine eat everything, frozen, flakes, pellets, they even go for some of the fresh veggies I put in for the bottom feeders. They're great fish. I love them!
Take care,
Mary.
Take care,
Mary.
If you want "plenty of extra water and space", go about 7-9 boes. If the boes and bottom feeders are all you will have in the tank and are planting it, expect to have fry. If the fry are wanted, make sure you have some surface float vegetation to protect them. Long vallisneria, duckweed or frogbit, any type of floating will help the fry not get eaten.sthawke1 said:
Yes, boesemani get to 5-6" but that will take about 9-10 years. In 1 year they should be close to 3-3.5" in size and at around 6 years they should be about 4-4.5". You can stock heavier, but be aware that you will *eventually* need to move them to a bigger tank (I'd say around 5 years or so). Boesemani that are approaching 4" get thicker in the body. I've seen a 5" boe that had to be about ½" thick. He would have made a great fillet
I have 14 and they are about a year old. The oldest 7 are all about 3.5" and they live with a "herd" of Goo obo gudgeons. I have no idea how many gudgeons are in the tank. I started with 7 and I always see the four oldest adults and little fry and juvies all over the place.
The tank is very heavily planted and the bottom is mostly covered with monoselenium tenerum (pelia), which is one reason why I've no idea how many gudgeons are in there. Oh, I also have two 4" SAE as well.
Foodwise, if you want them to spawn readily (although they will spawn ANYHOW, they're even randier with live food) feed them live bloodworms and/or live brine shrimp. A good substitute are frozen versions and foods likes the ones I get from BrineShrimpDirect.com. Make *sure* you give them plenty of algae to eat. In the wild Boesemani and other rainbowfish eat a lot of algae and many keepers make the mistake of not feeding them enough roughage. Spirulina and kelp flakes along with cooked, skinned peas twice a week will go a long way in keeping your bows healthy.
Good water changes of 50% or more a week as well. Rainbowfish love fresh water and they are sensitive to high TDS. If you plant and do CO2, go easy! Don't ever push more than 20-25 ppm with CO2. THey are very O2 intensive and stress out and thread up on the mouths. Any threading you see is a stress warning and means that something is amiss that needs to be fixed. Usually a good water change will get rid of the threads.
Hope that helps. If you already know about what I've written, then please ignore. I'd rather write a small book on bows for you than field a zillion questions
Roan