Hey Roan.....

Emg

Emg

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Jan 16, 2005
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I picked up 3 threadfin rainbows ! :D These are my first bows...........very pretty little fish. I put them in with my blue ram pair in the 20long, I hope that'll be ok for them. There are also 2 female guppies in there which I'd like to find another tank for....maybe I'll put them up in my daughter's tank with the 3 boys....lol....they're those half black pastels...I guess I don't mind if they proliferate in there, there's always a market for those beauties here...the lfs I take them to is always glad to have them. They go very fast....in and out the door practically the same day.

I turned the heat down in the tank a bit..since rainbows don't like it as warm as the rams.... do you think 78-79 is a good compromise for them ? I know the rams will be ok, but can the bows do well in that range ?

Any suggestions from you about keeping them happy ?


A pic, I think they're all males...I tried to pick one with the longer tipped fins, and two with smaller fins...but really, they all looked pretty much the same...you can't really see the longer black tipped fins on the one with that black background behind them....

DSC01423.jpg
 
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Ha ! I made a deal with my daughter....if she would take the female guppies in her tank..she gets to keep any money from any fry that are sold...she was very aggreeable ! lol....

So now all I have in that 20long with the rainbows are a pair of german blue rams (who basically ignore everything else in the tank).....2 otos whom I almost never see...and a few ghost shrimp.

I really think I have all males....I've seen two of them flashing thier flags, the third one with the shorter fins may also be a male who's fins have just been nipped down a bit (at the LFS...NOT my tank !) I'll be on the lookout at that lfs for some females to put in with them down the road...I don't know how long it will be before they get another shippment of these in....

I know that 2 females to each male is a good ratio...but how many more of the threadfins aught I to add to this tank as it is now ?
 
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I'm not too familar with Iriatherina werneri, but that one with the shorter fins -- hrm. The females are supposed to be a bit lighter in color with shorter fins.

http://members.optushome.com.au/chelmon/werneri_main.htm

You know they just recently confirmed that there may be two "types" of werneri, the ones you have from PNG are also found in Queensland, but they are a little lighter in color, and a yellow-finned variety found in Australia. I believe they are not sure if it's just a color variation of the same fish or a separate specie.

They only grow to about 2" and many stay around 1.5", so you can do a lot with a 20L. Are they really active? If they are constantly moving, I'd keep the numbers down. Really hard for me to say because I'm not familar with that genus of rainbow. They're quite a bit different from members of the Melanotaenia and Glossolepis genus.

Lemme ask on the RML and see what they say there.

As for the temperature, 79* should be fine. In their natural habitat it runs from 22-30*C.

I'll ask and see what they come up with.

Roan
 
Thanks much Roan !

Mine aren't overly active....no fast darting around...just a quick short dart from time to time, usually when they flag. These also have a yellow coloring to thier fins, which are edged in black. What a dainty little fish these are...they're supposed to be fairly hardy from what I have read up on them though.

If I can get a hold of some females, I'll pick up two for each male. I really think that third one is also a male. It does have a flag on it's dorsel, just hasn't extended it yet that I've seen so far. I'll have to wait and see with that one. I think that all they had in that tank at the store were males. I looked them over good and the ones with the shorter fins all looked as if the fins had been torn or bitten. They were also the ones hiding up near the top of the tank. I picked out one of those on the off chance that it could be female..even though I didn't like that it seemed less sure of itself.

They're colors have really begun to show now that they're in some decent water ! Glad I grabbed these fellas, now I've got to find them some girls...lol...

Thanks for taking the time Roan..thanks also for the link. I came across that one in my cyber wanderings. Mine are more colorful than those in the pic there. The red coloring on thier tails is a neat neon flourescent sort of red color...with yellow down to the body. I'll try to get some better pics of them.

I'd LOVE to have some of those spotted blue-eyes you have Roan..I've been keeping an eye for them here, no luck yet though.
 
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Here's the first reply from RML, from Julie Zeppieri
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I. werneri, or Threadfins, are similar in requirements to most of the
true-rainbows, and can tolerate a spectrum of water chemistry parameters
(avoid extremes), as long as things are clean and well-aerated. They are,
however, very much smaller than other Melanotaniids and have very tiny
mouths. I personally don't keep them with other rainbows, and if so, then
only with the smallest, most docile species. I also would hesitate to keep
them with many of the Blue-Eye (Pseudomugil) species, as the Threadfins will
most likely be bullied and/or out competed for food and territory.

Better tankmates for them, if one does not wish to keep them in a species
tank, would be smaller species of Rasboras ("micro-rasboras") and tiny
tetras and barbs. These fish will be much more docile and much less
competative with the Threadfins IMO. Smaller Corys and small shrimps (such
as Cherry Red shrimps) would also work well. Feed small live foods (baby
brine, grindals, smaller Daphnia and Moina, etc) as well as fine dried foods
and they should do fine.

The biggest problems I have seen with keeping these fish relate to keeping
them well-fed, and I think if one is just careful about tankmates and then
makes sure the diet is sufficient for the fish, then they are pretty easy to
keep.

Breeding is another story, as fry are VERY tiny and notoriously difficult to
raise.

Other opinions???
Julie

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More probably to come. A lot of the list is in Germany and it takes a while for stuff to get through.

Roan
 
Thank you very much Roan....that information is very helpful !

Right now I just have a pair of blue rams in with them...along with 2 ottos and 3 shrimp. I'll be keeping an eye on the feeding......they do have VERY tiny mouths and I notice they don't even look at food that's bigger than they can take. I had tossed some frozen bloodworms in the tank and they completely ignored them !

Thanks again Roan, much appreciated ! They are sooo colorful ! Easter colors....that's what they have. Yellow fins with black edging and a purplish blue line down their backs...and that flouresent neon red tail. Nice fish, I hope they do well !
 
You're welcome.

I thought Julie's comment about the Blue-eyes, and she's probably referring to furcatus, was very interesting. I didn't know they could be so competitive.

Julie is a wonderful source of information. She's been keeping rainbows for over 10 years and was the keeper of the 10 year old infamous 5½" killer Boesemani she called "Evil Old Man". She had to keep him in a tank separate from the others and he killed several females during attempted matings.

His offspring also have an unpredictable temperment. Julie says that that's how wild Boesemani really are. Rather nasty at times :D

Roan
 
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