Stocking Ideas for a Rainbowfish Tank? Thoughts?

[Dobber]

Always looking for suggestions....though the only fake in the tank are the tall grasses. The other stuff is just relatively new as I delve into plants....I don't want an overgrown look but know I want more than I have, just not sure how much or specific species yet. I think I'd like something like microsword or blyxa japonica as a carpet at some point, thought about a 4 leaf clover for something taller in the background but have read good things about vals as well.

haha awesome! just a friendly tip...try vals. i know they are a live plant and it looked like u have all fake but it will help fill in some of the empty middle space to make the tank look better it looks great already, it just looked a bit empty in the middle in the pics

 

[Greggz]

I am picking up a couple of amano shrimp for it tomorrow but close to 100% capacity according to aqadvisor, and even though my filtering is well above requirements, I don't want to push it. I will add another red irian if LFS gets any in but probably nothing more than that....I guess its the Noah's Ark of rainbows. 2 each of turquoise, threadfin, celebes, 1 red irian, 1 true boesemani and one that's being called a hybrid between boesemani/herbertaxelrodi...plus the other schooling type fish the rest of the family picked out.

Dobber,

You have great will power to keep that tank so lightly stocked.

I have never put my stock list into aquadvisor, but I would guess it would be well over the limit.
In my old 70 gallon tank, I had 16 Rainbows plus 4 Roseline Sharks,and a couple of bushynose. Ran that tank like that for 6 years, and fish were super healthy, colorful, and active.

Right now I have total of 35 fish in my 120. I'll probably add even a few more. I'm sure aquavisor would not approve, but my fish don't know the difference. Tank is fairly heavily planted, which may help some. I do a large water change every other week, but my Nitrates rarely even get to 20ppm.

In my experience, Rainbows, being a rather thin fish with not much mass, don't create a huge bioload. I like a heavily stocked, active tank. Again, only going by my personal experience and what works for me.

 

[Dobber]

I just saw some incredible pics of a goyder river on a rainbow only forum....I think I have a new favorite! Absolutely stunning, though I'm gathering that many LFS varieties are going to be washed out from the post I've read.

I have a rainbow tank as well. Let me tell you.... They are all over the place and extremely active. I would do 3 species with 6-7 a piece. Consider goyder river......
If you must add anything I would choose cories and call it a day. Anything else will just get lost in the crazy activity of the rainbows. You honestly don't need anything else.

 

[Dobber]

This statement has me second guessing my 'willpower', especially after seeing the picture of the goyder river breed yesterday. Found out a local breeder (not lfs) has some fry in it, plus some aytinjos, and suggests I trade my single boesemani and my boesemani/herbertaxelrodi in to a local LFS for credit and add 5 each of those two....though I know this far exceeds aqadvisor 'recommendations'. It also far surpasses the 1" per gallon general rule of thumb. I suspect both Greggz and local breeder are far more experienced with bows than I am...but putting it out there for debate.

Dobber,

You have great will power to keep that tank so lightly stocked.

I have never put my stock list into aquadvisor, but I would guess it would be well over the limit.
In my old 70 gallon tank, I had 16 Rainbows plus 4 Roseline Sharks,and a couple of bushynose. Ran that tank like that for 6 years, and fish were super healthy, colorful, and active.

Right now I have total of 35 fish in my 120. I'll probably add even a few more. I'm sure aquavisor would not approve, but my fish don't know the difference. Tank is fairly heavily planted, which may help some. I do a large water change every other week, but my Nitrates rarely even get to 20ppm.

In my experience, Rainbows, being a rather thin fish with not much mass, don't create a huge bioload. I like a heavily stocked, active tank. Again, only going by my personal experience and what works for me.

 

[Greggz]

This statement has me second guessing my 'willpower', especially after seeing the picture of the goyder river breed yesterday. Found out a local breeder (not lfs) has some fry in it, plus some aytinjos, and suggests I trade my single boesemani and my boesemani/herbertaxelrodi in to a local LFS for credit and add 5 each of those two....though I know this far exceeds aqadvisor 'recommendations'. It also far surpasses the 1" per gallon general rule of thumb. I suspect both Greggz and local breeder are far more experienced with bows than I am...but putting it out there for debate.

I've never found a good source for Goyder Rivers. I've seen some pics on line, but all the ones I've seen in person are pretty washed out.

Here's a pic of one that I had.



Nice but nothing special compared to other breeds. I would love to find some that look like the pictures I have seen. Keep me posted if your source is good, as I would be very interested in some.

And I've seen pictures of aytinjos that just look spectacular. Boesemani's can have a variety of color. Mine are dark blue/orange. I've seen many that are silvery blue/yellow. I am very careful when buying them, as the breeding stock is really important.

If these really are aytinjos I would buy them. They are slow growers and you will have a long time before they get to a mature size.

 

[Dobber]

I'm very confused all of a sudden as to what I really am looking at/seeing. I don't know if this is acceptable to post a link to a different forum or not, so if it isn't, a mod can delete it:

http://www.rainbow-fish.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2457

The bottom fish in the top picture is the one that really jumped out at me.....yours has similar veins of oranges/reds coming back to midline from the tail, but yours appears more yellow above and below the dark horizontal striping from the one that has piqued my interest. The red one in the same picture is striking in its own right, but love the color variance in that bottom one.

I am almost certain that the aytinjos he has come directly from Gary Lange previously, so the lineage would be good from what I've read so far.

I've never found a good source for Goyder Rivers. I've seen some pics on line, but all the ones I've seen in person are pretty washed out.

Here's a pic of one that I had.

View attachment 206324

Nice but nothing special compared to other breeds. I would love to find some that look like the pictures I have seen. Keep me posted if your source is good, as I would be very interested in some.

And I've seen pictures of aytinjos that just look spectacular. Boesemani's can have a variety of color. Mine are dark blue/orange. I've seen many that are silvery blue/yellow. I am very careful when buying them, as the breeding stock is really important.

If these really are aytinjos I would buy them. They are slow growers and you will have a long time before they get to a mature size.

 

[Greggz]

I'm very confused all of a sudden as to what I really am looking at/seeing. I don't know if this is acceptable to post a link to a different forum or not, so if it isn't, a mod can delete it:

http://www.rainbow-fish.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2457

The bottom fish in the top picture is the one that really jumped out at me.....yours has similar veins of oranges/reds coming back to midline from the tail, but yours appears more yellow above and below the dark horizontal striping from the one that has piqued my interest. The red one in the same picture is striking in its own right, but love the color variance in that bottom one.

I am almost certain that the aytinjos he has come directly from Gary Lange previously, so the lineage would be good from what I've read so far.

In the link, the top one is the Goyder River. But way, way nicer than anything I have ever seen in person.

I've never seen the other one anywhere before.

 

[Dobber]

I've seen some Goyder River pics that aren't nearly that red today (especially on aquabid) that really made me wonder which was which. I had the local breeder confirm the same thing you did too. I like the red, but the variance in colors of the Pagwi is unreal.

 

[TheFishBoss97]

Always looking for suggestions....though the only fake in the tank are the tall grasses. The other stuff is just relatively new as I delve into plants....I don't want an overgrown look but know I want more than I have, just not sure how much or specific species yet. I think I'd like something like microsword or blyxa japonica as a carpet at some point, thought about a 4 leaf clover for something taller in the background but have read good things about vals as well.

check out marketplace! somebody is selling dwarf chain swords for only $0.25 each...!!!

 

[TheFishBoss97]

also, got in my 6 red irians + 4 sterbais for $40...got them yesterday and the reds are around 3" or so...acclimated nicely into my 29G(for now)...I need to re-home discus from the 112G, then drop temp 6 degrees to 78F, and then add the rainbows