tiny brackish top feeders?

Likewise, I've never seen an iridescent shark bigger than 4 inches.

A quick Google search on the rainbows point out that they'd need a 30"+ tank.
 
OK,
Sorry for the delay.
I had trouble finding the original source of where I read Heiko Bleher's views on rainbows being brackish (celebes are different, so these comments don't necessarily apply to them), so I PM'd him on a rainbowfish site and this is his entire response word for word:
"Hi,

just a fast answer to your question: rainbowfishes are NOT used to brackish water - none. Only some species of blue eyes are.

Do NOT keep rainbowfishes in brackish watrer and do not try it, if you love your fishes. And why should you? The boesemani live in a pure freshwater lake in the center of the Vogelkop peninsula in New Guinea and have NO access to saltwater whatsoever.

If you want to be good with your fishes and enjoy them, dont. If you want to follow other, who have no idea and never went to colelct and never researched the habitats (as I do all the time), than just do it. It is up to you.
All the best

Heiko"
Like I said, he's certain about his answer, and he's got more field research experience than any other human alive, but If you don't just want to trust one source even though he's the most famous and generally accepted as the most knowledgeable person on the subject, here's a thread where other rainbowfish afficionados visit the subject: http://bowheads.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1707&highlight=brackish "Rainbowfish" is Gary Lange's handle, he's the rainbow expert in the US, gives talks regularly, and currently keeps about 30 species of rainbows. "Coralnerd" who referenced the article that found that long term exposure to salt reduced longevity, is a marine biologist who also keeps several rainbow species, but mostly Australian species. It should also be noted that the Australian species used in the article are some of the more salt-tolerant rainbows. Bosemanis, praecox, lacustrus, herbertaxelrodis, and incisus are all more common in pet shops, but are all PNG species that live in tropical jungle lakes or streams, have no access to saltwater, never experience high salt conditions in the wild, and therefore have an even lower salt tolerance than the Australian species.
Those are my sources, what are yours?
 
Likewise, I've never seen an iridescent shark bigger than 4 inches.
Here ya go!
iridescentsharks.jpg


Celebes rainbows are blue eyed.
 
the only rainbow I've ever considered is the celebes...

3 posts up, we sorta ruled out celebes for this application, due to the small tank size. so I'm probably looking at 3 indian glass fish, with the crab and shrimp. I think it will be a lovely tank...
 
Last edited:
Yeah, I know, but you did ask for the links to back up what I was saying, and I think it's important to debunk the myth that you can put any kind of rainbowfish in brackish conditions without harm. Did you ever look into the Pseudomugil cyanodorsalis? They are truly brackish fish, very small, and very beautiful little blue-backed fish. Here is a link if you're interested:
http://members.optushome.com.au/chelmon/Cyano.htm
 
That one looks very similar to the Celebes. Probably verry difficult to find I'd think.
 
Like I said, I don't care much for this debate as it is in large, quite pointless.

So what is the stocking plan now? The crab, amanos and 3x glassfish?
 
AquariaCentral.com