# Neon Dwarf Rainbowfish Experiences?



## gentledental4u (Feb 28, 2008)

Hey I ran a search but was not able to find some of the answers I was looking for regarding Neon Dwarf Rainbowfish. 

Are they good community fish or aggressive at all?

Will they eat otocinclus? (I saw on youtube a rainbowfish eating an otocinclus)

In what section of the tank will they spend most of their time swimming in?

Will they bother my neons or corys?

Do they school well together?

What is the minimum that I should get for a 40 G breeder?

Are they hardy?

Thanks in advance for your help!!


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## lemonlime (Sep 24, 2006)

gentledental4u said:


> Hey I ran a search but was not able to find some of the answers I was looking for regarding Neon Dwarf Rainbowfish.





gentledental4u said:


> Are they good community fish or aggressive at all?


Great community fish, not aggressive at all. Only mild sexual aggression... which is mostly entertaining and colorful



gentledental4u said:


> Will they eat otocinclus? (I saw on youtube a rainbowfish eating an otocinclus)


no way!



gentledental4u said:


> In what section of the tank will they spend most of their time swimming in?


mid to top



gentledental4u said:


> Will they bother my neons or corys?


Neons may be startled by rainbows antics. They are hyper sometimes and spend a lot of time chasing eachother around flashing.. but neon rainbows are a bit more casual then other rainbow species. If your tank is planted well I would say the tetras will adjust and do fine.



gentledental4u said:


> Do they school well together?


They school loosely, nothing like tetras. Tetras school as a safety strategy, rainbows school to compete for sex relations and flaunting. They just chase/play/flash within sight of eachother.



gentledental4u said:


> What is the minimum that I should get for a 40 G breeder?


minimum would be perhaps 2 males 3 females.. or just 3 males. 



gentledental4u said:


> Are they hardy?


Yea, they are pretty hardy. Don't overfeed and keep CO2 at the low end.. 20-25ppm. In the wild they are found in acidic and alkaline waters, hard and soft. But slightly acidic soft water is best.

*feed a good deal LESS then typical fish, once a day is enough really. A good portion of their diet should be veggies.. spirulina, algae, veg wafers, peas whatever.

Rainbows are really great fish, my favs!

You'll be amazed on how colorful they get when adjusted to the hometank and fed a good diet.


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## neilfishguy (Dec 16, 2007)

lemonlime said:


> minimum would be perhaps 2 males 3 females.. or just 3 males.
> 
> 
> Yea, they are pretty hardy. Don't overfeed and keep CO2 at the low end.. 20-25ppm. In the wild they are found in acidic and alkaline waters, hard and soft. But slightly acidic soft water is best.
> ...


3 rainbows...wtf? they are schoolers and really need 6+ and you will see tight schooling with 8 plus...rainbows are very tight schoolers if you have enough. In my 75 gallon species tank they breed in my tap 7.6ph water...and school VERY tight (like the size of a pop can for 12 and counting.) 

They eat like pigs, I give one meal of bloodworms, mysis shrimp, or tupifex, and the other of veggies. 

Other than that good advice.


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## lemonlime (Sep 24, 2006)

Have to disagree with "tight schoolers".. Not in my experience, and I have never seen rainbows as a suggestion for a tight schooling fish. Youtube videos of peoples praecox....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z85NdztASH8 take note of fish count and tank size, very typical everyday behavior IME

Of course they eat like pigs.. breeding rainbows is like pouring a glass of water

Here is a string of words some call experience from a quick google search...

It is necessary to understand about conditions in the wild to appreciate why rainbowfishes have this behaviour. Food is a limiting resource in nature and it is rarely available in excess quantities. The individuals that survive are those best able to acquire this limited resource. Rainbowfishes are opportunistic and feed whenever they can find food. It is neither necessary nor advantageous in the wild to control their appetite. Therefore when rainbowfishes are kept in an environment with unlimited food, they do not know when to stop feeding.

n captivity, rainbowfishes are inclined to overeat and one has only to observe rainbowfishes in the wild to realise that most captive specimens are overfed and overweight. If fed the wrong sort of foods (those rich in saturated fats) they are prone to obesity and may develop lipodosis (fatty degeneration of the internal organs) and eventually die. Experiments on fats required by fish have revealed a need for omega-3 fatty acids. These are normally available in fish or other seafood.

http://books.google.com/books?id=Il...PVLoc77&sig=AS3uvU2oWwo-nf9-utkN2sWPd2M&hl=en 

^ From Aquarium Atlas

etc etc.. overfeed and your rainbows will be doing aquabatics

As stockingg goes, he/she mentioned minimum. 2+3 would be a minimum group IMO.. 3 males would be fine as well. Is it IDEAL? no not IMO. Yes a larger school would probably bring out more behavior, esp compared to a ladyless trio. 

7.6 is great.. Most Australian rainbows are found in acid soft water.. although they thrive in just about anything liquid.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Lemon, you should post some comments up in the fish profiles ^^^

That's good stuff!


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## gentledental4u (Feb 28, 2008)

hey thanks all for looking. i got one more question, will the neon rainbowfish eat cherry shrimps? or baby cherry shrimps??


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Any fish will eat shrimplets, IMO.

As far as adults go, I don't have any experience with dwarf rainbows, but I'd guess that some will and some won't, and you won't know for sure w/out trying?


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## gentledental4u (Feb 28, 2008)

well what i mean is, when i had neon tetras and cherry shrimps..the cherry shrimp population exploded, but then i added an angelfish and it wiped out the cherries...if the neon rainbows do that, then i don't want to get any... 

so if anyone has experienced this, let me know. thanks!


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## ingg (Jan 18, 2007)

> Are they good community fish or aggressive at all?


Only to each other, and then only very mildly, more showing than actual aggression.

They are, however, voracious eaters. I find myself having to feed them one one side of the tank, and sneak pellets down on the other side for the cories. They don't let anything drop past them, very very fast and always hungry bellies. their speed and frenzy when feeding probably will spook other fish, but it isn't aggression.



> Will they eat otocinclus? (I saw on youtube a rainbowfish eating an otocinclus)


LoL, no. As a rule, Rainbows have very tiny mouths for their size.



> In what section of the tank will they spend most of their time swimming in?


All over, but as a rule, mid to top.




> Will they bother my neons or corys?


No. My pygmy cories actually school up with my Praecox, much to the rainbows' apparent dismay.



> Do they school well together?


Mine school tightly. I don't know where lemonlime is coming from, but given enough of them, they do school. You can have 3 neons, too, and they won't school well either - but given there are enough of them to school, they do. So do Praecox.




> What is the minimum that I should get for a 40 G breeder?


This is a social fish. I'd get 2 males and 4 females. Do not stock less than 1 male to 2 females, and 1 to 3 is better, unless doing all males. The males harass the females to breed, and if you reverse the ratio, bad things happen to the females. Sort of akin to guppies in that regard, they are always nudging and showing fins. I would not get even ratios or 2 males and 3 females, myself.

My school is 3 males and 11 females.



> Are they hardy?


In general yes, though they are known to not travel all that well. 



> hey thanks all for looking. i got one more question, will the neon rainbowfish eat cherry shrimps? or baby cherry shrimps??


Yes. They don't have big enough mouths to take out adults, but they'll nip at adults if they go free swimming, and they'll pick babies/young off the rocks and substrate.

EDIT IN: I have not seen them go after adult shrimp. I have seen them picking at rocks, after the babies. My tank is a little bigger than average, so not sure how it would go in a 40g, but I don't see why it would be much different.


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## gentledental4u (Feb 28, 2008)

Thanks ingg, so are they voracious enough that none of the babies make it to adulthood and you just have the adults you started out with?


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## ingg (Jan 18, 2007)

No, you'll find babies in a planted tank - but how long they hang in there is another thing. You'll want to remove them and let them grow out, they have a tendency to swim at the very surface of the water a lot, quick fish food.


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