# Rainbowfish pH question.



## Betowess (Dec 9, 2004)

I just got three juvenile Bosemani and three Turquoise. What great and active fish! I've never kept Rainbowfish before. They are doing fine and have much better color than at the store in just one day. Prolly like the planted 90. Not planning on breeding yet, but wondering on pH. At the store it was around 7.2 and my tank is now at 6.9 pH.Have any of you kept them happily at say 6.6 pH and say 6 or 7 dGH? I think I have read Bosemani do better in a low 7 pH. TIA bob


----------



## Pearljam11 (Sep 23, 2004)

I keep boesemani in a dkh of 17 with a ph of ~7.2 =P
I also keep praecox

they're doing lovely.


----------



## TomF (Jun 13, 2005)

I have several species of rainbows. I keep them at 7.1PH and 5DKH or 89.5ppmkh in an 86G and find that they do quite well. Are you able to sex them yet? Colors intensify when courting!


----------



## Pearljam11 (Sep 23, 2004)

yeah.. but Its pretty easy to sex boesami and preacox


----------



## joan (Apr 25, 2005)

I'm really interested in rainbows for the tank I'm setting up (54G) and especially for the larger tank I'm planning on swapping this set-up to in the near future, so I'd like to know about this as well. Like Betowess, I've got really soft water. I know one of my favourite LFS in downtown Vancouver has an even lower pH out of the tap than me and they usually have a lot of rainbows. They keep several in their display planted tanks and they are gorgeous, so I'll have to talk to them about this next time I'm in.


----------



## Betowess (Dec 9, 2004)

Thanks Pearljam and Tom. I was interested in how low of pH Bosemanis are comfortable with. Apparently they are into a neutral pH... according to one source whom I trust. I had seen on the web from 6 to 7 and another from 7 to 7.5. But I found a profile on Aquarium Advice by "Madasafish" who knows his stuff. He suggests 6.5 to 7.5 pH and harder water from 9 to 19 dH. I guess I'll have to make my 6 dGH a little harder... This makes sense considering their biotope. Here is a link. roud: bob http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=28378


----------



## m.lemay (Jul 28, 2002)

My boesemanis are perfectly happy at 6.7 PH.


----------



## motifone (Nov 21, 2004)

I have had Praecox Rainbows in my tank for a while. They are a nice fish and are doing fine.

I recently added 3 Bosemanis and 2 (Red) New Guinea Rainbows. The Bosemani color is great, but the New Guinea's red faded in my tank. It was a vibrant red in the LFS and went dull after a day in my tank. My water is a KH of 5 and I had been keeping the pH at about 6.3 with high CO2 injection.

On the weekend, I lowered my CO2 injection in order to increase the pH to about 6.6-6.7. Within hours of reaching 6.6-6.7 the color improved on 2 of the New Guineas and returned to a fairly vibrant red.  Either they appreciated the rise in pH or less CO2 in the water. It sure goes to show you how water conditions can affect a fish and color.

FYI - I bought all my Rainbows locally, but there seems to be a seller on Aquabid that has a nice rainbow selection with a lot of rare and wild caught fish.

Steve


----------



## Betowess (Dec 9, 2004)

m.lemay said:


> My boesemanis are perfectly happy at 6.7 PH.


Interesting. What is you GH? Everyone is mentioning their pH and sometimes KH, but not their tank's GH. Isn't general hardness the water parameter that is most important following pH, at least for fish metabolism etc.?

BTW, thanks for the aquabid suggestion Motifone, and I like your Praecox in the avatar!


----------



## UprightJoe (May 13, 2005)

I have praecox rainbows at a pH of 6.4 right now and they don't seem to be stressed at all. My tapwater kH just dropped significantly causing a drop in pH. Without co2, my tapwater would be much closer to 7.

My gH is extremely high.


----------



## motifone (Nov 21, 2004)

yes, rarefishatLAX on aquabid seems to be to often referred to source for purchasing quality rainbows (young ones).


----------



## Betowess (Dec 9, 2004)

Wow, I just looked at his fish on Aqua bid. Absolutely incredible!!


----------



## crshadow (Sep 4, 2003)

I just bought several strains of rainbows from Tanner (RarefishatLAX) last week and am very happy with them.

-Jeremiah


----------



## Betowess (Dec 9, 2004)

Which ones did you get?


----------



## crshadow (Sep 4, 2003)

Let's see.... I ordered:

M. boesemani
M. herbertaxelrodi
M. lacustris
M. sp. "Kamaka Dwarf"
M. Praecox
G. pseudoincisus (Millenium Rainbow)

A couple of these species were still young so he was kind enough to throw in a few extras of the smaller ones.

The praecox, boesemani, and lacustris were all a pretty good size.

-Jeremiah


----------



## AaronT (Apr 11, 2004)

You might try simply adding some coral chips or something else that will leach hardness into the tank until you achieve the desired pH for the rainbows.


----------



## motifone (Nov 21, 2004)

hey crshadow

Was the Millenium Rainbow pretty red?

How was the color on Bosemanis?


----------



## crshadow (Sep 4, 2003)

Unfortunately the Millenium's were the youngest I got, (Approx 1") so they aren't really showing much color yet.

As for the boesemani's I have them in a quarantine tank with a white bottom and white background so it's probably not the best place to judge their color. However, despite this they are looking pretty good. Once they go into the planted tanks, I'm sure they'll show off their color a little better.

-Jeremiah


----------



## Betowess (Dec 9, 2004)

grandmasterofpool said:


> You might try simply adding some coral chips or something else that will leach hardness into the tank until you achieve the desired pH for the rainbows.


Thanks grandmasterofpool, I think I'm going to get some "sugar sand" which is a real fine crushed coral. Rex keeps about a quarter cup in his 55 gallon which brings his soft water to a nice 6 to 7 KH and GH and nothing much else. For now I bring mine upto about 5 or 6 GH in a prep tank and some oysters bring it up a point or two more between water changes. But I think I might try to get it closer to 8 to 9 GH for these rainbows. 

I was also wondering on Tanner's Bosemanis... if they had that bright orange color. I kind of prefer the yellow/blue ones with a little orange on the fins. These are really fun fish!


----------



## motifone (Nov 21, 2004)

My Los Angeles area Petsmarts are having a sale on young Bosemani's -- 5.99 each verses a regular price of about $10 each I think. They are young (1" long) but show yellow on the tail. Sale ends 7/1 (?) I think. I wonder if the sale extends to Petsmarts in other states.

I was curious about Tanner's orange Bosemani's, too. I'd love to try a couple in my tank along with my other Rainbows -- 6 for $35 is a fair price. But I'd only have room for 3 at the most. I imagine he sends males & females. I guess I could always sell the remainder to my local LFS.


----------



## crshadow (Sep 4, 2003)

Regarding the Boesemani's, right now they look like the standard yellow/blue coloration. Whether or not they will color up to an orange is hard for me to say it this point. I'll try and post pictures later if anyone is interested.

-Jeremiah


----------



## motifone (Nov 21, 2004)

Jeremiah

Cool, sure if you have time, pics would be cool

Steve


----------



## joan (Apr 25, 2005)

Picked up 6 Threadfin Rainbows (Iriatherina werneri) today and 3 Axelrod Rainbows (Chilatherina axelrodi, I believe). I'd been planning on the Threadfins all along for this tank, and I knew I wanted to get a small group of one of the larger Rainbows. I hadn't read much about the Axelrods but, man, I really liked the looks of them. So I discussed them with a couple of the guys at the LFS and sat down and looked up what info we could in the store and I decided to go for it and bring three home.

I _really_ like them. roud: Also really pleased with my little school of Threadfins. I'd been admiring them at the LFS and researched them, so i was quite confident I would be. Awesome fish. Immediately active in the tank and add so much to it. I can't find a decent pic of Axelrod's online. When I finally get my digital sorted again, I'll post a pic of them for everyone to see. Mine are still really young, so not tons of colour yet, but very cool colouring nonetheless.

Edit: Okay, Axelrod discovered/named too many damn fish! :tongue: We discussed this at the LFS when trying to look up info. There's more than one Axelrod Rainbow so it's somewhat confusing. I should have written down the Latin name when we nailed down what we we're pretty sure these are. Anyway I think this could be the one:








Melanotaenia herbertaxelrodi or Lake Tebera Rainbow. The colouring showing up on mine so far is primarily blue, but that pic looks like it could be the one.


----------



## crshadow (Sep 4, 2003)

Finally got a chance to snap a few pics of the boesemani. Sorry if the images are a little grainy. This one is almost 3 inches from his snout to the base of the caudal.

-Jeremiah


----------



## crshadow (Sep 4, 2003)

One more pic.


----------



## motifone (Nov 21, 2004)

thanks for following up and sharing! Look like nice fish to me. Should grow up quite attractive.

what was the ratio of fish you were sent, male to female?


----------



## crshadow (Sep 4, 2003)

Oops, just realized I missed your post motifone, sorry for the delay. I ended up with 4 males and 2 females.

-Jeremiah


----------



## Spar (Aug 7, 2003)

for those of you that seem a little worried about the whole GH / pH with these guys, I have kept mine at a GH of 5-6 and pH of 6.3-6.5 for the past year.

They look and are doing great. Have 6 Rainbows now.


----------



## Anthony (Jan 11, 2005)

MIne are doing wonderful at pH of 6.2-6.4 ,kH at 4.5 degrees, and gH at 110ppm.


----------



## debrab1954 (Aug 9, 2005)

*rainbows and cherry shrimp*

does anyone know if rainbow fish and cherry shrip are campatible thanks


----------



## Spar (Aug 7, 2003)

they are not compatible. mine ate many of the ones I recently put in my tank. didn't expect it, but they loved them 

they are doing great with my Amanos though.


----------



## BOTIA (Dec 23, 2003)

I have school of 18 rainbows 8m-6F. I find mine are happy with 6.8 no problem.
In fact I have been breeding one pair of them in my 15 tall. I have some of my offspring in my main tank now and some waiting to grow out.
Botia


----------

