[prime]

Well, I am about to give this a shot.

I have a mixed group of rainbows in a 38g tank. Most of them are M. Boesemani, with a lone M. Herbertaxelrodi and a lone G. Incisus. The two loners are recent additions to the tank. The Yellow rainbow has spent all of his time down in the corner which concerns me, but thats another issue.

The tank also has some corydoras and neon tetra, so as I understand thats why I have never seen any eggs or fry.

Yesterday I bought a 10 gallon setup. Got a heater, glass top, and moved a filter over from another cycled tank onto it. I put a sponge over the input and dialed down the flow so it wouldnt be too turbulent. There is a dark artificial plant in the middle that I intended to be a mop. The rest of the tank is bare.

Last night I caught one of my M. Boesemani females and moved her over to the tank. Hopefully she will calm down some, and I can feed her well for a few days before introducing a male.





The one downside I have seen so far, is that my fish are all stressed out with me being in the tank with the net. All I have to do is touch the tank lid and they all swim for cover (only the rainbows). They used to greet me at the surface for feeding, and the different behavior I am not enjoying...

Any tips for me at this point?

[Luca]

Is the artificial plant plastic, silk? It will likely not be adequate for a mop. The fish will eat the eggs if they can. Making a mop out of acrylic yarn is easy and the best way to go if you don't have java moss available.

[prime]

Yeah its a plastic tuft of large grass blades. I will find some yarn today. At what point should I be more concerned with my fish appearing stressed?

[Colin_T]

Rainbows generally panic more in dirt tanks with poor water quality. Try doing some big water changes and gravel cleans on the tank and make sure the pH is around 7.0-7.5. If it is too acidic (ie: around 5.5) or there are high nitrates or ammonia or nitrite, then that will cause the fish to panic whenever you look at them the wrong way.

Make sure there is a picture or something over the back and if possible the sides as well. Have some plants in the tank. Floating plants like Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides) will offer cover and usually helps calm fish down.
Reducing the light on the tank can sometimes help too, as can increasing surface turbulence/ aeration.

Your breeding tank needs lots of aeration while the fish are in the tank. You can turn the filter down after the fish have bred and the adults have been removed.

I would put 3 or 4 female boesemani into the breeding tank. feed them up for 3 or 4 days and then move 2 out leaving 1 or 2 behind for the male to breed with. You could also breed 4 or 5 boesemani in the tank and that would give you more eggs and a better genetic mixture of offspring.

Try and do a water change on the breeding tank each day while the adults are in there. The water changes will help keep the tank clean, but they will also encourage the fish to spawn.

[prime]

Well the main tank is heavily planted, and the inhabitants have been alright in it for months now. I admit its been a while since I have tested the water, but I regularly perform water changes and gravel vac where there are not any plants taking root. My Ph is just a touch above neutral with 7.2 or so.

Thats what surprised me, the sudden change.

[Colin_T]

You must have really scared them when you were using the net

[prime]

The females now only retreat if i actually put my hands in the tank. The males run away if I walk in front of it! Oh well, those scaredy cats will have to go hungry until they man up!

[prime]

I think I am going to put the female back into my main tank, and change it over to a rainbows only tank. There will be possible hybridization (heck, for all I know my fish may not be pure as it is).

I simply wont hand out any eggs or fry I get from the tank as any one species or another.

[mikev]

Welcome aboard, prime,

Why not just move the two singles to your 10g temporary? Then you don't have to worry about moving stress or hybridization.

[Luca]

If you are going to keep multiple species in a tank, don't even breed them. As I was saying before.....put your two M.boesemani females in the 10 gal, put the mop in let them settle in while getting fed for 4-5 days then put two of your M.boesemani males in. Take all the fish out in another 4-5 days. You will get a bunch of fry.

[prime]

Well, the 10g now holds the previous non rainbows. I guess I will wait a bit to try any breeding. Once we move into a house I will have more room for species only tanks.

On the plus side, I took Colin_Ts advice in my stocking limit and added a few more rainbows to my tank in place of my non rainbow fish.

I have the 5 M. Boesemani (2 female, 3 male),

I added the following:
2 "Turquoise Rainbow" maybe M. Lacustris?
2 G. Incisus
2 M. Maccullochi maybe? I will get some photos up later to be sure.

each pair was 1 male and 1 female, as best I could tell. The larger group has helped the others chill out some more.

[Luca]

That's a nice mix. Yes the turquoise are the M.lacustris. Also called Lake Kutubu rainbows. Depending on where you are the M.maccullochi may in fact be M.australis. Many have seen this naming error in both the states and Europe. Some pics of M.australis in the link below. Both are nice fish.

http://rainbow-fish.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=400

[prime]

Mine have a white to light pink main body color, with dark horizontal lines, darkest towards the back of the fish. The males fins have a slight reddish tint to them, and a little bit of the dark line pattern extends to the second dorsal and anal fins.

Ill get pics up tonight of the individuals.