# Rainbowfish - Chilatherina Genus



## Rainbowric

I noticed in Greg's thread that there is no pictures of Rainbowfish from the Chilatherina Genus. Genus ??? Well there are a number of families of Rainbowfish that we have labeled as Genus. Most of Greg's bows are from the Melanotaenia Genus excluding the Millinium or it's Scientific name Glossolepis psuedoincisus. It belongs to the Glossolepis Genus. When you see a Scientific name on a Rainbowfish it will start with it's Genus name which should always be Capitalized. The next name will be the species name which will not be capitalized. For example Greg's Melanotaenia lacustris, or his Melanotaenia boesemani, or his Melanotaenia praecox. Sometimes you will see a third name which will indicate where the fish was collected.

Since Greg has not posted any pictures of fish from the Chilatherina Genus I thought I would add a couple.

First is the Chilatherina bleheri .... yes many of you are aware of this fish as it is more common in the hobby then the other species. Common and my favorite! You do see them sometimes in the LFS however this is a species where the female is not the most colorful and when she is stressed in the LFS she will probably have no color at all. So it is quite common to see tanks full of white females in the LFS that really never find a home. This is another reason why you do not see this fish often in the LFS as the owner of the LFS only makes money selling the males and has to .... well I am not going to say what they have to do with the left over females.

Pictured below is a male C. bleheri .... he is in nice shape, well looked after, feed well, with a tank full of females. I doubt if you will ever see one this nice in a LFS.










And here is a picture of a female C. bleheri and you will never see one with this much color in the LFS. Actually I took this picture of her because you don't see this much color on them. I think it is because she is ready to spawn!










Now what happens when it is spawning time and the male starts to display for the female!










All of a sudden a second male shows up and the two of them are displaying and sparring with each other for the female.










How often do I see this happening in my tank? Daily ..... the C. bleheri is a very prolific fish and very easy to breed. If you have one pair and feed it nothing but a good flake and or a quality pellet you may only see this once or twice a week. If you have two pairs and supplimented them with some frozen shrimp and a few bloodworms .... almost every day. Three pairs with lots of good live food ..... most of the day!

Another Chilatherina that was collected in 2005 by Gary Lange at Faowi Village is the Chilatherina fasciata "Faowi Village" This species is owned by many in Western and Eastern Canada .... actually I obtained my first one from a breeder in Eastern Canada.

A picture of the male .... I rather doubt if you would see this one in a local fish store and I don't have a picture of him in a relaxed state. This picture was taken shortly before spawning when he was just starting to realize the female was checking him out.










As you can see ... not much color in this girl either and yet she is showing about the most you will ever see in a female C. fasciata.










What happens to this fellow when he realizes it is time to spawn?










This is just a couple of examples of Rainbowfish when they are displaying for the female. It isn't much different with the other Genus of Rainbowfish as well. If you don't have a female in with your colorful male you will never see the best of him. Not to forget to mention that these fish are 2 to 3 years of age. When I first started to collect bows well over a decade ago, I collected only males, none of them lived much more then a year. Having a female is so important in having a nice tank of bows!

One last point with regards to the names of these fish. We spoke of the family of rainbows .... Genus .... the species .... and the location. Here is another picture of the Chilatherina fasciata .... however the location is "Pagai" rather then "Faowi Village"










Looks fairly similar to the C. fasciata "Foawi Village" ... in fact I was not even going to acquire it as I thought they were the same fish. DNA yes! However after owning the two of them for well over a year now.... they are different! Unfortunately it was collected it 2008 and I was the first in Canada to get this fish. I do have a request from a breeder down east to send him some eggs so I would think it should be down there soon.


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## BillD

Very nice photos of some very nice fish.


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## SwimmyD

*Questions on raising rainbows*

Hi Ric,
Thanks for posting such beautiful pictures and giving such a great explanation about rainbow behaviours and colourations. It's really fortunate for us that someone as knowledgeable as you has joined this forum - as we now have someone to ask about the particulars of this species!

Greg and I started keeping bows about a year and a half ago - we had never kept this type of fish before. We were both re-entering this hobby after a VERY long absence. We had seen some bows in the LFS, and knew that they had great potential once they grew larger. We did some research, and that's how we ended up with 7 millenniums from a Florida breeder. We had also picked up about 4 or 5 praecox from the LFS. We had them all in a 70 gal, and they were great fun to watch...spawning and sparring, displays etc. It was a great way to get back into the hobby, and learn about planted tanks.

At one point we noticed that our bushynose plecos had laid eggs inside a piece of moss covered wood, and so we moved it to a nursery tank. Within a week, there were over a hundred rainbow fry swimming around. We figured they hatched from eggs laid in the java moss. They were so tiny. I could not believe the size of these almost microscopic fry. I tried my best to raise these things, but had no experience. We tried growing some infusoria with spinach in water, I fed this liquid fry food, and bought a hikari powdered food. My inexperience with this caused the death of most. We were completely unprepared. Within a couple of months I was down to about a dozen. They were still REALLY tiny. Sometimes I noticed that they would form a little hump on their heads and then their spines would droop and then they would die within days. Meanwhile the 70 or so bn plecos were thriving! I vacuumed the tank daily, and did religious water changes. I fed them bigger and better food as they grew, including live daphnia.

It took several months but I could start to see the differences between the praecox and the millenniums. The praecox got stockier bodies, and seemed to be smarter about finding food and figuring out who was feeding them. They grew faster than the millenniums. After 7 or 8 months, I was amazed that the millenniums were still so small. Only an inch long! I gave away most of these fish, but kept the 3 millenniums - hoping one was a male (our prized male had jumped about a month after the big hatch). After about 8 months, it looked like we still had females. I did a little research and found a site that said millenniums colour up after 6 months. I decided to give them away, because I wanted the tank for a pair of blue gularis killifish.

Anyways, several months ago Greg put some plant cuttings in our shrimp tank and some more rainbows hatched (just a few). There was plenty of live food to eat in there, and I got smart by feeding the fry vinegar eels to start. No fry that hatched in that tank died. I would give away the fish as they grew. All were little praecox. However one fry looks like a millennium. But it could be something else, as the tank where it came from is our 145g with many kinds of rainbows.

He/she is about 6 months old. It has been fed very well (grew up eating live shrimplets!). However it's only an inch long. I moved it to a 5g grow out tank about 3 weeks ago, because it was eating more shrimp than were being replaced . I am keeping it because I am hoping it will be a millennium female. But it is growing ever so slowly that I fear the parents will be completely geriatric before it is ever big enough to put in the tank with the other fish. At the size it is now, it could never compete for food with these crazy 4 inch bows.

My questions to you are: why are these things growing SO SLOW! Am I doing something wrong with this little bow? When will I know what sex this thing is? I really think its a millennium, but when will I know? He's sharing a tank with a juvie praecox who has grown much faster than him (same age) and is double his size.

Thanks so much!


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## SwimmyD

*pics of the 2 juvie rainbows*

Hi Ric,
Here's a pic of the two rainbows in my 5 g grow out tank. As you can see, the praecox is 3 times the weight of the (I think) millennium.


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## Rainbowric

BillD said:


> Very nice photos of some very nice fish.


Thank you Bill for the nice words you have said about my fish and my photography!



SwimmyD said:


> Hi Ric,
> Thanks for posting such beautiful pictures and giving such a great explanation about rainbow behaviours and colourations. Thanks so much!


I really enjoy being able to capture these fish showing there best. Unfortunately we don't see it much .... Never the best conditions in the LFS.



SwimmyD said:


> My questions to you are: why are these things growing SO SLOW! Am I doing something wrong with this little bow? When will I know what sex this thing is? I really think its a millennium, but when will I know? He's sharing a tank with a juvie praecox who has grown much faster than him (same age) and is double his size. !


Okay .... your question about growth has been asked so many times and there are a lot of reasons why. Rainbows are not a fast growing fish ...well unless you can get the right conditions. Most breeders breed in the the spring/summer for a 1.5 to 2 inch fish in the fall/winter. Some species grow faster ... 4 months to others taking 8 months. Species from the Glossolepis Genus, in most cases are close to the 8 months + .... One of the most common mistakes I come across is temperature. You should run the grow out tank to at least 80 degrees until the females are spawning or males flashing! Glossolepis Genus you can go 82 and even 83 degrees. Higher temperature, higher metabolism, faster growth rate. .... then once you have the temp up they do need to eat more as well! Some are really surprised at how much a couple of degrees will make such a difference. Many come in and look at my fish and ask ... How do you get such good growth? I will throw some food in for the fish in front of them and ask them if how much they will throw in. Some will say ... at least that much each day. I say well mine get that twice a day and then some! All my bow tanks have either a Sail Fin pleco or BN pleco and a group of Corydora's in it to clean up the extra food. So I do over feed, yet sometimes I notice the cats are up to the top of the tank looking for food I will have to throw in a few extra pellets when the lights go out on the tank at night. 

Your mystery fish looks a little like a female praecox. Being a female it will be smaller. The fact that it was eating all your shrimplets ..... it was probably pretty hungry, as my praecox do not bother my shrimps. Praecox do grow quite fast in comparison to a Millinium ... almost double. Yet raising up a group of praecox the biggest male might get to 1.5 inches and yet the smallest female may only get to 0.5 inches. Sexing ... well can be pretty difficult with many of the species and with one only fish or even two if they are the same sex. When asked by many ..... I may say..... well it is either an ugly male or a very pretty female.


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## Rainbowric

Well with a 5 star rating on this thread I guess I should add a few more Chilatherina species to it.

So far we have the ....

*Chilatherina bleheri *...... commonly called bleheri. 
*Chilatherina fasciata "Faowi Village" *... most called Foawi's ...new to the hobby 2005
*Chilatherina fasciata "Pagai" *.... mostly called the Pagai ... new to the hobby in 2008

Another that was collected by Gary Lange ... around 2008 is the ....
*Chilatherina alleni "Siriwo"* ... also collected in 2012 by Gary again..

I was fortunate to acquire a mop of eggs from Gary in the Spring of 2011 when he came to Calgary to speak at our Club Spring workshop.

A picture of two of my males ... at rest .....










A female of the species .... this Chilatherina has some color to her!










I have a picture of each of the two males when they start to flash. The first one here is the male in the back with less red on him.










And this is the male in the front of the first photo that has a little more red on him.










All of these Chilatherina species are in one community tank. Well except for the Chilatherina "Pagai" as the females do look quite the same and you don't want to take a chance and get them mixed up.

These species will interbreed with each other which makes it impossible to collect eggs. I have mops hanging from each side of the tank for them to play with and for the catfish to find dinner in that night  If I wish to collect eggs I will need to remove the species I want.....however for a show tank if any one of the females are ready to spawn .... all the males from all the species start to flash and the show will begin!

Here is a shot with 2 Foawi Females, 2 Faowi males, and 2 alleni males!










On this shot 2 bleheri males have moved in for some of the action!










After the spawning is done .... the boys are friends again...


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## SwimmyD

*Wow!*

Wow! More great pictures of beautiful fish! You are some great photographer!
Thanks about the info on my juvie bows. I realize now that the temperature is the problem. I have not been keeping them very warm. I do feed them twice a day, and quite a bit. But maybe they are cold........

I'm quite sure that the smaller one is not a praecox. The body and fin shape is not like a praecox. I've had female praecox grow out too, and they are quite different than this guy. So I should heat this tank up, and maybe in another few months I will find out what it is. Thanks for your help!


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## Rainbowric

SwimmyD said:


> Wow! More great pictures of beautiful fish! You are some great photographer!
> Thanks about the info on my juvie bows. I realize now that the temperature is the problem. I have not been keeping them very warm. I do feed them twice a day, and quite a bit. But maybe they are cold........
> 
> I'm quite sure that the smaller one is not a praecox. The body and fin shape is not like a praecox. I've had female praecox grow out too, and they are quite different than this guy. So I should heat this tank up, and maybe in another few months I will find out what it is. Thanks for your help!


Thanks SwimmyD .... the wife spots the odd fry in the community tanks for which she likes to save them from being a snack for the adults. The community tanks where there is a possibility of crossbreeding I have her convinced to let mother nature to take it's course. However on a couple of tanks where like you have said each species takes it turn spawning and the others don't care .... she will go in and save the fry. Then the problem comes ... what tank should I put it in? It usually goes into one of her shrimp tanks which indeed is running cooler. She has at least a dozen of them in them and they are growing very slow. She can't wait for the day when she can identify them!

You mystery fish may be a Millenium. The colors in your photo appear to be off a little making appear similar to the male but with yellow fins. It would make more sense for it to be a Millineum. I have not raised up Millinium for almost a decade now but being from the Glossolepis Genus, most grow out times are almost double that of a praecox. A female praecox at that size would probably have some blue hue to it already.


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## Fishlover_680

These fish are so nice! Would you be selling your fries?


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## TonyT

Great thread


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## Rainbowric

Fishlover_680 said:


> These fish are so nice! Would you be selling your fries?


Fries ??? I don't usually sell fries .... I have a couple of times but mostly I sell them when they are young adults around the 1.5 to 2 inch size. I sell by pairs mostly. Depending on the breeding if I am out to get myself a nice colony I keep them until they are almost 2 inches. Some of us will sell say a 6 pack or even 12 pack ... unsexed. I have bought a number of species from Eric Bodrock ... 12 packs where the fish are not quite an inch. You really need to trust your breeder then. But most breeders will sell a 6 pack and pretty much garantee at least 2 males. Once you have raised them you get pretty good at sexing them early. When you buy from a breeder a 6 pack you usually get 7 or 8 fish just in case one dies in transit. Many breeders are selling them much smaller now as shipping costs have risen and the bigger the fish the more water you need and therefore more weight on the package.



TonyT said:


> Great thread


Thanks TonyT I am happy that you and the many others have enjoyed!

Oh I have one more Chilatherina to post .... quite rare and it likes the cooler water. Probably be happy with the killies! 

*Chilatherina campsi "Wahgi River" *


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## SwimmyD

That last one is amazing! So how cold is cold? My killies are in 71F water. In winter it will drop into the high 60's. 

Funny about your wife saving the fry! I understand completely! I am hoping that the little one is a millennium. I need a girl! Figures I gave away my other 3 girls! Anyways I cranked up the heat to 82 and I'm piling in the food. Hopefully it will fatten up and then I can put it in with the others. 
Thanks!


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## Rainbowric

SwimmyD said:


> That last one is amazing! So how cold is cold? My killies are in 71F water. In winter it will drop into the high 60's.
> 
> Funny about your wife saving the fry! I understand completely! I am hoping that the little one is a millennium. I need a girl! Figures I gave away my other 3 girls! Anyways I cranked up the heat to 82 and I'm piling in the food. Hopefully it will fatten up and then I can put it in with the others.
> Thanks!


The campsi I acquired from Eric Bodrock .... a 12 pack @ about an inch. They have a location which is bad as I never posted it ...(I will have to fix that!) they come from the Wahgi River collection so there full name is Chilatherina campsi "Wahgi River" No one was really aware until recently that they prefer cold water and in warm they did not stand up so well. A friend of mine from Australia is keeping two colonies going and one he has at 68 degrees and the other at 74 degrees and he tells me that the colony in 68 degrees is doing much better.

Sounds like you and my wife would get along well  It might take a little time for the change in temp to kick in for your girl as it is a condition change but I am sure soon you will see a difference soon.


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## Rainbowric

*New born Chilatherina fasciata "Faowi Village"*

This is one of my wife's favorite instruments in the fish room. Simple a little plastic scope..... to catch new borns.

This is a Faowi Village new born....this is a big Rainbowfish fry and he is not much bigger then one to the pillows on the paper towel!










See if my macro lens can get any closer .....


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## greg

Very interesting colour patterns on the C. alleni "Siriwo". All your pictures are exceptional and the information provided very informative. Thanks for sharing with the GTA community!


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## Rainbowric

greg said:


> Very interesting colour patterns on the C. alleni "Siriwo". All your pictures are exceptional and the information provided very informative. Thanks for sharing with the GTA community!


Indeed Greg .... I just got a nice colony of them going and Gary brought back this one .....

*Chilatherina alleni "Wapoga"*

He also has another Chilatherina that interest me more that we should see soon. Actually I believe that you will probably have a better chance acquiring some of these beauties as I understand he is coming up to eastern Canada in the spring!

Thanks Greg for you kind words ... it has been fun doing these threads for GTA especially since they are all so well recieved and appreciated by the members.


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## Rainbowric

*Chilatherina fasciata "Faowi Village"*

This species is starting to get quite the reputation out here in the west. A number of excellent breeders are now breeding this fish even though no body really knows them and stressed in a LFS few will purchase. But when they are comfortable in there surroundings they can be quite colorful!

A young boy not quite a year old!










They are a healthy fish... recently collected in 2005. They a happy go lucky fish that likes to play .... yet if things get a little rough they can look after themselves quite well. Not to many bows would spar with a 2 year old fully mature male boesemani!


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## Rainbowric

*New Chilatherinas' to Canada*

Last week two new species of Chilatherina were imported to Canada. Breeding colonies consisting of F1 stock from Gary Lange are now in my fish room.

*Chilatherina alleni "Wapogo" *










This has got to be one of the most prettiest Chilatherina's available today... or is it? They are still argueing about which is more pretty in Europe, will have to wait and see ... even though in pictures they look quite similar, the few collectors that have them say they are quite different in colors!

Both species about the same size, just under 2 inches, the Wapoga appears to have more colors bursting from him. The Wapoga, a little more aggressive then the Upper Tor, the Upper Tor has a really happy go lucky personally, similar to that of the Chilatherina bleheri.

*Chilatherina species "Upper Tor"*










I am sorry but it will take a little time for me to get some young from these beauty's bred! Stay tuned for pictures of these young F1's as they develop.


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## Rainbowric

*Chilatherina spec. Upper Tor*

Caught a few pictures of my C. spec. Upper Tor the other day. Wife calls them the Upper terror's. They are still not much more then 2.5 inches. Got them about 2 inches and thought ...well it will be a while before we get some eggs off of these fish. Right out of the carton from the USA and they were throwing eggs. Have a nice little tank of fry now and the parents are enjoying life in one of my show tanks. They don"t appear to be growing much ...probably burning off all the food ... and they eat a lot! ... with activity. I have them in with my furcatus and another blue-eyed species, praecox and Skull Creeks. Again another tank with actually 3 different Genus in it... Psuedomugil, Melanotaenia, and now Chilatherina.

Having "spec." in the name means that we have no record of this fish. Unnamed and not Scientifically described yet. I believe these two pairs are the only ones in Canada so far and based on the price I had to pay for them I understand that there are only two owners of this fish in Canada and USA. Gary Lange and myself.

They are very much like a Chilatherina bleheri in that when calm in late afternoon casually swimming about they are nothing eye grabbing but when they see a female ready to spawn .... out comes the colours! Side 2 of the fish ...Dr. Jekle and Mr. Hyde. but when another male shows up then a third side comes up and wow ... what a stunning little fish!










Of course it was the second guy showing up that got them so coloured up!










I still can"t believe that a young little 2.5 inch fish can be this entertaining!










I can hardly wait to get a* full colony *of this new exciting species.


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## Rainbowric

Chilatherina (sp) Upper Tor River

Still around 2.5 inches .... this fish gets prettier each day!










A bundle of energy!!










Chilatherina alleni "Wapoga" at about the same size of 2.5 inches.

In a relaxed state .... which is very seldom for this fish! The more energy this fish generates the more the colors pop out of him.

















Greg you are really going to enjoy your bunch once they get another inch on them!


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## Bwhiskered

I just got a group of 8 Chilatherina alleni "Wapogo" from Gary Lange 2 weeks ago when he spoke in Ajax Ontario. I am getting lots of eggs but they seem to be developing much slower than any of the other rainbows that I have had. What is their incubation period and at what temperature?


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## Rainbowric

Happy to hear that we are getting more blood from this species in Canada!

Pretty much the normal for this Genus. 7 days at 80 degrees. 

Fry are amount the strongest of the Genus! But then again they are coming from F1 fish. 

Good luck.


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## dave pauls

I also picked up a group of the chilatherina alleni wapoga from Gary. I haven't put a mop in but the colours showing on them at 1" is pretty amazing. I have had my eye on these fish for a while now. I'm very pleased to finally have them. They have a thirty gallon tank to themselves while I pack them full of bbs and mini blood worms, waiting for them to grow. They are so active. I thought bleheri changed colour quickly. This fish is a different animal entirely. Hey rick, what's your opinion on mixing a super active fish like these with something a little more reserved like m. species Aru II? Does the hyper fish bring the shy one out, or make it more shy?
Dave


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## Rainbowric

Hi Dave ... it is good to see you! I had noticed that you were a member but was wondering why I was receiving no comments from you. When I do on the Rainbowfish forum.

These alleni are interesting little fish. I got 6 pairs of them ... group buy with 2 other breeders out west here. All 6 pairs remained here at my fish room still today. The other two breeders stop by for mops of eggs. 

They may at first appear to have a little more energy then the Siriwo collection of the C. alleni. ( which is posted earlier in this thread) but after having them now for almost 3 months, they are much the same. You can also get a better idea how they will develop by studying the Siriwo alleni. Mark N posted a video on the Rainbowfish forum of them going wild in the morning .... checked and he took it down.  In a species only environment they are nuts ... very much competing for dominant male. Problem being that most of the eggs are fertilized by that one male. So after a couple of mops I took him out and put him in ... with a female, in a 100 gallon tank with a bunch of 4 inch + bows. He did calm right down and was not very colorful. The next dominant male I put in a 75 gallon tank that was full of Melanotaenia and Glossolepis species ...~2.5 inchs. They are doing great in that tank..... and was able to get some nice pictures of them. In a tank where they might be the largest fish of the different species ... I think they will still be okay. I ran 4 different species of Chilatherina together for well over a year. One of the them was the alleni Siriwo. They were the smallest but really held there own with the rest of the other species of Chilatherinas. Everyone that I have sold any Chilatherinas to over the years has all indicated that they make a great community fish.










Will be looking forward to seeing how yours works out with your M. (sp) Aru II as they are a pretty active fish as well. My Aru II & Aru IV beat the heck out of each other.


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## dave pauls

Hey rick... Ya I kind of stopped posting on here for a while. I don't get down to toronto much these days and had a couple tanks collapse on me. So I just focused on my big tanks and started to cut the species down as well as focus a bit more on my other hobby of raising birds for exhibition... then I broke my hand skiing and couldn't enjoy working with the poultry the same... So I started looking at the fish again.... I restarted another eight tanks and picked up three new species and got back one I missed... Which happens to be praecox straight out of the fish Jeff got from you.  so my hand is now fixed and I'm happily raising fry again. 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## dave pauls

I do love the wapoga alleni. The colours are amazing! At 1.5", they are showing split second colour changes that woukd make a bleheri blush... and tossing eggs like crazy. I just set up a ninth new tank this morning to get that project going! The plan is to have around 25 each of m. sp. Aru II, and c. alleni in my 120g high tech tank... I don't know if I have the six months of patience needed for this project though! Lol









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## greg

Beautiful tank Dave. Rainbows will really show off their colours in that setting.


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## Rainbowric

Bwhiskered said:


> I just got a group of 8 Chilatherina alleni "Wapogo" from Gary Lange 2 weeks ago when he spoke in Ajax Ontario. I am getting lots of eggs but they seem to be developing much slower than any of the other rainbows that I have had. What is their incubation period and at what temperature?


Hello ... have you had success with breeding this species? The temp I gave you is only what I use for hatching. If you went say 76 degrees ... it might take up to 10 days for hatching. Warmer 81 a little faster, 82 and you risk loosing them. A few of us will really push the temp to the limit for the blue-eyes species as they can take considerably longer.


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## Rainbowric

dave pauls said:


> Hey rick... Ya I kind of stopped posting on here for a while. I don't get down to toronto much these days and had a couple tanks collapse on me. So I just focused on my big tanks and started to cut the species down as well as focus a bit more on my other hobby of raising birds for exhibition... then I broke my hand skiing and couldn't enjoy working with the poultry the same... So I started looking at the fish again.... I restarted another eight tanks and picked up three new species and got back one I missed... Which happens to be praecox straight out of the fish Jeff got from you.  so my hand is now fixed and I'm happily raising fry again.


Well first of all I would like to say "*Awesome Tank*"!

You could put any fish in that one and they would look great! Indeed these new alleni "Wapoga"would be nice to see in it!

I also like the idea that you are working with praecox! If you got them from that colony that I gave Jeff, they should be .. *Pagai F2's * Don't forget that Dave! Many people out west have dropped the location and generation on them. Sure we had lots of them at one time ...F1's all over the place but they are now getting scarce. No one knows or if they have F2 or F3 or even if they are Pagai. I see that they are marketing F3's now on Aquabid, still a high quality fish, but it won't be soon and we will be up to F5 and F6, then what you have will be valuable.

One of the plant people here in Calgary had a 5 foot setup and I sold him 6 pairs of M. bosesmani "Lake Aytinjo" and 10 pairs of M. praecox Pagai F2's for it. The Aytinjo's were just around 2 inches and the praecox were just over an inch. What a beautiful, exciting tank to see in the morning! 
We don't normally see the praecox in larger tanks with larger bows, but the little critters can really look after themselfs agains the 4 inch plus bows. Actually the M. (sp) Wapoga Lazer was found in the same location as the C. alleni "Wapoga" in the wild. I have one fellow that wants a group of both of them to run in a 90 gallon. I talked him into it  I hope he will be happy!

Sorry to hear about your injuries and happy to hear you are back breeding bows!


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## Bwhiskered

Rainbowric said:


> Hello ... have you had success with breeding this species? The temp I gave you is only what I use for hatching. If you went say 76 degrees ... it might take up to 10 days for hatching. Warmer 81 a little faster, 82 and you risk loosing them. A few of us will really push the temp to the limit for the blue-eyes species as they can take considerably longer.


My group is doing well as my fish room is about 78. I am getting lots of eggs and they are hatching in 6 or 7 days. I already have some fry that are 3/8th of an inch. They are laying 50 or more eggs a day.


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## dave pauls

I got eggs from Jeff, so my praecox would actually be F3s. I'm stoked on them though. At 1/2" they are shimmering blue and displaying to each other. The fins haven't coloured up yet, nut they are only five weeks old! I was missing my praecox which I phased out several years back. The ones I had were just standard praecox but I line bred them for three generations and had them looking pretty darn good. I passed a few on to Jeff before I got rid of them, but he phased them out in favour of yours.... Which I completely understand. If I get a few that look like their grandfather which I believe is this fish... At your house of course. (Great picture btw) 








I love the nice straight scale rows. If I could get one like this and carefully select from him.... I think these fish will be good for many generations to come. It's when people breed from just anything, aka fish farms, that problems arise.

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## Rainbowric

Yup that's my boy ... still going strong ...looks considerably better. He the the dominant male in a 40 gallon that has a reverse trio of M. maccullochi "Skull Creek" , 3 males and 5 females of P. furcatus, 2 males and 3 females of the P. paskai Neon, 2 young pairs of the C. (Sp) Upper Tor Rivers, a pair of the M. (sp) Wapoga Lazer. Interesting to watch the two of them, praecox & Lazers, both F1's, you can see a lot of differences between the two of them. mostly in body shape and color.

We should actually be discussing this in the Melanotaenia thread  but this is not the grandfather to your eggs. But Uncle! What I gave Jeff was a colony of F1's. In addition we should add pictures, as this is a freshwater section. 

The old boy having a stretch in the morning!










Maybe if we get enough people chatting here about bows, maybe GTA moderators will create a sub section for bows.


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## Lee_D

These threads have pretty well got me hooked. After reading these I went out and got some Reds and some Turquoise. Amazing fish! I have six turquoise in a 125 and six reds in a 120. They love all the room!

Lee


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## dave pauls

I see... So mine are F2s then.... Are praecox really melanotaenias anyways? Thats a different story though. I love that last shot... Blues and reds both so vivid. Do you mind me asking what your settings are for that shot? I usually try so many different things when I'm shooting. I need to start taking advantage of the saved setting mode.


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## Rainbowric

dave pauls said:


> . Blues and reds both so vivid. Do you mind me asking what your settings are for that shot? I usually try so many different things when I'm shooting. I need to start taking advantage of the saved setting mode.
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


I am using the same camera that Gary uses ...well use to, I guess he has just stepped up a notch or two with Canon. Mine is the T4i and I am using a 100 mm macro lens. I asked Gary the same question well over a year ago. Got to go all manual! Aperture F14, speed 1/200th, and if you don't have a external flash ... ISO 800 to 1600. Smaller fish you can drop your aperture down to F11 or 10 and you will get more light on your subject. An external flash certainly helps as I can go with ISO 100!

Caught a couple of pictures of my Chilatherina alleni "Wapoga" yesterday. Bad tank, light subtrate, overhauling it and all the old plants taken out. But these F1 boys were having a blast after the major clean up and water change. They are about 3 inches now ...got them from Gary last December.










Can hardly wait until the substrate darkens a little and I get some new plants going in this tank!


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## Rainbowric

I would have thought with all of the Chilatherina alleni "Wapoga" that Gary has distributed in Eastern Canada that there would have been lots of posts of this nice fish by now.

Well I still have my two F1 pairs that I obtained from Gary last December, now about 14 months old, still looking finer each day.

When he catches a look of a female going by and starts to display for her!










Then he really gets fired up !










This guy is just to much when he is flashing for the girls ...










Surely Greg you must have some nice shots of this fish by now !


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## tranceaddict

Beautiful rainbow, and continued success breeding. 

I wanted to ask you for your opinion. I bought a couple "Bos Rainbows" from big al's, but I'm a lil worried they sold me something else. lol I asked for females so if you wanna take a look at the pic below of them. They are fairly young still so maybe they are not showing colors yet. But I do see a lil color and a line.


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## Rainbowric

tranceaddict said:


> Beautiful rainbow, and continued success breeding.
> 
> I wanted to ask you for your opinion. I bought a couple "Bos Rainbows" from big al's, but I'm a lil worried they sold me something else. lol I asked for females so if you wanna take a look at the pic below of them. They are fairly young still so maybe they are not showing colors yet. But I do see a lil color and a line.


Although young and still needing a lot of development, the first picture looks like a Male M. parkinsoni ...http://albertaaquatica.com/index.php?showtopic=38080 
Male parkinsoni in the wild only show orange on there fins ...wasn't until we brought them into captivity that they started to show orange on the body.

The second picture I believe is a female ...although still young and needing some developement ...I believe it to be a M. herbertaxlerodi ..common name is just yellow rainbowfish ... http://albertaaquatica.com/index.php?showtopic=38121
The female herbertaxlerodi might turn your male boesemani on.


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