# Rainbowfish - Melanotaenia Genus



## Rainbowric

Ok .. time for the Melanotaenia Genus! This is going to be a long thread and it cannot be put together all at once. The Melanotaenia Genus is the largest and probably the most common family of Rainbowfish. Gary Lange said in one of his talks that he could provide a color combination to match any color themes you might have in your tank or room!  This Genus probably has the most color and there for most common to find in the LFS.

I am going to start this thread with just one species from the Melanotaenia Genus and from the one only species there are many .... like 30 + different variations. This is where the third name of the fish really becomes important. It is the Melanotaenia trifasciata species. Like all the rest the first name describes the Genus the second describes the species and the third name .... which SwimmyD mentioned a while ago describing the LFS .... the location for which it was collected. SwimmyD also mentioned in that same paragraph that she figured the trifasciata were all hybrids. Well I could not argue that with her as well.

A couple of years ago I had a very good friend who was the Fish Manager at the Big Al's here in Calgary. He cornered me one day in the store and showed me a list of fish that he could bring in from Germany. Quite the list of Rainbowfish. When you got to the trifasciata list it started with M. trifasciata @ 3 Euros then it listed M.trifasciata "Running Creeks" @ 6 Euros. .... M. trifasciata "Goyder River" were 5 Euros and M. trifasciata "Wonga Creek" were 5 Euros. Funny they also has a listed a M. trifasciata "Goyder River" (Super Red) for 7 Euros. Leary of the Super Reds I asked if he might bring me in some Running Creeks. Now all these prices were wholesale which didn't include shipping. He explained to me that a fish being worth 6 Euros he would have to sell for close to $30. The list looked legit with only the Super Reds being a little scary so I told him bring me in a 6 pack of the Running Creeks and I will pay you $150 for them. He bought a whole bunch of the 3 Euro trifasciata's and 6 of the M. trifasciata "Running Creek" for me.

Well I guess that somewhat explains SwimmyD's comment about the trifasciata's looking like hybrids. However I have seen once in a while a Goyder River that looked close to a Goyder River however never being the real Royal Regal Rainbowfish. Yes the original Goyder River they called the Royal Regal because of the deep blues and bright reds in this fish. The first ones collected by the Australian National Aquariums .... people were caught going into the tank and stealing them! I have been collecting every Goyder River that looked close over the years that had any potential and gene polled it in hopes to get that original Royal Regal fish. I think I am close ..... This picture is of them at 7 months of age .... just about 2.5 inches....

*Melanotaenia trifasciata "Goyder River" 7 months old....*










I have a group of 3 pairs of them!










Here they are now ... close to 1.5 years old at about 4 inches .....










I call them the 3 amigos .... they are bad little critters .... real show offs!










I wonder if these were the M. trifasciata "Goyder River" Super Reds that were on the list?

Next we will look at the M. trifasciata "Wonga Creek" Can't remember when I last saw these in the LFS. I guess the Germans didn't think they were worth as much as the Running Creeks as they only wanted 5 Euros for these.

*Melanotaenia trifasciata "Wonga Creek"*










and a female Wonga Creek










A very nice fish .... getting quite rare ... still a couple of breeders keeping a colony of them.

Most US breeders consider this to be the second most popular trifasciata today!










However in Canada ....Western anyway .... I sell a whole bunch of this trifasciata ......

*Malanotaenia trifasciata "Running Creek" *










This is a pretty mellow fish ... large many getting to 5 inches in size. As long as nobody bothers them .... they don't bother them. And many won't tangle with this 5 inch sun god! Yep the first one I owned I called him Apollo ... the sun god.










He was just starting to wake up as a female ready to spawn goes by! The golds and yellows really start to glow when he starts to show for his girl and the lateral line goes black!










So how many of you noticed the female running creek in front, the male beside her and another male coming down from the top...... yep he is not a running creek. He is a ......

*Melanotaenia vanheurni "Faowi Village" F1 * another big bow reaching 5 inches!










I think that is enough for this thread as the software is becoming a little shaky..... stay tuned for many more beautiful Melanotaenia bows!


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## greg

Rainbowric said:


>


Wow! Your photos have me thinking about selling off my existing rainbows in my 145g and converting to a species tank...


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## Tropicana

Awesome thread, your making me want to keep some rainbows now..


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## Rainbowric

*Melanotaenia Goldiei*

I am back .... away for holidays .... New Bruinswick .... and I think that my fish really missed me. 

I hope that you enjoyed the pics of the M. trifasciata ...three locations ...and of course out of the blue the Melanotaenia vanheurni "Faowi Village". Before I post a few pics of M. goldiei I thought I would post this picture of a M. trifasciata "Goyder River" This strain I kept for about 4 years and bred it down 3 generations before I was able to acquire the strain pictured above. I bred and distributed at least 4 to 5 hundred of these Goyder Rivers from 3 different generations and not a sorry customer. Yet it looks so different then my strain now. Bred true and was a very healthy strain. So prolific ...I would bag a pair and deliver them with eggs in the bag! At one time there was a lower Goyder River and there was a upper Goyder River. I have had hybrids in Goyder Rivers before but as soon as you bred them you would see that there was different fish in that strain other then Goyder River. Not a very good picture ... aquarium parafanalia in the background ... doesn't look very natural but you can really see the color in this boy!










Just some food for thought .... now onto M. goldiei. Now if you thought the third name or location was starting to be important with trifasciata this species you really need to know the location.

Until about 3 or 4 years ago there was just the Melanotaenia goldiei. Then appeared a new collected goldiei and it was called M. goldiei "Lake Tapini" ... which later turned out to be the wrong location and is now called " Loloipa River" . It wasn't around long ....I had the strain for almost a year and never got a good picture of it. Below is a picture of a young one taken by a fellow collector in Germany ... for which the credit for this photo should go by the name of Christophe Mailliet.










Jeff Burch may still have some of this strain available.

Then good old Gary Lange had to confuse matters more by collecting this beauty ....M. goldiei "Dekai" Thanks Gary for this nice photo!










And to make matters even worse two more fish were collected by Heiko from the Aru Islands. I am not sure if this fish is officially called a goldiei but the Germans are labeling them as such.

First the M. species Aru II which I am sure that most of you may have seen this fish as GTA member Dave Paul has a healthy colony in addition to Jeff Burch.










Dave might have had his colony before I got mine but I provided Jeff with a group to establish a colony with him.

The second fish that Heiko collected was the M. species Aru IV . Even though the Germans are calling this one a goldiei I still wonder if it will be.










This fish has different colors every way you look at it!










However the very first M. goldiei .... and the most rarest fish that I own ... only 2 collectors in North America have it ..... none in the USA! 

The Melanotaenia goldiei "Laloki River"










This picture above is one of my boys at about 1.5 years old and the picture below show them at just about 1 year. It takes a little time for this fish to really show his stuff!










Okay I know this picture is a little out of focus .... but he looks to nice to not post! 










So I think that is enough for now .... three species of Melanotaenia ...

Melanotaenia trifasciata 
Melanotaenia vanheurni
Melanotaenia goldiei

We haven't even scratched the surface yet of all the beautiful fish in this Genus yet!


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## Rainbowric

*Melanotaenia parkinsoni*

I am going to dedicate this post to one species only as it is one of my favorites. I am very happy with this strain of parkinsoni and have had a number of collectors from the USA ask if I could ship them down some of this blood line to them. I started it about 5 years ago when I acquired a male from a 50 year member of our club here in Calgary. Yes ... a Calgary Aquarium member for over 50 years ... he is in his late 70's now. This was one of his favorite fish and he line breed it and maintained it for a number of years. I then acquired a female that came from Gary Lange's strain and bred the two of them ... yep outcross breeding. This picture is a pair of the first generation which I still have and they are just over 3 years old.










A picture of the boy by himself!










and a picture of a boy from this pair ... now about 1.5 years old.










This generation is crazy .... nothing but sex all the time!










and mom and dad ... still today!!!










I see a lot of sadness in this species..... the female in the LFS ...stressed is a pale white minnow..... and I see a lot of them!  I get so many people asking me how I get so much color on my males with the black trace around the fins. Yep these are very happy males with girls to play with! and my females which are quite happy also do show some color. Again people buy only the males as they want only the colorful fish.

Also of interest from what I hear from the boys in Australia. *The M. parkinsoni in the wild .. the male shows color only in his fins. * You only see color in the body of captive parkinsoni.


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## krystrans

I wish to buy some for my tank


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## zenins

Beautiful photos and fish 

I have fast swimming Rainbowfish in with my cichlids ... works well


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## krystrans

Thanks.I love your rainbows.do you have any for sale.


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## characinfan

How old do these fish get?


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## Rainbowric

zenins said:


> Beautiful photos and fish
> 
> I have fast swimming Rainbowfish in with my cichlids ... works well


Thank you ... they do make good dither fish, they are accustomed to living with some pretty wild critters in the lakes and streams of Australia, however to get the real colorful ones you need to travel far from the mouth of the major rivers. With more and larger predators at the mouth of the rivers they will color down, to be quite not so obvious and over generations tend to loose more color.



krystrans said:


> Thanks.I love your rainbows.do you have any for sale.


You have a very nice planted tank that yes bows would love to live there!

Hmm .... I have some young at about 1 inch.. could ship them to you ...however at this time of the year .... would need to go Priority Mail Next Day Service. Could be a little pricey for shipping. But if you bought a bunch the shipping cost does go down. I could ship a 6 pack of M. lacustris @ $30










I could ship you a 6 pack of M. trifasciata "Goyder River" @$30 ..parents pics above.

I could ship you a 6 pack of M. Affinis Pagwi @ $30 Pick of dad!










PM me if you are interested!



characinfan said:


> How old do these fish get?


I have a number of them that are 3 or 4 years old... I know of some 7 to 9 years old. Number of reasons for how long they live .... how good is your water? How good is your food? How much are they exposed to bacteria or paracites? How happy are they .... do they have a mate , are they alone?

This is a pair of my Melanotaenia praecox "Pagai" F1

He is a very happy guy at 4 years old living with 2 very pretty females!


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## krystrans

Hi what's your location


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## krystrans

I'd like the red fin and yellow fins ones


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## SwimmyD

Rainbowric has the BEST rainbowfish. Greg and I are hoping to get a mop from him and raise some of our own from his splendid collection! The big decision is which ones.......all are so pretty! More tanks! More tanks!


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## krystrans

I am in Mississauga .could meet you to buy some


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## rsam

He is located in Calgary, Alberta.


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## krystrans

I wont risk it .thanks


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## Rainbowric

SwimmyD said:


> Rainbowric has the BEST rainbowfish. Greg and I are hoping to get a mop from him and raise some of our own from his splendid collection! The big decision is which ones.......all are so pretty! More tanks! More tanks!


Thanks SwimmyD for your very nice comments. You said it in this post! More tanks! More tanks! You should be so lucky to have such a great husband that listens to you! 

Okay a post on shipping of fish. Thank goodness that we have ways of shipping fish. Where did I get all my excellent strains of fish. Yes a number of them came from Jeff in London, Ontario and most of them we shipped in the mail. We have done a lot of trading over the last 3 years and have lost few. One got stuck in a winter blizzard and was lost for 3 days. Most of the fish shipped survived!

But a lot came from the Gary Lange in the USA and well Gary brings fish out of the jungle and transports them overseas. Haven't done an overseas shipment yet but a few over the border to the USA. If we didn't have a safe way of shipping, what would we have for fish in Canada. Unfortunately there are many people that figure they now how to ship when really most of the time they are just lucky and a number of times the fish don't make it. It is surprizing that the way the trans shippers ship fish, that they make it live into the LFS.

Unfortunately the way I ship fish ... it is a little expensive, but I think my fish are worth the extra cost to insure they not only arrive alive, but healthy. Many people have commented back to me, I took them out of the bags and in less then a week I had a mop full of eggs from them!

The most wonderfull shipping item we have today is the Kordon Breather Bag! If I didn't have this item .... I would never ship. The thing about this bag is when it is full of water it does not slosh. Important ... it does not slosh the fish around, second if Canada Post heard water sloshing they would not except the package .... why because you are not allowed to ship fish through the mail!










Second item of great importance, especially now when it is below 0 degrees outside is the heat pack. I generally use at least a 40 hour or even a 60 hour on a 24 hour shipment. Thank goodness I used a 60 hour pack when that package was lost in the snow storm!










I only use a drop or two of Prime and maybe add a bottle or two of Glacier Spring water to the pail of fish before I start to bag them. Glacier Spring water is very close to the same PH as my tap/tank water but much cleaner with more oxygen in it. I don't use any other chemicals or bag buddies. If your fish are fasted properly there should be little waste coming from them over the next 24 hours.










For a couple of fish say around 1 inch to 1.5 inches use about 2 cups of the water that is in the pail. Oh yes before shipping I will do a number of water changes on the tank days prior, that the fish are in to insure it is the cleanest condition. As well you need a bare tank with nothing the fish can eat .... plants, etc. etc as you will need to fast the fish and not feed it for 36 to 48 hours prior to shipping.










Add the fish and water to the breather bag and pull all the air out of it. You do not want any air bubble or the Post Office handlers will hear the slosh.










You want to not only knot the bag, but double knot it. We have had them in the past with one knot only ... leak a little ... and a little water leak may put out your heat pack! Then you need to wrap the bag, most use newspaper however this particular package I used some tube socks that I bought at Giant Tiger to slip the bags into. Jeff washed and reused them to ship fish back to me.










Notice also the mop of eggs in the background of this picture. This shipment of fish also included a mop of eggs! Rainbowfish eggs need to be kept warm, some experiments has indicated that if temp should drop below 60 degrees F. the hatching rate will also drop!

Finally .. complete ...6 pairs of fish packaged and ready to go. Of course 1.5 inch thick styrofoam box. For a number of shipments Jeff and I would put in a thermometer to check the temp when first opening the box at the other end. Stuff some packing .. oh crunched up newspaper on top of the bags so that they end up being packed tight not to roll around in the box. I also wrap the styro box with a cardboard box or heavy wrapping paper.... less questions at the Post Office. 

When I first start to pack I break open the heat pack(s) and expose them to air. By the time you have all the fish bagged and are ready to put the lid on, you need to feel warmth coming from them. There is such a thing as a faulty heat pack!










We would ship with Canada Post ... Next day garanteed delivery sevice onlly!!! Very seldom would we see it not there the next day however if it was late, I would get my shipping cost refunded and the fish would still be fine. It is a little expensive as this package was about $60 to ship. But it was delivered to the door! I would spend $20 going out and driving around to all the LFS and finding nothing worth buying.

If any of you have any ideas that you would like to share .... I would welcome your experience or advice. The better we can improve methods of moving fish from one city to another the better we all are!


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## SwimmyD

You are right Ric, I did ask for more tanks. And I am lucky that Greg is into fish too! 
Great post with pictures on shipping fish! I have to say those breather bags are amazing eh? I did a killifish trade with a fellow in Quebec in October. He sent me 4 little fish in tiny breather bags with less than 2 tablespoons of water in each bag. The 4 bags came in a little homemade 6 inch square styrofoam box with a few styrofoam chips inside to prevent movement. He put them in the regular mail (no heater needed for killifish!) and they got to me in 3 days. I was amazed at how these little fish could survive in so little water, and being tossed around by Canada Post!

I returned the favour by sending him 2 little fish back. I was scared to- but they got to him just fine! Then he told me that he had shipped a pair of this same kind of killifish to Poland and it took 10 days but they arrived safe and sound!


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## Rainbowric

SwimmyD said:


> You are right Ric, I did ask for more tanks. And I am lucky that Greg is into fish too!
> Great post with pictures on shipping fish! I have to say those breather bags are amazing eh? I did a killifish trade with a fellow in Quebec in October. He sent me 4 little fish in tiny breather bags with less than 2 tablespoons of water in each bag. The 4 bags came in a little homemade 6 inch square styrofoam box with a few styrofoam chips inside to prevent movement. He put them in the regular mail (no heater needed for killifish!) and they got to me in 3 days. I was amazed at how these little fish could survive in so little water, and being tossed around by Canada Post!
> 
> I returned the favour by sending him 2 little fish back. I was scared to- but they got to him just fine! Then he told me that he had shipped a pair of this same kind of killifish to Poland and it took 10 days but they arrived safe and sound!


hmmm ... that fellow in Quebec ... would the name "Gary" be close? I did a trade of some bows a few years back with a killifish breeder in Quebec. Did learn a lot about shipping fish with him. The Giant Tiger tube socks to wrap the breather bag was one of his ideas. It was a sock designed for diabetics and it would wick moisture away from the bags quite nice which helped as the bags do sweat a litttle.

But yes indeed ... if we did not have the breather bags, shipping fish would be limited to Air Frieght.

Anyway this is supposed to be a freshwater photo posting section, so I better get some more photo's ready!


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## Rainbowric

*Melanotaenia bosesmani from Lake Aytinjo*

*Melanotaenia boesemani " Lake Aytinjo"*

Ok now for the most popular Rainbowfish of all ....

Use to be one of my favorite ... now maybe in my top 3 favorites. 

Still used as my avatar in all my signatures, in the forums that I participate in.

There are many M. boesemani strains available today.

GRB: selective breeding in Germany

La Corte: USA line breed

Red boesemani ...Super Red boesemani ... etc. etc. and what ever other name the LFS can come up with to sell bosesmani.

If you would like to see some pics of all of these different boesemani follow this link.. http://www.rainbow-fish.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=326&start=0

But actually most boesemani today originates from either the Lake Ayamaru collected in 1982 or Lake Aytinjo collected in 1998

The Lake Aytinjo variant!

Again the credit for preserving this great fish goes to Jeff Burch in London, Ontario. Jeff received some eggs in 2005 from a fellow ANGFA-NA member (Kevin Hosmer). Kevin said they were newly collected and would bring new blood to strengthen blood line in North America. Early in 2008 Heiko Bleher who discovered the Lake Aytinjo strain visited Jeff in London and identified them as being the Lake Aytinjo strain. You can read about this visit of Heiko, that he published in;

http://www.aquapress...d=382&Itemid=65

If you notice in Heiko's article about Jeff, he states, " The Aytinjo variant does have stronger colours!" After having many variants of boesemani I cannot disagree with him.

The eggs were given to Jeff to raise and then outcross with the current M. boesemani stock in North America to strenghten, but Jeff kept them separate from his other stock.

About 3 years ago while visiting Jeff in London he gave me 12 fry to bring back to Alberta. Of the 12 fry I ended up with 4 males. One trio went to a Master Breeder in Quebec, another trio went to a Master Breeder in Regina, and one went to a Master Breeder in Edmonton, and of course I kept a pair.

This male is ~ 2 years old now.










Of course like most of my species I have twins or triplets ....










These fellows get a little excited when a female gets close to this mop!










This variant of boesemani is really quite different in many ways then other boesemani other then colour. The temperament is much more submissive, much more stable fish to raise. The International Rainbowfish Group actually classifys this strain of boesemani as a separate species as you will notice on this list of Rainbowfish of the IRG.

http://www.regenboogvissen.be/index.php?page=vissen

Even at an inch and a half this boesemani excells in color!




























Again a big thanks goes to Jeff in keeping this variant of boesemani pure and thriving in Canada.


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## greg

Great pictures as usual and the story behind the Lake Aytinjo strain is fascinating. Quite something for Heiko to post up the blurb about Jeff on his site!


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## Rainbowric

greg said:


> Great pictures as usual and the story behind the Lake Aytinjo strain is fascinating. Quite something for Heiko to post up the blurb about Jeff on his site!


Indeed Greg ... the story behind this fish is fascinating! Jeff has done a lot towards preserving this and other species of Rainbowfish. Heiko noticed it when he visited Jeff, why he thought Jeff deserves some recognition.

The CARES program lists the boesemani as a species that needs to be preserved, however most of the boesemani out there would be double digits on the F list. ie not F1's, F3's or even F5's but more like Fxx. The Lake Aytinjo which few of us out west have in our collections are closer to the real boesemani in nature then any of them. Maybe why they are such a nice fish to breed and work with. The few collectors out west here very seldom refer them as boesemani ... but *"Aytinjo's"*










They are a very strong strain and do live for quite a while .... one of my boys ... at 3 years old plus!


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## igor.kanshyn

Great photos of perfect fish


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## Rainbowric

*Melanotaenia praecox or red stripped or ... ?*

Back in 2008 Gary Lange went on an adventure and released to us in 2009 F1 M. praecox "Pagai" . We must remember and if we have a fish with this identification we must keep this location attached to the fish, as the LFS are now packed with M. praecox. I have sold people F2's and later they have tried to sell them and couldn't give them away, when I reminded them that they were Pagai F2's, now they were worth something. Currently what you see now on Aquabid and in Europe are F3's for sale. I still have a pair of my original F1's that I obtained from Gary 3 years ago.

*Melanotaenia praecox "Pagai" F1*










A few weeks ago I shipped down breeding pairs of F2's to Eastern Canada and hopefully you will see Pagai F3's locally soon. An F3 or even an F4 or F5 is by far a much better fish to acquire then just a LFS praecox.

August of 2012 I got a long letter from Gary describing his lattest adventure. He had just returned home and started to describe his trip into the jungles of Siewa to collect some new species. There were many interesting happenings, but in addition many unfortunate stories of many excellent fish caught but lost on the trip out, and the delays in travel which included a number of custom crossings. A new wild caught G. incisus, yet he had lost the male on the way out. After reading this long letter for which it appeared that there were more pluses then minuses, he stated ... and we brought out probably the most remarkable fish of all, the stripped praecox! It is pretty much impossible to bring back a fully grown rainbowfish out of the jungle, so what he was able to bring back was 2 pairs at about 1 inch long of this fish that up until now was only talked about in the journals.










Probably going to catch it from Gary posting this picture of the young wild caught fish.

Everyone had thought that it was a praecox of some sort *however DNA suggests that it is not even related to the praecox *and at this point in time until thoroughly examined it is an unknown species and why it is called ...

*Melanotaenia species "Wapogo" Red Lazer*










This spring he released pairs of F1's in the USA and they sold for record breaking prices as you will see by clicking on the Aquabid link below...

*Aquabid Auction*

Along with the beeding colonies of the C. alleni and C. species Upper Tor mentioned in my thread on Chilatherina's. We also brought in a breeding colony of this unique new rainbowfish into Canada. It is as bright as the Pagai praecox, but not as tall in the body as the praecox.










Unfortunately I cannot provide pictures of these fish as they are not near mature enough to look anywhere as nice as Gary's photo's, however they are mature enough to throw eggs so I have much more important things to do with them then take pictures of them.


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## Rainbowric

*Melanotaenia splendida splendida "Deepwater Creek"*

Finally got this group of 3 pairs out of the grow out tanks and into a ... well it has a few plants in it....  They are just about a year old now, still requiring a little more maturing yet. Give them another 6 months to a year and I think they will be a fish that will turn people's head.

I know that there are some of these down in GTA as I sent a larger group of them down to a fellow with the Brampton aquarium club this spring. Last I heard from him was .... "I have eggs!!"

Anyone wanting to learn how to breed Rainbowfish .. this is a good species to start with. They are very prolific .... which also can make them a nice fish in a show tank..... this group spawns daily ... however none of these pictures show them in full spawning color. When I come near the tank with a camera they come to the front of the tank and forget about the girls and start begging for food.

*Melanotaenia splendida splendida "Deepwater Creek"*










This species is similar to the M. trifasciata in that there are many different variations ... which all carry a different location name. I do believe that the
"Deepwater Creek" variation is the most common but like the M. trifasciata you may find up to 50 different variations of it while searching the web or
visiting Australia.










So far my experience has told me that this is a species which is more on the submissive side. None of the 3 males I have show any kind of wound or
torn fins and don't mix or challange any of the other species in the tank, even if that other species is spawning.










However they do spar a little with each other which creates quite the display, yet no one appears to get hurt.










Thanks for viewing!


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## greg

Rainbowric said:


>


Beautiful photos as usual!

Perhaps you could tell us a bit about your aquarium setups. I'm interested to know more about your grow out and breeding tanks - for example do you use substrate in these tanks, foam filters or hob, plants ....

Thank,
Greg


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## Rainbowric

greg said:


> Beautiful photos as usual!
> 
> Perhaps you could tell us a bit about your aquarium setups. I'm interested to know more about your grow out and breeding tanks - for example do you use substrate in these tanks, foam filters or hob, plants ....
> 
> Thank,
> Greg


Thanks Greg and so sorry for taking so long to respond on your question.

I hope all is well down in your area, I think about loosing power in my fish room for a day ... two days ... and then major panic!

It has also been very busy for me here in Calgary as I think every LFS has a pre-Christmas sale and or like Big Al's boxing week madness sales. So I did a Rainbowric's madness sale, needed to clear some tanks space up. Also a lot of extra visitors to my house this Christmas.

Your question is somewhat difficult to answer. I think about all the major bow breeders I know of in the world and everyone of us is doing something a little different. I have completely rebuilt my fish room twice in the last 10 years and it is ready again for another. First time I used bare bottom tanks and the second time I used substrate. I think that the bare bottom is the easiest to maintain however I do like the looks of a substrate with a few Anubis plants growing on it. I think the fish prefer that as well and so there for look better. A number of breeders come into my fish room and go wow when they see all the expensive Eco-Complete dark substrate, but then they don't have to maintain it either. Once established it does help to stabilize water conditions further.

Filtration ... if I was to do my room over again all the tanks would use the Hamburger Matten Filter system ... "HMF" ... Why well easier to click on the link below and find out why.

HMF article

First stage ...(new born fry) is usually at least a 10 gallon ... yes some use a 5 gallon, but a 10 gallon is more stable, and I can give the fry more time to grow before I have to move them. I use in this tank only the sponge filter. Usually a ATI hydra 2 or 3 sponge. Oh ... forgot about the BN pleco. Where would I be without him helping me clean up all the mess from these fry in the tank. A Spixi snail is nice to, especially once you start feeding brine and you get a possible hydra breakout. Temp is run at 80 degrees F. or you will get very slow growth from the fry!

On my second stage ( fish are 1 inch to 2 inches in length ) grow out tanks I use a sponge filter and a HOB filter. Tanks should be ~ 30 inches wide and be at least 30 gallons in volume. I have a 37 gallon that I run a ATI hydro 3 sponge which is rated for 40 gallons .... plus 2 HOB filters that are rated for 40 gallons each. That 40 gallon tank at times may have 40 to 50 bows at 2 inchs, that are eating 2 to 3 times more then normal to maintain growth. A HMF system would probably suffice however with the HOB I can do Chemical filtration and heavy Mechanical filtration more efficiently if needed as well as new tank startups is simplified and quick! I am still maintaining a temperature of 80 degrees F. right up until the fish reaches 2 to 2 .5 inches so as to not slow down the growth of your fish.

From second stage I will move them to new homes or LFS. A 30 inch wide tank is usually good for a bow up to 2.5 inches. When is reaches 3 inches you are probably starting to grow stun it or the fish may develop deformities. A 36 inch wide tank will just handle nice a bow at 3 inches. Good for bow like ....

The *Melanotaenia parva *which max's out at about 3 inches.










Or the *Melanotaenia sexlineata *which also max's at 3 inches.










The wife really likes M. sexlineata with the red lips ... she calls them Sexy Anna's! 










Or this other sweet little dwarf Rainbowfish that max's out at ~ 3 inches *"Melanotaenia kamaka"*










Another good article about converting your existing filtration to the HMF system is posted by a very good friend of mine, and a bow breeder now for many decades in the USA ... Mark Nicholson. Mark mentions a few other good reasons why to go with HMF.

Mark's post on HMF

Again hope all is well with you after all this outragious weather and power outages.


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## Kimchi24

Wow, the Melanotaenia kamaka looks amazing. I've only started to try and breed rainbows and it hasn't really succeeded considering illness outbreak. Also the outage took all my surviving fry and left only one alive. Thanks for laying out how you do your breeding. I was scared that i did not have sufficient equipment to breed them with only a 20 gallon breeding tank, 10 gallon fry tank, and a 33 gallon grow out tank (36 inches). How long does it normally take to get fry to an inch or 2? My last remaining fry just hit 1 cm and its been close to 2 months now. Is this normal?


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## greg

Thanks for the response Ric. I didn't experience any power outages thankfully. Sure made me think about the consequences if I do...

I will likely stay with bare bottom for the 15g grow outs for ease of maintenance and consider a thin layer of dark substrate for the 30g longs that I'm picking up in the new year.

The 15g tanks have a 5" square poret foam filter which should provide plenty of surface area for filtration.. The tanks are set at 80°F as per your suggestion.

I do use a lot of HOB filters on my larger tanks, primarily for ease of accessing the filter media and also because they provide a good current for the fish.

Great articles on the HMF filtration systems. I do understand that bio-capacity is related directly to the surface area of the media through which the water passes and that this is the reason why HMF systems are great. However, it would be difficult to accept only cleaning the filter out once a year. I like using two HOBs on a larger tank as you can quickly squeeze each one out once a month - alternating between the two every second week. This gets rid of a fair amount of 'gunk' before if fully decomposes while preserving sufficient bio-load in the tank. I'll likely do a bit more reading on the topic of HMFs before deciding what to do on the 30g tanks.

Here's a current picture of the Melanotaenia species I picked up from you. They are now large enough to eat baby brine shrimp.


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## Rainbowric

Kimchi24 said:


> Wow, the Melanotaenia kamaka looks amazing. I've only started to try and breed rainbows and it hasn't really succeeded considering illness outbreak. Also the outage took all my surviving fry and left only one alive. Thanks for laying out how you do your breeding. I was scared that i did not have sufficient equipment to breed them with only a 20 gallon breeding tank, 10 gallon fry tank, and a 33 gallon grow out tank (36 inches). How long does it normally take to get fry to an inch or 2? My last remaining fry just hit 1 cm and its been close to 2 months now. Is this normal?


It does not take much for tanks to raise up a species of bows, however stopping at one species is difficult for most! 

Congradulations on your first breeding and sorry to hear that the outage took away all your efforts.

Hard to say there are a number of reasons for the size of your last fry... species ... some grow much slower then others, if it is a female or male, must be a strong one to beat out the outage, however one word of advice for outages is to not feed fry as they will probably die first of amonia poisoning with the filters down then starvation. It is advised to not feed through outages. Well for the first couple of days anyway.... then minimal.

But one of the biggest reasons why and I have mentioned it in one of my other threads is temperature. We see it a lot on the Rainbowfish forums, people asking why they are not getting any growth, and unless you are running at 80 degrees, growth will be very slow.

The M. kamaka is a really nice dwarf rainbowfish however I have seen hybrids in the last couple of years with them. Lots of red in the fins and large.. Like at 6 months this dwarf should not be much more then 2 inches yet I have seen them in the LFS at 3 inches plus. Beware of where you acquire them, I know of a breeder in Quebec that has nice stock.












greg said:


> Thanks for the response Ric. I didn't experience any power outages thankfully. Sure made me think about the consequences if I do...
> 
> I will likely stay with bare bottom for the 15g grow outs for ease of maintenance and consider a thin layer of dark substrate for the 30g longs that I'm picking up in the new year.
> 
> The 15g tanks have a 5" square poret foam filter which should provide plenty of surface area for filtration.. The tanks are set at 80°F as per your suggestion.
> 
> I do use a lot of HOB filters on my larger tanks, primarily for ease of accessing the filter media and also because they provide a good current for the fish.
> 
> Great articles on the HMF filtration systems. I do understand that bio-capacity is related directly to the surface area of the media through which the water passes and that this is the reason why HMF systems are great. However, it would be difficult to accept only cleaning the filter out once a year. I like using two HOBs on a larger tank as you can quickly squeeze each one out once a month - alternating between the two every second week. This gets rid of a fair amount of 'gunk' before if fully decomposes while preserving sufficient bio-load in the tank. I'll likely do a bit more reading on the topic of HMFs before deciding what to do on the 30g tanks.
> 
> Here's a current picture of the Melanotaenia species I picked up from you. They are now large enough to eat baby brine shrimp.


Sounds good to me Greg! That is mostly the way things have gone in my fish room. The fry tanks with bare bottoms and the second stage tanks with maybe an inch of substrate. Don't need much if any to support Anubis, and look nice and natural.

In addition I am using dual HOBs as if one is just overhauled, or not functioning it's best the second is there for backup. The young fry do enjoy the added current that is generated from them. Yes I notice they say about cleaning the HMF yearly .... hmmm well with HOB's added to the tank I don't clean my sponge filters but once every 2 or 3 months, and that is with heavy feeding of brine as well. The BN pleco helps to keep the sponges clean as well. My BN's are a combination of long finned, Albino and Silvertipped. Yes I like my grow out tanks to look nice as well.

Oh yes ... the Chilatherina species you got from me .... the fry were on brine the second day! 

Another very nice dwarf that max's out at 3 inches is the *"Melanotaenia nigran"*










or the *Melanotaenia sp "Suswa Village"*










Who said you need to have 4 foot tanks to enjoy Rainbowfish?










Wishing you all a Happy New Year!


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## Rainbowric

*Melanotaenia Affinis Pagwi*

I did throw up a picture ealier in this thread about this species. Did not really do this fish total justice.

This species is really quite rare ... collected twice by a fellow from California by the name of Kent West. Kent had at one time over 500 tanks of Rainbowfish and when he finally closed down, good rainbowfish became quite hard to find. Kent's first collection of this fish was not as nice as the second. Yes we are now becoming aware that one year the fish may look almost totally different then it did the year before (in the wild) pending diet and water conditions. Kent sent me a mop of eggs ...well almost a decade ago of this species .... of his first collection. I never did see the second collection until the last couple of years when Mark N. in the the USA started to breed and publish photo's of the fish. At that time Mark was desparate to get hold of a colony of pure G. wanamensis .... so we did a trade!










This fish attitude is very much the same as the M. trifasciata "Goyder River" ...loves to show off and really enjoys a good spar with another male!










They are pretty resiliant to this kind of punishment and there fins with proper care do restore quite nice.










Still very rare ( the second collection ) and I don't believe that anyone in Eastern Canada has them as Jeff was after me to send him down some eggs.

A female M. Affinis Pagwi .....










They really did not make it to well as a commercial fish ... did not show well in a LFS tank. Put them into a nice planted tank and the blues and greens pop out of them!










A big thanks goes out to Mark N. in the USA for bringing this fish back into the hobby.


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## igor.kanshyn

Beautiful fish, thank you for sharing.


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## dave pauls

Excellent thread Ric. Great information and photos. Its hard to add anything to this, but here is a shot of a couple of my m. sp. Aru II showing off. Its not a recent picture and is probably on here somewhere else, but I would love to contribute to this thread. so here it is.








I'll have to dust off the camera and see if I can get some new shots. I have them in a very heavily planted 120 gallon tank, so they are showing constantly. I think this may be one of the most frustrating fish to photograph though. It is extremely difficult to capture the huge variety of colours, and the dark contrasting blacks.... I can get blues and yellows but fade out the reds, or I can get the reds and pinks and loose blue. grr. meh. 
I have a couple of other species of melanotaenia I want to try to shoot...
Dave Pauls


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## Rainbowric

I hope you do get that camera dusted off! We can always use some more posts. 

You have certainly had the M. (sp) Aru II for some time now. How old are your breeders? Where did you originally get them from? 

and yes they are very difficult to photograph. You did I nice job capturing them in this photo. Most of the shots that I have seen look like somebody went wild with photoshop. 

Hope you have a nice trip down to the USA .... if your looking for more bows why not contact Gary or Mark. I am sure either one would be happy to ship you a package to your Hotel , where ever you are.


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## dave pauls

Some times the fish look like someone turned the contrast through the roof in real life! I got my breeders straight from Gary in 2011ish. A few of the old ones... the bottom fish in this photo in particular... Have gotten quite crooked and have been removed from the breeding program. I still am using a trio of the originals and a bunch of the second generation as breeders these days.... But I haven't bred them in a year or two. I think I'll hatch a few this summer to replace some of the old ones.
I'm excited for the pair of m. sp. Morehead River I picked up from Jeff a month ago. They are quite the unique fish... I can't think of too many other fish that are mauve and purple....


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## Rainbowric

dave pauls said:


> Some times the fish look like someone turned the contrast through the roof in real life!


lol .... many complain about trying to get a nice picture of a praecox. I found this fish to be much more difficult. I don't think anyone has got a nice picture of this fish in full spawning mode and if they did they probably would not post if for fear that everyone would cry "Photoshoped" Even this one that I posted earlier he was in a* very submissive mode*, surrounded by many larger bows.










I am happy to hear that you have done a good job at maintaining this species .. much better than anyone else I know of! When I had it , mine came from Gary as well, bred them and sent a colony to Jeff. I was well over 40 species and needed to cut back and unfortunately this species was. It has been sometime since I sent Jeff a colony, I wonder if he still has it maintained, yours would still be one generation better for breeders. If anyone asks about it, I would recommend that you have the best in Canada available!

Have you heard anything yet from the Scientist about the analysis of this new species?


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## dave pauls

Thanks rick. Jeff still has them going. I brought him a little male to refresh a bit. I would definitely agree that this has to be the most frustrating fish I've tried to take pictures of. Especially in full display. The shot I posted still doesn't show the full potential of this fish. The black scale edges they produce is something else.... It really does in real life look like someone is photoshopping the fish! I've tried for hours to catch the pink spawning stripe with the blue of the fish... It's pretty funny how quickly you realize that cameras limit the colours they catch. It's either blues and greens, or pinks and reds.... Not both!


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## dave pauls

I think this fish.... And quite a few others... Kiunga, morehead, dekai etc... Are stuck in the goldiei vs trifasciata mess, and I don't know when anyone is going to tackle that. It is clear that there are at least a half dozen distinct species under the two names, and maybe twenty +, and sorting them all out would definitely be a huge job. Then there is the whole senckenberginaus mess to complicate things further.... (I had to look that up. I don't know how to pronounce it, let alone spell it) 
For the not quite so nerdy rainbow fans, this means that all trifasciata type fish found on Australia, both on the cape York peninsula and in the Northern Territory, were all given the species name melanotaenia trifasciata. There are at least three completely different fish shapes under this umbrella name and over a dozen colour forms ranging from black and red to blue, green, yellow, even mauve. All trifasciata type fish in New Guinea on the other hand were all given the name melanotaenia goldiei. It was pretty clear cut. Australia = trifasciata and New Guinea = goldiei.
But, then things got complicated. They found a few species from New Guinea that looked far more like trifasciata than goldiei. Some were named goldiei, and some were just not named. They also noticed that a bunch of the trifasciatas from cape York fit the Goldie name far better than tri. Then Heiko Bleher collected two similar but very different fish from the Aru islands. One looked trifasciata and the other goldiei. One (Aru IV) was already described as m. senckenberginaus long before the trifasciatas of Australia were described.... And this fish resembled some of the cape York trifasciatas quite closely, and DNA evidence confirmed this. So... This means that trifasciata is already wrong, and there are a whole bunch of fish that break the rules and fall into middle ground. And now it's a matter of time before someone decides to tackle the whole thing. 
What a mess. So fish like melanotaenia species Aru II will most likely remain undescribed for quite some time. It is far more complicated than just assigning a name to a new fish.

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