Unalome's Rainbow Utopia

[Unalome]

1 week into having the Boesmani's and the tank is doing great so I decided to go get 5 Lake Kutubu Rainbows this morning to add to the gang! Hoping to have selected more females than males again, we tried our best at sexing them from the dorsal fins but tough when they are so young... Enjoy!

[Unalome]

Absolutely loving the Rainbows, they have so much character! I love how excited they get every time I approach the tank! I was going to call it a day on the rainbow stocking and get some bronze corydoras but after chatting with the staff in my LFS they reckon I can easily get more rainbows in my tank and now I'm thinking to make it a rainbow only tank so I've been playing around with aqadvisor stocking calculator and wanted your guys 2nd opinion on if this stocking level is ok or if I'm pushing my luck...

Tank: 250L (4ft)
Stock: 5 x Boesmani Rainbow + 5 x Lake Kutubu Rainbow
Wish list: 5 x Banded Rainbow (Melanotaenia Trifasciata) + 5 x Dwarf Neon Rainbow

According to aqadvisor that would put my stocking levels at 98%...

[black ghost]

Personally I’d stick to one species because none of them shoal together in the wild. They’ll be ok though.
I also would not go anywhere near 100%. It’s fishkeeping on the edge and gives you no room for error, like overfeeding, filter problems, missing a water change, etc. You get a problem at 100%, fish die.

[Unalome]

That makes sense not getting close to the 100% stocking level... That's interesting the Boesmani & Lake Kutubu have definitely been shoaling together in my tank. Maybe I'll just go with one of the groups from my wishlist and call it there... Thanks for your help as always black ghost!

[black ghost]

They will all shoal together. I just feel they’d be happier not having to, but they seem fine with it.

[Unalome]

Added a wavemaker today and what a difference it has made already to the sand bed! The Rainbows also seem to be enjoying the added flow in the tank!

[Staffylover]

Wow your sand looks spotless! I have pale sand in my largest tank it only looks great for about 1 day after the water change, after the pleco has been round pooping everywhere it doesn't look so great! I can see the benefit of building an island scape like this as you can get really good water flow all the way around, plus it looks amazing

[Unalome]

Thanks Staffy! Yeah I'm really chuffed with how it's turned out - I did plan for a pleco but after hearing about the amount of mess they make it has completely put me off - plus I haven't had any algae at all in this tank so far (beauty of the dark start method and low lighting).

[Staffylover]

No Pleco's - that explains a lot, they are pretty but also pretty messy! BN are ok but will munch soft leaves, whiptails are safe I think, but catfish are a good choice if you want something for the lower levels, I like my Synodontis and Dianema just as much as the L no's plus they come out more so I get to see them more often

[Unalome]

Went to get my final group of Rainbows and was absolutely blown away with some that I have never seen before and were highly recommended to me in the LFS... Introducing my new Wapoga Rainbowfish!

These are the largest 2 of the group 1 male and female.



The other 3 are more juvenile.



Amazing to watch the large male already transforming and showing off to everyone in the tank!

Hard to believe he is the same fish as the first image!