Small Rainbowfish Ideas

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sinibotia

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Sep 1, 2014
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Central Maine
My fiance and I are working on a stock plan for a 55 gallon tank. Current plan is as follows:

1 angelfish
4 platies
5 botia kubotai
6 corydoras
5 kuhli loaches

It's a little bottom-heavy so we were looking into some sort of smaller rainbowfish to fill out the middle, as in my experience they're all very active.

Threadfins and neon dwarfs come to mind, and for lack of a different option that's probably what we'll end up with, but I'm curious if there are any other rarer rainbows in the 2-3 inch range that would fit in. Seems like most that I can find are 4+ inches which would be too much for our current plan. Would love some recommendations!
 
Lol you're lucky I'm here (just kidding :lol:)

Some small, suitable rainbows for your tank would be:

- neon dwarf rainbow (melanotaenia praecox)
- sunset dwarf rainbow (melanotaenia parva)
- pygmy rainbow (melanotaenia pygmaea)
- ogilby's rainbow (melanotaenia ogilbyi)

I don't think threadfin rainbows would be a great choice because they're a lot smaller and less aggressive and do best in a species tank.

Hope I helped :D
 
Blue eyes like furcata and gertrudae "rainbows" are not true rainbows. They have different care requirements and would probably be eaten by the angelfish.
 
Agree that the blue eyed gerties and pseudomugli's are too small.

M bosemani and M lacustris (turquoise) are colorful and I haven't seen any that are too large for a 55 gallon. also they are readily available.
 
Oof, I really love the look of the ogilby! Seems like they're just a bit hard to find though :nono:

A store called The Fish Place in Tanawanda, New York usually seems to have them. I know they will ship to people.That's where I got my ogilby's rainbow.
 
Agree that the blue eyed gerties and pseudomugli's are too small.

M bosemani and M lacustris (turquoise) are colorful and I haven't seen any that are too large for a 55 gallon. also they are readily available.

The issue isn't so much being too large as it is overstocking. Even adding 6 or so smaller rainbows will put this stocking plan pretty close to the edge of what I'm comfortable with as far as bioload goes. With the loaches and angelfish there'll be six 5-inch fish in that tank.
 
Another thought I had about your tank is having the 3 small schools of bottom dwellers. I think having one or two larger schools will be more impressive ( I read that you have a large school of glolights in your other tank). Also you may never see the 5 kuhlis in a 55g


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