Bachelor tank for Rainbows?

[Luananeko]

Random thought, but has anyone done a boys-only tank of Rainbows before? I know bachelor tanks of guppies and Wrasses (in saltwater tanks) are standard practices (to reduce babies in the case of guppies, to reduce aggression for the wrasses since all the girls turn into boys and cause dominance fights eventually anyways). Rainbows always strike me as the freshwater equivalent to wrasses with their color changing & flashing breeding displays. I'm not interested in breeding them, just enjoying their colors and activity, so from that aspect I don't care whether I have females in the tank or not. Are females mandatory to keep for the overall peace and health of the boys?

 

[RNbowmom]

I would hate to spend the money to stock the tank and end up with fish that are trying to kill each other i have a boy and a girl the boy is a little more brilliant than the girl but they are both very pretty. I ordered mine from aquariumfish sale and at first couldn't believe they weren't both males bc their colors are brilliant. One started getting noticeably bigger and his behavior was definitely like he was trying to show off and they have been engaging in mating behavior already. So if you ask me better to get male female. If you get them from a good source they both will be pretty and the boys will only be pretty if they are trying to impress a girl but you don't want boys attacking each other all the time. If you're worried about them breeding they won't if the conditions aren't right. They want a high temp and a lot of live foods. My girl hid from the male and rejected his advances when the temp was low and they were receiving omnivorous food so it kinda has to be primed anyway

 

[Luananeko]

I would hate to spend the money to stock the tank and end up with fish that are trying to kill each other i have a boy and a girl the boy is a little more brilliant than the girl but they are both very pretty. I ordered mine from aquariumfish sale and at first couldn't believe they weren't both males bc their colors are brilliant. One started getting noticeably bigger and his behavior was definitely like he was trying to show off and they have been engaging in mating behavior already. So if you ask me better to get male female. If you get them from a good source they both will be pretty and the boys will only be pretty if they are trying to impress a girl but you don't want boys attacking each other all the time. If you're worried about them breeding they won't if the conditions aren't right. They want a high temp and a lot of live foods. My girl hid from the male and rejected his advances when the temp was low and they were receiving omnivorous food so it kinda has to be primed anyway

I already have 11 full grown rainbows in my tank, with a mix of boys and girls (it's a random mix of species though, anywhere between 1-4 of any one type). They mate all the time without any help from me. No babies have ever been seen, likely because they eat the eggs themselves, plus any fry that would hatch would get gulped down by my Bichir before I even see them. The problem I'm running into is that the boys are always sparring no matter how many girls they have, which tends to lead to the weaker ones always slowly getting stressed to the point that they die or I have to rehome them. The sparring is less of an issue across different species though. I'm wondering if I go the bachelor tank route it will help diffuse the sparring across a larger number so the dominance hierarchy is more balanced (like how cichlid or wrasse keepers do), and so no single male is getting picked on too much.

 

[Sambo7475]

I have 6 male celebes in my small tank currently, and have had no trouble with aggression. My LFS owner (who is a rainbow fanatic) told me he won't sell rainbows unless it's a 3:1 F/M ratio or all males. He showed me pics of his 75 gallon with probably 40 varied species (all male) that he says he's had running for a couple of years.

 

[Luananeko]

I have 6 male celebes in my small tank currently, and have had no trouble with aggression. My LFS owner (who is a rainbow fanatic) told me he won't sell rainbows unless it's a 3:1 F/M ratio or all males. He showed me pics of his 75 gallon with probably 40 varied species (all male) that he says he's had running for a couple of years.

Excellent! That's great to hear that it's been successfully done and is actually encouraged by an experienced Rainbow keeper! I'm pretty sure I haven't had a 3:1 ratio F/M ratio so far since I've only been able to get them early enough they can't be sexed, and then they've turned out too male heavy on the ratio but not QUITE male heavy enough to fully disperse the aggression (it's usually ended up a 2:3 F/M ratio which results in 2 males teaming up on the 3rd). Since my Rainbows live with a nearly full grown Bichir I've been growing them out in a 40g breeder tank until they're too big to be at risk of getting eaten. Sadly since I've been getting them in small batches (5-10 at a time) it's been EXTREMELY challenging to keep the peace while they're growing up before they can be added to main school in the display tank. Hopefully if I stop trying to get them at a 1:1 or 2:1 F/M ratio and just go full males only it'll reduce the troubles I'm having.