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Does anyone know how rainbows breed? I have 3 Boesemani rainbows in my tank and I saw 2 of them acting strangly the other day. They would back up to each other almost tail to tail then one of them would do a backflip over top of the other. They did this over and over again. I had never seen them do this before. Any input??

Thx,
Dwayne

i think they like to spawn in spawning mops, and in java moss. my AUS rainbow and boeseman would swim together, and flare and shake, hopefully they will breed.

Don't think to much of spawning. I had 3 turquoise, 2 boesmanis, 1 other (can't remember the name right now) and they would spawn every morning. Now I have them in a really small tank. The 3 left have ich. I have a clump of java moss and they would spawn the days that my congos were not spawning.

When my boesmanis spawn, they get parallel to one another, press up against plants or driftwood and shiver and shake to the point where it almost looks like they're having convulsions. I've never seen them do backflips over one another.

The males sometimes get really weird with one another, though, posturing and head-butting one another as they try to show one another who's boss.

ive kept six species of rainbows for years now including boesmans, the breeding pattern of the fish is usually in the morning shortly after a lot of colour display and posturing.
Ive noticed that swimming alongside of each other, and wiggling together closely is not neccesarily a precursor to actually spawning, and it more often happens between males of differing species almost as dominant/suboordinate behaviour.

i find the actual spawning to be a very rapid affair, rainbow fish typically prefer to be unobserved during mating, and when they feel vulnerable they typically moderate their behaviour, i have been fortunate enough to have a webcam set up for observing them when im not actually in the room, and when the fish feel they are unobserved the successful spawnings always seems to follow this pattern. - both fish after a short courship , usually of under a minute in duration will start to swim synchronously for a few laps of the tank then both dart towards the surface at maximum speed , the spawning happens near the surface of the water (my aquarium is 3 foot deep) and the eggs are released and fertilised in the instant before the fish typically whacks its head on the drip tray . while this makes for spectacular viewing you seriously have to move to catch the eggs with a net as the eggs become very public to other fish in the tank. even other rainbowfish will help themselves to the eggs and if not caught they are typically consumed in 5 to 10 seconds! i have witnesses several spawnings repeated 2 -3 times in a couple of minutes. Both the boesmans and my new guinea red rainbows exhibit this behavour.in addition since many rainbowfish are gravel spawners i have not found that my rainbows prefer the large amounts of java moss or hemianthus i have and they usually spawn over the open areas of fine aquarium gravel. the eggs are orangey yellow and easily visible to the naked eye, so if you witness an actual spawning, youll know it.

Last edited by longhairedgit at 26-Aug-2005 03:55

Last edited by longhairedgit at 26-Aug-2005 03:56