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I'm thinking of putting rainbowfish in my 46g. I would like

6 boesemani rainbows
6 forktail rainbows
6 zebra danios
1 farlowella cat

Is that too overstocked? Can the bosemanis be in a smaller school? Say 3?

The Boesemani liked to be in a school of about 6, so your right on the money with your school numbers. But Boesemani's get pretty big and like lots of swimming space, so a 46 gallon is'nt really enough. Maybe go with some Red Rainbows or Dwarf Rainbows.

Are you saying red rainbows only or in place of the bosemani's? Because the reds actually get bigger.

Your one stop shop for all things Rainbowfish is this site:

Home Of The Rainbowfish

The amount of work that's been put into this site is astonishing. The species section is lavishly illustrated, with many superb quality photos. Information in depth at your fingertips. Bookmark for future reference and marvel at some of the photos on that site while you're at it - the photos of the Blue-Eyes in particular are among some of the best fish photographs you will see anywhere of any fish.

When you reach that page, click on "Contents", then have LOTS of fun browsing the site. There's all sorts in there , from do it yourself live food cultivation to a full description of typical Rainbowfish habitats in the wild so you can plan your Rainbowfish setup to mimic as closely as possible the very waters from which they hail.

One question mark I'd linger on with respect to your stocking is the Farlowella. Farlowellas can become sieable fishes, so you might want to rethink that one. You might want to consider leaving out the Zebra Danios too, to give your Rainbows more space, and allow you to have 10 each of the Rainbows. The extra numbers will make a difference, believe me - just about ANY shoaling fish will be happier in larger numbers. With 10 each of the Rainbows, you would have space for some more modest algae eaters (6 Otocinclus will do nicely!) and 6 to 8 carefully chosen Corys -habrosus would be a good choice because they stay small and you could have as many as 10 of those.

This stocking list:

10 each of your Rainbowfish species
6 Otocinclus
10 habrosus Corys

would be lively and active enough to provide you with hours of entertainment and viewing pleasure, and probably some spawning activity too, with the distinct possibility that your Rainbows AND your Corys would spawn!

That's my recommendation. See if you like this idea!



Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Thanks for the link.

The danios are already in the tank, but I wouldn't mind seeing them go. The farlowella is a Farlowella Vittata which usually only get around 6 inches and are very skinny...he's also on the sedentary side and doesn't seem to need much swimming room. He's not nearly as messy as most plecos and an unbelievable algae eater...to the point and I have absolutely none in the tank...I have to grow it outside for him...so he's a keeper...next to my SW seastar...he's my favorite.

I'm sorry your right Red Rainbows do get bigger. But even the Dwarf Rainbows are really nice i think. The danios are alright in there, but if you got rid of them you could increase your rainbow schools by one or two. You could even get another Farlowella cat if ya wanted to and some cories.

You might want to limit your larger rainbows to a total of only 8-10 fish. I have a 65 gal. tank with 13 adult rainbows, plus 8 SAEs and it's a very packed tank. They are gorgeous, colorful and active, and very easy to care for. Make sure there are at least as many females as males, or males only to reduce chasing and fighting. While most rainbowfish like to be in groups, they are not schooling fish (at least most of them aren't, though the dwarf neon rainbows are wonderful schoolers) so 3 male bosemanis would be fine.

There's a seller on Aquabid who specializes in rainbowfish and offeres package deals of 5 or 10 male rainbows of your choice of species. This is how I got mine, and they are very healthy well cared-for and bred fish. They are very pricey compared to the bosemanis you can get at the LFS, but for the variety alone I tend to think they are worth it.

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

I agree, 6 boesemans would be too much for the tank. I'd check into some Praecox (dwarf neon) like others have suggested. They're really sweet ::^)

Are you set on that body shape? There are also madagascar rainbows, celebs and most of the blue eyed family that stay smaller and can be just as stunning

Oh yes - if you check out the Blue Eye species on that site I linked, some of them are true catwalk stars of the aquarium - Pseudomugil connieae and Pseudomugil gertrudae in particular are utterly stunning little fishes that will turn any aquarium in which they live into a show stopper, and Pseudomugil melis will provide an eye-catching orange contrast to the blue connieae. Pseudomugil paskai and Pseudomugil tenellus are also wonderful to behold against a planted backdrop.

Celebes Rainbows (or as they should be called now, Sulawsei Rainbows) are also, in the right conditions, little jewels that will provide sparkling iridescent visual delights. In the case of these, they're fishes that like their water somewht hard and alkaline, though not to the extremes of Tanganyikan Rift Lake fishes, so if you decide to run with Sulawesis, you should plan for a community of fishes that like moderately hard and alkaline conditions. Sulawesis like good aeration, moderate currents, frequent partial water changes and intermittent live foods to bring out the best in them - additionally, if you try to breed them, they should have live food present in the breeding aquarium on a constant basis to distract them from egg eating, as they lay their eggs over a period of several days.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002