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I went to catch some rainbow fish with a friend in a little creek in QLD Australia just near bundaberg and I caught some plain rainbows and a few little fish that looked like a cross with plain rainbowfish and guppies, they where about 5cm. They had a black stripe from eye to tail. They look like a peaceful scooling fish kind of like they rainbows but less height and had regular size adipose fin not like the rainbows with that fin from dorsal to tail and a regular under fin not like the rainbows again.
please if anyone knows what kind of fish it is please reply

Can you please post a picture of the fish?.


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Being a local creek it could be possible that it is confined to that area only or someone has released a tank breed fish. Also if it is a native species it might be prohibited to remove then.

Go to your local Fishing Tackle store and get the address of your local Fisheries Dept and ask them.

Take/send a photo you if you can to them.

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Er, quick correction (puts on pedant hat )

Rainbows don't have an adipose.

Rainbow Fishes have two proper dorsal fins. The anterior dorsal fin is constructed entirely from hard fin rays with interstitial integument, while the second dorsal is constructed entirely from soft fins rays with interstitial integument. Adipose fins are rayless protruberances that are composed of fatty tissue extending from the body near the caudal peduncle in more primitive fishes such as Characins and certain Catfishes (though in the case of some Catfish families, the adipose may or may not be supported by a spine, as in the case of Corydoras and other Callichthyid Catfishes).

So, to help you identify your fish after this exercise of pedantry on my part (indulge me - sometimes I love doing this ) I can direct you to what is possibly the best specialist Rainbow Fish website in existence, namely:

Home Of The Rainbowfish

Click on "Contents" (it's in small type), then scroll down until you see the sections entitled "Rainbowfish species" and "Blue-Eye species". There'll be a list of different Rainbowfish and Blue-Eye genera. Click on one of those and you'll end up with a page (in frames) in which you can browse the numerous different species at leisure, and see which comes closest to matching your fish in appearance.

I'd recommend starting with Melanotaenia as your first Genus stop, and warn you that you'll have a LOT of different species to browse! Each comes with a wealth of information, including locations where the fish species is likely to be found, so if it says the fish is only found in Irian Jaya, for example, but it matches your fish, then chances are you've caught some 'surplus' from some careless individual dumping unwanted fish.

Among the ones I've found that are listed as true Australian natives, with Queensland species annotated (QLD), are:

Melanotaenia duboulayi (QLD)
Melanotaenia eachamensis (CITES I Protected) (QLD)
Melanotaenia exquisita (Type location: Northern Territory)
Melanotaenia fluviatilis (QLD)
Melanotaenia gracilis (Western Aust)
Melanotaenia mccullochi (QLD)
Melnaotaenia nigrans (QLD) But only the north!
Melanotaenia pygmaea (Western Aust)
Melanotaenia splendida australis (Western Aust)
Melanotaenia splendida inornata (QLD)
Melanotaenia splendida splendida (QLD)
Melanotaenia splendida tatei (QLD) But only inland!
Melanotaenia trifasciata (QLD) But only the north!
Melanotaenia utcheensis (QLD) But only the Johnstone River!

That lot should be good enough for starters ... check the location details when you find a matching fish, and if it's not one of the above, then you've got an Irian Jaya or Papuan rainbowfish that's been dumped from someone's aquarium, in which case you ought to notify the authorities as they'll be VERY interested to know this!

WHOOPS - almost forgot! Several species (including members of Genera other than Melanotaenia) are reported as having uneven and patchy distribution, including several of the Australian natives. So it isn't unusual to find species that have populations in Western Australia, then no other connecting populations linking them to a population in Queensland or New South Wales, while others have a distribution that covers more or less the whole of tropical Australia. Read the distribution notes for each species carefully, as many of them contain specific location references (at least one cites Bundaberg as a well known collecting locality).


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