# Threadfin/Featherfin Rainbowfish



## kkau1

Hi,

I was wondering what experience people have had with Threadfin Rainbowfish's (fishi?)

How close do they school (if they school at all) and how hardy are they? I'm just starting a 50 gallon planted tank that's mostly moss and ferns and am still trying to decide what type of fish i want.

Also, do rainbowfish eat shrimp?


Any info would be greatly appreciated,
Kkau1


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## MrSanders

I have been trying to breed a trio i have for a while now... they are BEAUTIFUL fish and I think you would be fine with shrimp... these are small fish and would only be able to eat the smallest of shrimp, only babies anything over 1/4 to a half inch will be to large for them to eat....

As far as schooling Im not to sure as I only have the one trio.... i am trying to get enough to have a nice school of them for a tank... however I am finding it tough to keep the fry alive.... though I havnt taken any real serious attempts as far as green water, and live micro foods goes.... going to try that next

Any how on the other hand, given good living conditions I have found the adults to be plenty hardy for me.... othes may have different expierences but mine have done great thus far


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## BryceM

Where did you find threadfins around SLC? I'd love to have some.

I've been keeping them for almost a year now, but need more due to recent losses. They are entirely peaceful IMO and I doubt they could hurt a shrimp if they wanted to. They only eat the most miniscule of foods.

They don't exactly school like rummies or harlequins, but they sort of loosely hang out together. The males will frequently display to the females which is an amazing show of finnage. Along with congos and rummies, they make my top 3 list of cool fish.


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## sarahbobarah

Personally, I prefer celebes rainbows. Understated elegance. They school loosely. 

Threadfins are ok, and pretty hardy IME.


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## eklikewhoa

i have six of them and they school very loosely. the ones i have are mostly males with only two females since that was all there was in at several lfs', i think its because those that dont know tend to favor the prettier fish. 

mine havent spawn or even seem like they plan to but they are living. i doubth they will eat any shrimp since their mouth is pretty small and remember their throat is smaller than their mouth.


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## kkau1

Thanks for the replies,

guaiac_boy, Fish-4-U in SLC has them for $2.99 each. Think i'll pick up a few and try them out in a smaller tank before i make up my mind for my big tank.

Just wish these guys were tighter schooling fish. 

Here's another question for you guys, do most types of Threadfin develop colorful fins or body color? The ones i've seen in person had bright blue eyes, but rather plain body color and not much color on their "threads." These guys were tiny, so maybe they'll color up as they mature?


Thanks again guys for the replies,
Kkau1


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## BryceM

They do color up significantly as they grow, especially in a nice planted tank with a dark substrate. The bodies will become a deep flashy-bronze color. They do have some subtle reds and yellows on the fins which can be seen when they display. The eyes are their most remarkable trait. They glow an almost iridescent gold/green/blue.

Try them. I would be surprised if you didn't end up liking them. $2.99 is a very good price. I might have to sneak down and get some. Fish-4-U recently sold me some congo tetras that were in excellent condition. I've been pretty happy with them as an LFS.


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## niko

Bulbs that are above 5500K will hinder the red color of these fish. 10000K bulbs wash them completely.

With a warm bulb the fish look gorgeous. The tank does not 

Best thing to do - mix the bulbs.

--Nikolay


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## shake

I thinking of getting threadfin rainbows and thisis a reply I got from Dave Wilson (Australia). He collects and breeds them.

I collected threadfins in two places here in the NT. The Arafura Swamp near Mirrngatja and in a billabong about 1 km past the Cadell River Crossing of the road from Maningrida to Ramminginning. Both these places are in Arnhem Land and you need to have Traditional Owner permission to be there.

They are easy to keep if you keep your water warm, 27 deg C or over and feed them a high protein diet, I use a combination of plankton producing ponds with supplimental feedings of 0.6 mm barramundi starter pellets from the Aquaculture supplies.

Eggs are easy to send in the mail but the fry are a little tricky to feed. A plankton pond to produce lots of small feed animals is the way to go. I collect soil from the bottom of a dry local water way, any waterway will do, add the soil, about one shovel full, to a pond bigger than 1000 litres, add some fertiliser and wait two weeks. Lots of things turn up in the water, most of which are good fish food.

Cheers
Dave


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## Shaggathai

What Sarahbobarah said about celebes rainbows is what I also think of threadfins, "understated elegance". Not brilliantly colored, but nice splash of muted red on the dorsal and tail, some yellow in some collection strains, gets better as they mature but not "bright". But when the males challange each other or flash at females, like in that pic, WOW, the colors pop out and the finnage shape is awesome. If they are kept in conditions that make them happy, they do that a lot. And like guaiac said, their eyes seem to glow all the time, very pretty. They really are lovely. In the tank I keep them in, I find I watch them just as much as the discus or marble pearlscale superviel angels (definate eyecatchers). They have something very elegant about them. Mine don't school tightly, but they hang out loosely together (same half of the tank usually). 

They might snack on a very newborn shrimp if they happen to cross paths, but the threadfins hang out in the upper 2/3 of the tank and don't seem to hunt, totally peaceful fish. If you can see the shrimp easily, they won't eat it, threadfins have *tiny* mouths and throats. 

What you see at a petstore is not like what you'll see after having them in your tank for a month or two with good clean, warm water and good feed (if you feed flake mush it up a little as you drop it in the tank, and if you feed pellets, other than hikari micro pellets, pre-soak them). 

One of my "someday if I get room" tanks is a 20g or so planted tank with just threadfins. For now they are stuck in my "if I think it's worth looking at all the time, my gems" tank that is in the living room and by the tv!


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## shadow

Daves cadell river werneri are worth getting if you can, they are one of the best i've ever seen(His cadell river p.gertrudae as awesome as well). Werneri are pretty easy to keep (although they can be escape artists). Water parameters don't really bother them greatly. They seem to display colours better if the tank is well planted and a dark substrate is used. I've heard salt helps colour up as well if you haven't got a planted tank. I feed mine daphina or baby brine shrimp as they have really small throats. Although i've used hakari micro pellets before as well. Freshwater shrimp are ok they wont attack them, there a very peaceful fish thats does alot better in a tank by themselves with a few ottos and some cories to keep them company to keep the bottom clean. Collecting eggs is easy but raising the fry is a real challenge I go for greenwater and crushed egg shells.


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## iris600

I love threadfins and celebes. Both are rainbows more than worty of a special place in the planted tank. When they display, even before they are fully colored up, they look like little dancing butterflies. I *love* them.
I have two nearly fully colored males and three females. The males are constantly displaying and really add some flashy (albiet harmless action) to the aquarium.


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## kkau1

Hey, thanks for the responses.

I bought a few of these threadfins and they are absolutely beautiful. However, i'm having a hard time getting them to eat. Whenever i tried to feed them flake food, they just kinda ignore all the food floating on the surface. the only time i've seen them nibble anything is if a piece of flake just happens to sink right in front of them. I've since bought the hikari small fish food (probably wrong name, but really small pellets) And am having the same problem.

Any advice on getting them to eat?


Kevin.


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## BryceM

Mine eat flakes just fine, but it does take them a while to get used to it. I've never seen them take flake stuff from the surface though. They usually pick up sinking crumbs left over from the bigger fish. They usually don't go for anything bigger than a couple of mm.

You might try crushing up the flakes. They'll find them eventually.


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## Robert

Hi,
i kept the threadfins for a while and was really happy about them. They look like little butterflies and were wonderful tank mates for my shrimps. Never saw them attacking any shrimplet. 

Now I re-scaped my show tank and want to keep them again. This time I'll also keep Pseudomugil gertrudae. These two species should be the only fishes in this tank. Is it a good idea to keep both species together? The blue eyes will come first and I rather keep them alone instead of keeping them together with the threadfins (I love the threadfisn but I kept them yet, the blue eyes are new to me and after 2 years of looking for them I'll finally get 15 of them end of the week). The P. gertrudae are much smaller but I don't know yet how active they are and how shy the threadfins will be if I keep both of them together. So I'm more concerned about the threadfins. Do you have any advise for me? Thank you!

best regards

Robert


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## shadow

Robert i've keep them together werneri and gertrudae in the same tank but its never been a sucessful in the long term. Although they share the same environments in the wild. I'd generally keep them seperate if you can. They are about the same size as werneri and there fins can be as elaborate as werneri depending on the locality of the gertrudae. There pretty active guys as well. 15 is a pretty large colony i'd leave them by themselves. Some floating plants is a good idea to they love it. I got some gertrudae to breed in the roots of a floating java fern that came loose.


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## Robert

Hi shadow,
thank you for your help! So I'll keep the blue eyes by themselves with some shrimps and snails in my 60cm x 40cm x 40cm tank. I'm realy excited because they are rare here and it is very hard to get healthy specimen. I'm already looking for them for 2 years now and finally could order them last week. They will arrive on Friday and come from a trust-worthy wholesaler, so I hope they are ok. But some werneris would be nice too ... Maybe in another tank in the future.

best regards

Robert


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## sb483

Hi all,
Don't know much about this section, but I found this thread searching for threadfin rainbowfish from El Natural so I thought I'd add a link to this post:
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/el-natural/35194-low-tech-glossostigma-tank-2.html
which has an animated gif of a male threadfin displaying (poor quality though).


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## epicfish

I've been looking at these guys too....how big do they get? I want to keep them with some African Butterfly Fish and I hope they don't get eaten!

I also plan to have a school of cardinals too, ~12-15 of them along w/ maybe half a dozen threadfins...will that work?


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## ShortFin

Epic,
I saw some at Jan's Tropical Fish about two weeks ago. I think they might still be there.

Look in the SCAPE thread where I posted the address.
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/scape/6495-lfs-list-4.html


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## epicfish

Thanks. Know how much they were? =)


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## ShortFin

Sorry didn't catch the price.


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