Pseudomugil furcata fry questions   7/14/11
Dear Crew
Hope you are all well.
I have been attempting to breed Pseudomugil furcatas (Forktail blue-eyed rainbow fish) for some time now. I have successfully obtained eggs from breeding mops on a regular basis and some mature to fry. I have been gently moving these fry to a small breeding net with plants covering the surface within a larger tank (same as their parents and where the egg container is kept for temperature control). Out of about seven that I spotted, three weeks later, there appears to be only three left. I have been feeding them regularly (3/4 times per day) on Interpet egg based fry food (hoping this will also induce infusoria) and more recently with flake food dust (fine crumbs). After three weeks, the remaining fry look no bigger than when they were first hatched. Water param.s are below:
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrites 0ppm
Nitrates 0-5ppm
Temperature - 26 degrees Celsius
Ph - 8.0
Any suggestions where I might (or might not) be going wrong?
Many thanks once again.
regards
Pat
<The food is probable too big. Do try infusoria, traditionally grown by putting lettuce leaves in jam jars on window sills, often with snails to start to the decay process, but there are various other methods that work well too. You could also try Brine Shrimp nauplii. For what it's worth, I've found Hikari First Bites rather better than the old Liquifry product.
"Interpet Guide to Fish Breeding" by Chris Andrews is a good, cheap entry into the methods of breeding fish generally, and has lots of useful advice.
Cheers, Neale.>

Breeding Forktail Blue-eyes   3/8/11
Hi Crew
<Patrick, Dr. Nunn>
I popped into Wildwoods and acquired five Forktail Blue-eyes Pseudomugil furcatus for my community fish tank (everything is fine although I thought the Dwarf Gourami were going to have them for dinner to begin with! So I'm thinking I'd like to breed these wonderfully lively fish. I've read the following article but was wondering what would be good to use as a fish egg fungicide?
<My fave, though admittedly very olde-timey is still Methylene Blue>
Here is the neat article: http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/breeding/McFarlane_Forktail.html
thanks
Dr Patrick Nunn
<Please read here on WWM re: http://wetwebmedia.com/methblueart.htm
plus on the Net re this application. Very safe, quite effective. Cheers,
BobF>

Re: Boesemanni rainbows struggling, repro. beh. obs.  12/24/10
Comment on FAQ link:
http://wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/rainbowdisf.htm
"Two days ago I noticed one the rainbows swimming almost vertical with head down and tail up. He is also using his whole body in a wiggly motion as he swims. There are no spots or marks on him and he is eating fine. At times he looks like he doesn't know where he is swimming to because he almost bumps into other fish."
Thinking this is perfectly natural part of mating. My males all do this, while intensifying their colors and displaying a big orange stripe down their head. Then they chase the females as such, lowering their nose to the ground tail up to "show" the lady his big orange stripe and attract her interest (though most of my males are harshly rejected lol) They do it most during times where the tank light is off, but the room is lit (dusk/dawn lighting effect)
<Ahh, thank you for this input. Bob Fenner>

Re: New Freshwater Tank... sel./sexing Rainbows Neal/Crew: Thank you for the quick and thoughtful reply. I looked at pictures of the Boesemanni rainbow, and they are indeed striking fish. I am having trouble, however, locating a good source for them. Live Aquaria can supply, but state that their fish are too young to differentiate between genders. I could wind up with a huge preponderance of one or the other. Any ideas? Take my chances on gender selection? I like your suggestion about a large school in my 6-ft tank. Do you think that 20 would be a good number? Thanks tom <Hi Tom. Sexing Rainbowfish is more of an issue where the males and females look different. Typically, people only (or mostly) buy males of species like Glossolepis incisus because the males are amazing (brick red) and the females are less colourful (silvery-green). But then they find the males don't develop their best colours and sometimes become aggressive. For M. Boesemanni, I think you're going to be fine "taking pot luck" because boys and girls look the same (particularly when young). A school of 20 would be superb, especially as they mature and develop full colours. Do make sure you give them a nice varied diet that includes algae and crustaceans, and these seem helpful for making the best colours. This species is widely used in the UK for fish tanks in shops and offices because they are so colourful and yet very hardy and easy to keep. Cheers, Neale.>

Australian Rainbows ~ <Ananda here...> I was just wondering if there is a way to tell the females from the males with Australian Rainbows? <These are not the easiest fish to sex, but it is possible. Sometimes the body shape of the female is shallower than that of the male.> I have 9 of them in my tank, and two of them have really different tail fins, different than the others that is... I have a few who are a really pretty peacock purple, and silver, and then a few others a real deep peacock shiny green and some sapphire and silver colored ones... Any ideas here? <With all the species and subspecies of rainbows, I'm not going to try to guess which may be males and which may be females. I think you may have two or three species. Your best bet may be to find some good photos of the species you have -- try the Aqualog series, if you can find it.> <You're welcome. --Ananda>