totally_vacant

The last couple of times I've dropped by my local store I've seen Boesemani Rainbows for sale ($15/pair). I remember seeing pictures of them online and being stunned by the colors (for example, see here. But the ones in the store are never anywhere near to brilliant (I mean, nowhere even in the same realm). I'm wondering, are they likely to brighten up when they get in better surroundings or when they mature? Are they only that brilliant when they are mating? Or are they just not quite as beautiful as I had hoped?

Ebichua

I had the same thoughts about threadfin rainbows when I first purchased them. Pictures online often look much better for some reason than in person. Although, I do know for a fact, that rainbows tend to color up once they are established into a comfortable environment. When I first purchased my threadfins, they were dull with little to no color. Now I see red, black and yellow on them. Much better than before, now that they have established to a good home.

Colors WILL brighten up when they flash around trying to mate as well. So it's a little bit of both mating + environment to see their true colors.

gheitman

Fish in general, and Boesemani Rainbows in particular, tend to not look their best at the fish store because they are usually stressed out. With Boesemani Rainbows the males are more colorful than the females and the colors become more pronounced as they get more mature (shades change from yellow to orange).

lnb

They will color up. I've had a group of them for several years now. Colors will develop more as they mature but the biggest color change I got was when I went from a very light color gravel to eco-complete. Wow what a difference.

BryceM

They don't show their real colors until they're at full adult size. Most bosemanii that I've seen are sold when they're pretty small. Give them a nice planted environment and a few girlies to show off to. The males will be outstanding soon enough.

mikaila31

I've bred these guys before and they definetly become more colorful as they mature. They are normally sold at around the 2" mark and for the most part they don't look like much. Its when they start to reach 3" or more they will show their adult colors.

Also $15 a pair is a good price IMO since they are normally sold for $12 each where I live. But I would be very secptical of the pairs. Rainbows are very hard to sex when they are young. And its not very common to see female rainbows for sale in petstores since females don't get very colorful. IMO they are all probably going to be males.

hoplo

It might be wise to get more than one pair to take off the edge. I used to have a 6 pack of males, down to 2 over the years. These 2 are always bickering and both have a raw patch on one side

totally_vacant

Thanks for the messages. Do the rainbows school at all, or do they go it alone in the tank?

mats808

With Melanotaenia boesemani quality can vary greatly. I first saw this fish in the mid 80s and they were beautiful. Rainbowfish are known to degrade quickly the farther you get away from wild stock. To be honest I haven't seen any really nice quality boesemani for almost a decade now. It's not only the colors that have been lost but the body shape has also changed. The fish aren't as laterally compressed as they once were.

I say it's really hard to tell if the boesemani's will color up. To answer your question....Melanotaenia bosemani can be much nicer than the picture you are talking about....they can also be uglier.....it really comes down to quality.

To be honest it's going to be really hard to find any really good quality boesmani in any local pet shop. Maybe if it were a petshop in PNG. lol

gheitman

You might want to keep an eye open on AquaBid for some wild-caught rainbows. Here is a link to the Rainbows section.

http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/aucti...cgi?fwrainbows