are rainbows aloud in nz if they are what price and what fish?

Yep.

I think all rains are permited.

Most of them go between $15 and $20

I certainly have them but they were given to me, I didn't buy them.

what type are they?

Melanotaenia lacustrus, M trifasciata, boesemani, praecox and McCullochi

have they breed?

No. I am very slack in the tank maintenance routine so they do not have optimum conditions :oops:

They are also in with a number of tetras, barbs and angels (I am fish sitting) so any fry wouldn't have much of a chance at survival.

As Alan has said all types of Rainbows are allowed in NZ (unfortunately that doesn't mean that they actually get imported).

Just to clarify what I mean by all rainbows:

Melanotaenia spp. (Austrailian/Papuan rainbows)

Glossolepis spp. (Austrailian/Papuan rainbows)

Pseudomugil spp. (Blue eyes)

Rhadinocentrus spp. (Ornate rainbows)

Telmatherina spp. (Celebes rainbows)

Bedotia spp. (Madagascan rainbows)

Iriaterina spp. (Threadfin rainbows)

Currently I'm keeping M. herbertaxelrodi, M. lacustrus, M. boesmani, M. splendida, M. exquisita, P. furcatus, P. gertrudae, G. incisus, B. gaeyi, T. ladigesi.

I've bred the Madagascan rainbows and Gertrude's blue eyes in the past, the various australian/papuan rainbows I've got spawn most mornings in the community tank however I'd never collect eggs from such a situation as rainbows readily crossbreed - which I consider is undesirable.

I've seen threadfin rainbows available at the moment - though only males so I haven't been inclined to buy any.

Rob said...

> Currently I'm keeping ... P. gertrudae...

Ah, so you got them then? Excellent.

Currently I've got G. incisus, B. gaeyi and P. furcatus and intend

to pick up other varieties as space/money/opportunity allows.

I'd really like to see some female 'threadfins' again...

Andrew.

Yes Andrew - I had a trip up to Auckland after you mentioned seeing them and managed to liberate 3 pairs of them (they were a little ragged thanks to the dwarf puffers in the tank with them - but have recovered well and are currently sequestered in a nice little breeding tank). Andrew your first on the list to receive offspring since you provided the intel. and actually knew what they were.

what rainbows would you recomend?

and whats the rarest?

are they hard to sell?

I have the dwarf neon rainbows, they are easy to keep and i have had no trouble with them at all

andyman98 said...

> what rainbows would you recomend?

Depends on what you want.

If you're after a red fish, G. incisus is better than M. lacustrus.

If you want a blue fish, go for M. lacustrus.

Neither would be good if you wanted to keep them in small

(ie under 2ft) tank, then I'd go for one of the Psuedomugil

species or the threadfin (Iratherina werneri).

> and whats the rarest?

In NZ? I've never seen G. wanamensis or any Rhadinocentrus spp.

> are they hard to sell?

Nothing is hard to sell if the price is right.

Most rainbows are relatively slow growing and take a while to

get to a saleable size, this tends to make them expensive.

Andrew.

Hi everyone,

For any one interested in Aus & N G rains spend a couple of hours at Adrian Tappin's web page. All the fish are there! all the breeding info is there! Mind boggleing

http://members.optushome.com.au/chelmon/

Cheers

Alan

Rob do you know the lineage of your fish? particularly the boesemani? In About 2 months I am planning a tank with boesemani as the main 'attraction' but have only seen weird hybrids around...

Has anybody ever imported eggs?? How does it go with customs? I suspect they won't allow it cos they couldn't know for sure whether the eggs were the species you said they were right??

No I'm not sure of the lineage of my bosemani's - imported rather than locally bred but other than that i couldn't say. If i was ever to become a rainbow nut I'd be wanting location site info aswell - if you look at some of the better websites with rainbows you see the large variation in particlular species based on which river systems they originate from - can make ID difficult as most general fish books have a single picture for a given rainbow.