Rainbowfish

Author : Efrain Silva

Appearance

If you’re like me and enjoy watching lots and lots of TV, you’ve probably (and who hasn’t?) seen at least one or two of those world - famous Skittles commercials, where the announcer says something like, “Taste the rainbow. Feel the rainbow. Live the rainbow!” Well, nuff’ said, point taken well.

And if you love rainbows, like most of us, you’ll love the Rainbowfish. It’s brightly, diversely colored. Yes….just like a rainbow. This fish comes in mixed hues of red, blue, purple, yellow, green and more.

Diet

It sure can eat! Let’s start there. So don’t go cheap on it, or it may take a toll on its health…keep its diet balanced and sufficiently packed with both a mix of meats and veggies (it’s an omnivore eater).

If you like to make things easy, all these foods come in flake versions at the pet store, typically, and you can feel free to mix it up every week with color flakes, spirulina flakes, tropical flakes, and others on the list. Just Google the different kinds of flakes there are, for the fun of it!

Origins

Where did it come from? We know the obvious answer — from its mother and father. But let’s dig a little deeper than that….

Here is what I’ve found — this fish originates from the bottom of the ocean in several islands across numerous countries, including Madagascar, Indonesia, Australia, Austria, New Guinea and more. Its name finds its origin in the word Melanotaenia, which is a Greek word ; it comes from two words that were broken up accordingly and placed together to form it — melano and taenia. Melano is the Greek word for ‘black’, and taenia simply means ‘banded’. Put two and two together, and voila!

Roommate Situation

This fish is quite peaceful, but be warned — that doesn’t mean it’s shy or inactive, especially when it comes to standing up for itself. Similar fish that are likewise non - aggressive, but stand their ground, could be a good match alongside this fish in a tank, big or small. You can put this fish with different species, too, and even larger kinds of fish (it’s not afraid of them…it moves around quickly, in any case).

You can even do a community group tank, with this one — 6 or more fish in a group is ideal. When trying to attract new females in the group, the males will often exhibit a vibrant array of beautiful rainbow colors like only they can. And it works!

Other Facts to Note

This fish has some difficulty when breeding, and if you want to get it to breed, you may face difficulty as well. It scatters its eggs, if it so chooses to breed, in the first place ; it can even eat such eggs afterward, lacking parental affection and tenderness, it seems, so do not be startled if you should so happen to catch it eating what it just laid. Increase the temperature in the tank to increase your chances of a faster spawning!