Amazing rainbows

[esoxlucius]

I recently put some rainbows in my 180. Boesemani, turquoise and dwarf neons. I read that the males from this species, when strutting their stuff, can virtually switch their colour on and off at will like a light bulb. I thought this was a bit far fetched but the behaviour of my turquoise males this morning has left me in complete awe.

They're a nice colour anyway, a deep blue to lilac type colour glistening along their upper flanks. It deepens and lightens in intensity as they dance with each other. And then this morning they put on a show which stunned me.

All three males, from the tip of their nose to the start of their dorsal fin had an extremely bright and vivid orange crest!! I've never seen this before today. Shades of blue on their flanks yes, but bright bright orange, certainly not.

And in the time it took them to chase each other the length of the 6ft tank they were turning this bright orange on and off! I was absolutely mesmorised by it all.

I love my rainbows more and more each day.

 

[fishhead0103666]

This sounds interesting, perhaps you could get a video of said behavior for the rest of us to observe as well?

 

[tlindsey]

When I had Boesemani Rainbow they displayed colors that would change chameleon like as esoxlucius has experienced.

 

[MrsE88]

Rainbowfish are so beautiful and fascinating.
Did you by chance get any pictures?

 

[twentyleagues]

I second the video if possible!

 

[esoxlucius]

Nothing would have given me more pleasure than sharing their behaviour with you guys via video footage or at least a few quality stills.

Unfortunately all I have for taking pictures and videos is my tablet. I've posted a few pictures of other stuff in the past but anything that's got any movement to it I just haven't got a hope in hells chance of really nice crisp, detailled and worthy pics. Even adjusting the settings on my tablet to sports mode so I can take footage of moving objects dosen't seem to make much of a difference.

And my phone is out of the question too, it's a works phone, an old Nokia model if you can believe that. I really need to come up with a solution because i'd love to share more stuff.

Sorry guys, I feel such a fraud.

 

[fishhead0103666]

I found out that apparently you can rent a camera for a day...... interesting.....

 

[esoxlucius]

This is just a test. I took a full tank photo from my wife's phone and she blue toothed it to my tablet. I don't know if the photo will come up doing it this way. If it does that's real progress for a techo dinosaur like myself. I may be able to do videos then, who knows.

 

[esoxlucius]

Haha, we have lift off Houston!

 

[Cardeater]

About a year and a half ago, I had never even heard of rainbow fish. They weren't really available in the hobby back in the mid to late 90's when I initially got into this hobby.

Fast forward to last year, when I wanted to add fish to my remaining clown Loaches and pleco from many years ago, I discovered rainbows.

They are now my second favorite fish. I love the natural range of colors available in the different varieties and I enjoy their sparring/mating behavior.

I'm glad to see you really like them too.