In my view, Rainbow fish are amongst the best fish you can have in a planted tank.
I currently keep several species in my 180Gal tank, or trifasciata, incisus, praecox, lacoustris and inornata.
Rainbow fish are amongst the most under rated of all ornamental fish here in Australia, maybe because they are native to Australia.
Another reason might be that they don't start really showing colour till they are 6 - 12 months old and aqarium shops don't like keeping fish in their tanks too long.

Here is an example of one of my trifasciatas

Yes, even the most interesting fish in the USA are not kept much due to them being native.

Our darter group is one such example.
But if it's from Oz, Amazon etc, they perk right up and pay $$$ for it.

Not sure why.

Regards,
Tom Barr

He's a Dandy !

Personally I'm fond of Rainbow fish. You may be right about the marketing of juveniles though ? That's a tough sell. I'd also suspect that many are virtually "Too Easy" to keep. Some people may not think they're challenging enough ? Like that low maintenance girlfriend we all eventually regret running off ! LOL.

I only keep a few Praecox, Boesmani, and Werneris these days, but a few nice ones ( Trifaciata, Goyder River etc...) have shown up recently.

I suspect that in the right envrionment, many breed relatively easily too. I recently moved a large population of about 8 varieties of Rainbows out of my 180 gallon tank into a 55 gallon tank with the intention of completely redoing the 180 gallon tank.

I got busy and wasn't able to get around to tearing down the 180 gallon tank for about 4 weeks. Much to my suprise, when I turned on the lights, I spotted 8 fry.

Now, I have no clue what kind of rainbow these fry are <grin> ... I guess I am going to find out <grin> ... I believe that they are either Australian Rainbows or Turquoise Rainbows. Both of these groups had larger populations with fish that had frequently displayed the right characteristics <grin> ...

I have two huge 6 inch bright red Red Irian along with one female that remained totally silver. I also have numerous 5 inch Bosemani that just never did color up like I think they should have (of course others still thought they were beautiful!)

All of these schools were hunter seekers <grin> ... I used to drop baby black molies and baby swordtails into the tank ... even in a heavily planted tank, they could not survive long ... and no matter what people say about them having large mouths but small throats, anything that moved was considered food ...

Greg

Thats very interesting. I also have a few schools of Rainbows; Red Irian, Boesemani, Praecox, Parkinsoni, Tourquoise. Yellow, Axelrod and Furcatas with a school of neons. I started out with 12 Furcatas and am now down to 6, and 6 neons, and I always blamed it on my lone Opaline Gourami in there. I never once suspected my larger rainbows as a possible culprit. I didn't think they eat swimmers, just frozen live.

Maybe it was a bit of both.......

Agreed with Rainbows being a great planted fish. I also like Geos as they help turn the substrate in between cleanings Great little vacuums

I've kept them for 30 years(not the same fish )

Regards,
Tom Barr

I have 5 dwarf neon rainbows, I think youd have to go a long way to find a more beautiful and good natured fish. Their colours never cease to amaze me and anyone that visits.

I have dwarf rainbows andf Boesemani's. I have heard somewhere that they eat duckweed. I have never observed this, but I can tell you that the tank with the bows does not ahve duckweed, and most of my other ones do.
Any one have any thoughts on this?

I have an assortment of Rainbows in a number of my tanks. I find that here in New England the smaller types are hard to come by, such as; Featherfins, Celabese & Praecox.

One of the first few fishes i had when I first started this hobby is the boesmani rainbow. They are really quite beautiful to look at especially when they're going through courtship rituals. There color really liven up. Its been just over a year now and I still have 5 of them (not the original ones) in a planted tank. Although there are a lot more varieties of rainbows equally lovely to keep, sadly enough only few are available here in the philippines. Torquoise, threadfins, iranian, dwarfs are the only other types available here that seem worth it to keep. IMO.