Iriatherina werneri

[apistoworld(HK)]

tetra : Iriatherina werneri

[hwchoy]

this one also not tetra nor cichlid!

[Orion]

Yeah and it's a fairy

[FishSoup]

Its a rainbowfish, i think?

At least more related to them?

[Orion]

Ya. The fish is from the rainbowfishes family. In the wild they can be found in Southern New Guinea and Northern Australia. (in their Longkang? stream) and only the male has that beautiful larger fins to attract partners and contest their competitors. They thrive in water of 24 to 28 degree meaning cooler water in aquarium tank in Singapore and thankfully their water requirement PH is 7 which is neutral. (Just from the tap dechlorineated) That also means we don't have to buy anything else to increase or decrease PH.

Best kept in 6 or more planted tanks and I observed that they can be fussy in feeding as mine only eats a certain brand granules. Their mouths are very small and foods cardinal tetra accepted are ok they eat too.

[1001wishes]

Hi Orion,

I have been thinking of keeping a school of this threadfin rainbow. I love how the male fish flares its longish fins. Since you have kept some, do you mind letting me know more about the fish:

1) Does it really turn more colorful when kept in a home aquarium with optimum water condition? Or do the pics above more accurately reflect how they look like?
2) The advise has been to keep it with non-active tankmates, any comment on this?
3) I presume they are not active swimmer in the tank, preferring to just keep together as a group at one location, is that correct?

Thanks for taking time to answer my questions!

[Orion]

Hi 1001wishes

1) The pics showing the fishes are no gimmicks. If kept in optimum condition, they can even get nicer than that! Mine in fact have some having very intense pinkish in parts of the body, fins and even having zebra strips I think the important things are
a) a well oxygenated planted tank with constant mild current flow. More plants the better and also having a large area for them to gather and swim around.
b) food they eat very important. If you don't see them eagerly anticipating for the food, then something is not right. Their mouths are very small and so far for me only one brand food granules work. Flakes nicht good as they only eat only a little each time for every flake put in, polluting the water fast. 2 to 3 feedings little amount daily.

2 & 3) I think it is important to keep small peaceful species fishes that don't disturb them which means: All angels and Discus are no no. Large tetra like black shirt widow, bleeding heart no too. I recommend you keep Furcatus and gertrudaes and really in no time they will all be together as a family. I keep them in addition to that some Neon and cardinals and 2 corydoras. They are very active fishes! They tend to swim around nosing every cranny for foods and sometimes they really amazes me the way they 'scan' the plants for anythings interesting.

Fishes not active or gather in small group in a corner are due to a lot of negative factors and are not in their natural state... one major factor being the tank size. 3ft or larger best.

[hwchoy]

the best is when the males flare at each other, you will be amazed if you haven't seen it before.

[illumnae]

very true indeed choy I fell in love with this species when I saw the tankful of males flaring at each other in Biotope sometime last year

[1001wishes]

Thanks very much for sharing your experiencing of keeping the fish, Orion, and all the bros who shared their love for this fish. You told me more than I hope to find out, so it is much appreciated! My wife is not enthusiastic about this fish because of how it looks pale in LFS, that's why I need to confirm if its coloration will turn out to be as intense as we normally see in pics.

The fish is too small for a center-piece though. Thus I am currently also considering having Boeseman's rainbow, but based on your recommendation of forktail rainbow and spotted blue-eye (which are all smallish in size), I guess that will not be a good mix with threadfin rainbow. Mine is a 4-ft tank. Sigh, so many kinds of fish to try, but only one tank...

[hwchoy]

I prefer a biotope-like scaping. meaning that if I have primarily amazonian plants such as Echinodorus I would go with south american fishes like discus or tetra. but if it was a crypt tank, then it would be southeast asian fishes (rasbora, Sundaland barbs, etc).