# boesemani rainbow fish help



## gondor25 (Jun 19, 2013)

I was thinking about getting some boesemani rainbow fish for my 55 gal but I wasn't sure how many I should get. I've been trying to research online but i'm just reading suggestions of anywhere from 3 to 7. Also does anyone know the best female to male ratio? If it helps, I already have a few semi aggressive fish - 9 tiger barbs, 2 kribensis, and 1 rainbow shark. Thanks!


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## Goby (Mar 21, 2012)

gondor25 said:


> I was thinking about getting some boesemani rainbow fish for my 55 gal but I wasn't sure how many I should get. I've been trying to research online but i'm just reading suggestions of anywhere from 3 to 7. Also does anyone know the best female to male ratio? If it helps, I already have a few semi aggressive fish - 9 tiger barbs, 2 kribensis, and 1 rainbow shark. Thanks!


1 boy and 2 girls...maybe 3. And the fish you currently have like their water soft and acidic. Brainbows like their water hard and alkaline...they like alkaline water a lot. I'm not saying those species absolutely couldn't be kept together but you'll need to find a happy medium for parameters and I'd personally titrate your other fish up to the Brainbow's water needs, rather than titrate the Brainbow's down to the other fishes water needs...and I'd do that before I introduced the Brainbows. 

JUST FYI- keeping these fish will require you to change all your fish over to micro pellets or flakes. If you feed larger foods and the brainbows are super hungry...they'll gorge themselves and choke cuz they can't swallow anything big. They like green water dosed daily, brine...and little bugs and larvae if you can get your hands on some...you could skim the top of a wading pool each morning, which works best if you put a light by it all night. You can freeze bugwater in ice trays and feed it throughout winter months.


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## Jim Albright (Jan 22, 2013)

My rainbows didnt fair to well with my semi-aggressive africans, had to move all four of them!


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

I never considered rainbows even semi aggressive,but I did keep them with my Tang. cichlids.I fed them crisp flakes and new spectrum pellets.Very pretty fish.I'd watch your tigers with them though.


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