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Rainbow Shark (Epalzeorhynchos frenatum)

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I added a rainbow shark to my 150 gallon tank a few months ago, and I have really fallen in love with the bright flashes or color she adds to the tank.

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Watching her munch on every leaf and wood surface around is also rather adorable. I’d never really seem a creature forage the way that the rainbow shark does, making her a favorite member of my 150 to watch. They make great aquarium cleaner fish of sorts – finding uneaten food bits in every nook and cranny of the tank.

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Though called a shark by name, Rainbow Sharks are not true sharks. They fall under the category of ray-finned fish instead. These guys can grow up to 9 or so inches, but usually fall short around 7 inches or so in most aquarium environments.

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Males are sleaker than females and have black lines along their tailfins, unlike females. Given this, I think that I have a female.

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Rainbow shark can be difficult to care for given their possibilities for aggression and need for larger tank sizes. 55 gallons or more is highly recommended for a single Rainbow shark,with typical community pH around 7.0 and a temperature of 72 to 79 degrees Fahrenheit.

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Mine loves to swim the entire length of my six foot 150 gallon tank, and she sure is fast! She is one of the more aggressive fish in the tank, occasionally chasing my gold barbs or other fish in a sudden burst of speed. Keeping multiple rainbow shark in the same tank is generally a bad idea unless their environment has been carefully planned and researched.

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Breeding rainbow shark hasn’t been well documented or recorded in the aquarium setting, but I’m still tempted to try adding a second rainbow shark in the future if I lower the stocking of my 150. It would be a nice experiment, and I’d love to watch two of these fast, brightly colored fish zip around my tank. If you’ve ever tried having more than one of these in your tank, let me know how it went!

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15 Gallon High - Betta Sorority, All, My Tanks Leave a comment

15 Gallon High Betta Sorority Tank – Jan 8 2014 Photos

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One of my first planted tank projects was creating this 15 Gallon Tall sorority tank. It has undergone many changes in the last year, but has also had many beautiful iterations. This was the tank mid January, when it last seemed really beautiful to me. Being such a tall tank with a small footprint, I tried to find hardscape and plants that would allow me to access all the vertical regions of the tank. Especially with bettas, I wanted there to be possible resting or perching spots near the water surface.

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This tank features:

  • Tall Plants: Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides), Willow Hygro (Hygrophilia angustifolia), Red Crypts (Cryptocoryne retrospiralis), Ludwigia – Broad (Ludwigia repens)
  • Mid Plants: Amazon Swords (Echinodorus amazonicus), Alternanthera reineckii
  • Short Plants: Crystalwort (Riccia fluitans), Dwarf Baby Tears (Hemianthus callitrichoides)
  • Floating: Duckweed and Salvina sp.

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I used injected gas CO2 off an on with this tank, but at this point had just removed the system. I would occasionally dose with Seachem Flourish or Seachem Excel.

The betta sorority in this tank is so interesting to watch! I began with a single blue-ish purple betta, purchased to keep flatworm and other little critter populations down in a snail tank. Having never owned a betta previously, I had no idea how interesting they could be to watch. Each seems to develop its own personality and small quirk including their own favorite hiding spots, foods, and bullying routines.

Here are some shots of the inhabitants of this tank:

Always overeats – even when not fed!

After the last crash – caused by gassing CO2 – most of the wisteria died. I also have a post coming out in a day or two about how I tried to salvage the HC Cuba mat in the front, which had become overrun with Riccia fluitans. Hopefully I’ll be able to remake this tank into another beautiful world soon.

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All, Fish/Invert Profiles, Green Spot Puffers, My Tanks Leave a comment

Green Spotted Puffers (Tetraodon nigroviridis) and The Manzanita Branch Failure

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I have recently taken a greater interest in making my Green Spotted Puffer (GSP) tank more suitable for Jake and Finn. Previously I had introduced a large, branching piece of manzanita wood into their tank. This was a huge mistake which I am still recovering from. The earlier batch of photos I posted of Jake and Finn were certainly not of the at their best. The manzanita I ordered was not sandblasted. I loved the deep red color of the bark, but had not realized how terrible of a mistake it was to introduce this piece of wood to their tank.

The branch has developed thick layers of growth between cleanings.

The branch has developed thick layers of white, slimy growth between cleanings.

Perhaps someone else could let me know their process for preparing manzanita wood for use in aquariums, but so far every process I have tried has still resulted in a long mold/fungus period, even after debarking, boiling, and soaking. The whitish slimy coat on the branch was especially hard to battle in a GSP tank – they eat every snail or shrimp that might combat the decaying wood and white slime. Furthermore, GSPs are quite messy eater, leaving chunks of food and parts of decaying snails littered throughout the tank and giving algae and other organisms an ample food supply.

Jake and Finn, before the slime began to affect them.

Jake and Finn, before the slime began to affect them.

The longer I left the wood in the tank, the worse Jake and Finn looked. Every source I’d found online suggest that, given about two months, the problem would subside on its own. Yet I wasn’t sure I wanted to subject Jake and Finn to such a long period of stress and possibly dangerous water conditions. At first I resisted, adding a bag of Purigen and an extra sponge filter. Jake and Finn still had bellies that would turn gray near the edges and sometimes in the middle, despite frequent water changes and white slime removal. Once Jake’s neon head spot began to fade, I decided it was time for the experiment to end.

Finn – Dark Sides
Finn – Dark belly and sides

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I took out the manzanita branch and did a large water change, being sure to vacuum up any remaining white slime in addition to the usual removal of the brownish destritus and algae combination that my GSP’s messy lifestyle always seems to create. Within a day, Jake and Finn were already noticeably more active and had better coloration. They came out to greet me enthusiastically and returned to exploring the tank instead of just sleeping all day. Maybe in the future, I can prepare a beautiful manzanita branch for them that won’t cause these issues, but, until then I’ll be plotting their new aquascape!

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Is there any snail left inside?
Jake peaking out from hiding.
Oh hai snail. I is eats you!!
Wahhh?! Dinner?!

Jake