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Rainbow darter color

Started by Guest_bart_* , Dec 16 2010 12:27 AM

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12 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_bart_*

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Posted 16 December 2010 - 12:27 AM

I currently have 2 male rainbow darters in my 30 gallon tank. One is a mature male and has very vibrant orange but not so much blue. The other is smaller and has the orange but almost no blue. I was wondering if anyone had any tips on getting them to show a little more color.

Posted Image

Admittedly, both of these pics are a bit old but they show what I'm talking about. My camera was destroyed when a rogue wave washed over a jetty I was fishing off of. :angry:

The bigger darter is fatter these days but the color is about the same. The smaller one is way fat and has a lot more orange but little blue. Derek aka Kanus was up for a visit in september and he commented on how little blue they had and it got me thinking.

Would adding females make a difference?

Any dietary recommendations? The majority of their diet is frozen Bloods, brine, mysis, plankton, white worms(mosquito larva) and sometimes flake.

Overall they seem very happy and content. The temps stay fairly cool and the water is always very clean. The substrate is black sand and river rocks. I have noticed they look a little nicer when they perch on the lighter rocks but not the wild blue I've seen in other peoples rainbows. The light I have is a 30" coralife double t5 with one 6500k and a colormax bulb. decor is african rootwood and lots of java and christmas moss.

Thanks,

Bart

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#2 Guest_Irate Mormon_*

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Posted 16 December 2010 - 12:34 AM

Feed them Wardley's Color Flakes!

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#3 Guest_FirstChAoS_*

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Posted 16 December 2010 - 12:52 AM

I hear spiralina brine shrimp add color to fish.

Honestly I am amazed your rainbow darters show that much color. I tried keeping them a couple times and the males never colored up. I sort of got the impression that despite having potential to be colorful, as a colorful aquarium fish they are highly overrated.

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#4 Guest_fundulus_*

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Posted 16 December 2010 - 09:55 AM

They prefer flowing, shallow, relatively cool, very clean water with a high protein (bug, shrimp) diet daily, with places to lurk behind. That's pretty much like most darters but if you're trying to push color you really need to pay attention.

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#5 Guest_bart_*

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Posted 16 December 2010 - 11:41 AM

I hear spiralina brine shrimp add color to fish.

Honestly I am amazed your rainbow darters show that much color. I tried keeping them a couple times and the males never colored up. I sort of got the impression that despite having potential to be colorful, as a colorful aquarium fish they are highly overrated.

That's weird. I've always heard they were one of the easiest? Do you think your tank conditions suited them?

They prefer flowing, shallow, relatively cool, very clean water with a high protein (bug, shrimp) diet daily, with places to lurk behind. That's pretty much like most darters but if you're trying to push color you really need to pay attention.

Hmmmmm.....Well I seem to be meeting most of those parameters. My tank does have a good bit of flow and tons of oxygen but nothing like where I caught them from. Maybe I need to get a powerhead? :-k

Edited by bart, 16 December 2010 - 11:42 AM.

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#6 Guest_MrCatfish_*

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Posted 16 December 2010 - 02:25 PM

I think water flow might help. I have alot of flow and mine hold color very well. It also depends on the fish itself. I have one that just isn't as nice as the others.Also one of mine has more blue than the other.

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#7 littlen

NANFA Member

Washington, D.C.

Posted 16 December 2010 - 04:36 PM

In my experience, you never really see fish color up the same as you see them in the wild. However, try changing the amount of time the lights are on to match the suns schedule. (Not minute by minute, but lets say its dark by 5 pm now...kill the lights then). As the days grow longer, try adding another 30 minutes here, then 30 more minutes there until the lights are on till ~8 or 9 PM.

I've seen some Rainbows and Redlines kept in 50 degree water year round that colored up right on time during late spring/early summer. This was also true with male shiners, chubs, etc). So temp. appears to not be quite as important. At least for most of us fishkeepers, light cycle is about the easiest parameter to control.

Nick L.

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#8 Guest_EricaWieser_*

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Posted 17 December 2010 - 01:45 PM

Maybe I need to get a powerhead?

*nods* My darters' color perked up quite a lot when I added a powerhead. It's also nice to have regions with different strength of flow, for example one highly turbulent region, one fast flowing laminar region, and one placid region. They'll hang out where they want to as it suits their mood.

Edit:
Are any of your darters Orangethroat darters, Etheostoma spectabile? I'm trying to learn to tell the difference between those and rainbow darters, but I can't tell about some of the ones in your photos.

Edited by EricaWieser, 17 December 2010 - 01:49 PM.

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#9 Guest_bart_*

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Posted 17 December 2010 - 02:58 PM

*nods* My darters' color perked up quite a lot when I added a powerhead. It's also nice to have regions with different strength of flow, for example one highly turbulent region, one fast flowing laminar region, and one placid region. They'll hang out where they want to as it suits their mood.

Edit:
Are any of your darters Orangethroat darters, Etheostoma spectabile? I'm trying to learn to tell the difference between those and rainbow darters, but I can't tell about some of the ones in your photos.

They are both rainbows.

I'm wondering what size powerhead I should get. Probably gonna get a maxijet. I hear 10 X gallons = good gph. This tank also has rosyside dace and rosefin shiners. Obviously my rainbows and dace don't share the same microhabitat so I think a compromise will be needed. I guess I could get the 1200 @ 295gph and dial up the airflow to cut down on the current?

As for adjusting the light cycle, I had thought about that but I like looking at my fish in the evening and the tank gets lots of natural light. I bet that would work great though, especially if I added some girls.

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#10 Guest_MAZUREL_*

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Posted 22 January 2011 - 06:08 AM

Hi Bart,
Since 17 december last year I got 4 rainbowdarters also thanks to some help of people of this forum...., and I must say the males are beautiful coloured, blue orange red and black, I do have 2 males one big, 7 centimeters,, one little smaller 5.5. cm. The biggest male is showing the most coloures. In my opion to keep them in a small social group, will help to show them their colours to eachother as it means a goal, to show who is boss in the tank and indeed also to impress the girls........ . I keep them at the moment , our winter with 7 hours daylight, and cool temperatures, between 2 - 6 Celsius, Ph 6, and a dark bottom, gravel and some peat , coconuts for hiding and native american plants like Cabomba, Bacopa, Ludwigia, and Lobelia cardinalis. I do have flow in the tank, but no strong flow. They are beautiful but also funny, when I enter the tank shed, they notice me and appear for the glass of the tank and looking at me, if saying; are we getting some nice worms today?.
Regards, Casper

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#11 Guest_fundulus_*

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Posted 22 January 2011 - 08:50 AM

We're going out today to the upper Paint Rock River in Alabama and will certainly find rainbow darters in our survey. The water will be about 6 C, and we will find the fish in shallow, fast-flowing riffles for the most part. And I expect the males to begin to show stronger color, also true of the other darter species, since the spawning season is coming soon.

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#12 Guest_schambers_*

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Posted 22 January 2011 - 08:41 PM

My tank does have a good bit of flow and tons of oxygen but nothing like where I caught them from. Maybe I need to get a powerhead?

I would get a powerhead. Hydor Koralias are nice, they don't add much heat to the water as some others do. It is hard to add too much current for your river fish. You want the flow just shy of blasting plants out of the substrate.

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#13 Guest_fundulus_*

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Posted 22 January 2011 - 10:18 PM

We were out netting darters today in NE Alabama, and I'm happy to report both rainbow and tennessee snubnose males are beginning to color up, with water temperature 6 deg. C.