My threadfin rainbows live in a 4ft tank with cory catfish and Borneo Suckers. The threadfins are usually quite shy and quick to duck back into the plant life once they see me ready with a camera. So I cheated a bit and fed them to get their minds on food instead of the big scary black camera.

And of course they had to all be hanging around the darkest corner of the tank.

Threadfins are a gorgeous little fish, thanks for sharing! :encouragement:

Thread fins are top little fish and I have fond memories of catching them on the Steve Irwin property at Weipa, the only place I have seen them (so far)

Here is something a bit different for you, a Gold for one, it came from a farm

Bob

Its pretty, is its fins not as long because its a female or immature or because of the breeding program to get the gold?

I don't know where my threadfins came from ( I am guessing some where in the NT) but I did get them from Dave Wilsen.

I am yet to see mine breed, which I keep hoping they will since I am now having success with spotted blue eyes.

Hello Baccus, if you do manage to breed them they are very tiny when first hatched, also you will need green water and infusoria culture to get them past the first few weeks, then small live food like micro worms and brine shrimp napulae, their mouth is so very tiny. I have found them to be not so fussy about dried foods. Good luck and let us know how you go.

Thanks for the info, the Spotted blue eye fry are small enough so I am hoping that threadfins fry aren't smaller again. So far my spotted blue eye fry ( and the adults too it seems) are doing well on first bites powder along with tetra tropical flakes, various native shrimp foods and a native fish crumble as well as defrosted cyclops. The shrimp in the tank also seem quite taken by the whole deal.

When I have mozzie wrigglers the threadfins don't really go for them, but they do seem to like Hikari micro pellets, and defrosted Cyclops, most of my fish aren't that keen on defrosted brine shrimp and bloodworms are too big for the threadfins to tackle.

I have been trying to track down a daphnia culture, but with no luck, and I have not had any luck finding any wild populations locally either.

The Gold one was young, when it matured it had long Red fins, I never got a female at the same time to get them going, how ever I got some for a mate and he did not fix the gold.

Daphne, when it rains check puddles in the paddocks around you , they will be there some where or you should be able to get into the ponds at you local treatment plant? they will be there for sure.

Bob

My absolute favourite Rainbow fish!! These look great :)

Used to keep and breed them a couple of years ago. Very easy to breed and raise the young ones. Just need tiny food and / or fine powdered food for the young ones.

Beautiful fish! I can't belive how long those fins are!

Last night I used the same trick I used to photograph my pygmy rainbows, (turning the tank light back on after lights out and the fish are all snoozing) but this time concentrated on the threadfins and here are the results.

First are sleeping rainbows

And then all to quickly they woke up and became so much harder to keep in the frame let alone stay in focus.

Hahaha, you are definitely getting more & more sneaky with this, very cool results though! :victorious:

Stunning fish! How old are they?

I cant be sure how hold they are, but I got them mid to late last year.

Brilliant little fish, look so good when breeding , the males waving their Dorsal fin like a flag, just love them.

Some more sneaky shots, that I managed to get before my water addicted cat jumped up on the tank to get a drink, guaranteed to freak out even bomb proof fish.

Sweet shots, very cool indeed! :encouragement:

Do yours get their front dorsal fin standing up? When we owned them we could never get them to extend their fins, got told its because of a lack of sunlight, even though we had a very good quality LED light on it

Think you will find they only flash the front dorsal while the Male is trying to seduce the females. Yes morning sun will certainly get them going but then all natives look much bettter with the sun on them.

Think you will find they only flash the front dorsal while the Male is trying to seduce the females. Yes morning sun will certainly get them going but then all natives look much bettter with the sun on them.

Same thing as blue eyes, only see the front fin flared when they are fighting or trying to spawn.

Have to agree  with you fishmosy, but a tank full of either in the morning sun, a sight for sore eyes!!!

True that.

With out a doubt my fave fish too. Would love to have a six foot tank full of them. First step tank upgrade :-) next step convincing the missus not to do marine. Third step go Marine and Fresh water two tanks pimped.

I've never had the pleasure keeping them but they are next in line on the bucket list :-)

Definitely a beautiful sight when you see a tank full of natives in the morning sun, a friend of mine has a 6x2x2 on the back patio & it is spectacular in the morning sun.