Re: [RML] boesemani rainbow question
Adrian Tappin (tappin at powerup.com.au)
Tue, 31 Oct 2000 06:01:45 +1000
At 10:39 30/10/00 -0500, you wrote:
>Hi all i'm new to the rainbow thing and have a simple question:
>
>I have 12 3 inch boesmani's in a heavily planted 180g tank. About 4 of
>them are
>not what the picture book boesemani are... ie they're not violet/orange
>bicolor.
>Are these females? They are they same shape and finnage, and are sometimes
>slightly
>bicolor (but not as intense) depending on mood, but usually they are a
>single base
>color of a silvery light purple/blue with more orange towards the tail,
>etc but not
>ass pronounced color as the others (which i guess are male)
Rainbowfishes maintained in captivity do not always look like photos in a
book or magazine. Generally the images are taken when the fish are at their
best display and sometimes images are enhanced. A bit like they do to super
models in fashion books - they don't always look like that in real life :-)
Also, a lot depends on aquarium conditions, diet, companions, etc.
Further, males and females can be a little difficult to tell apart
sometimes as older females often assume the colouration of a suppressed
male and younger males often show female colours. Just to make it harder
for you!
Adrian.