# Archocentrus multispinosus (Rainbow Cichlid) fellow keepers



## Rift485 (Dec 3, 2004)

I picked up a trio (possibly reverse) at my LFS the other day because I was drawn to their ridiculously bright yellow coloration. They are about 3" with a dominant male and 2 others.

So, I took them from a 10 gallon tank by themselves at the LFS and threw them into a 55 with 3 4" Geo Tapajos and 1 5" Blue Acara. The aggression level in the tank is very low but being small the Rainbows are now very shy and dull most of the time, unless I sit in front of the tank.

Now, I assumed this would happen so no big surprises. What I AM surprised about is how much I like these little guys and am looking for fellow Rainbow owners for some input on how to help them thrive.

So tell me, what size groups work best, m/f ratios, tank size, etc. And has anyone kept them happy and breeding with other cichlid tankmates?

I want to keep them looking like this:


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## Lancerlot (Feb 22, 2006)

Wow wish mine had that color 0.0


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## mudjimba (Jul 14, 2007)

G'day,

I have a pair breeding, in a tank with other cichlids present, even if they are only dwarves(Nannacara anamola colony.......ever increasing in number). It has turned into quite a successful little community.

I have some plants, driftwood and rocks and a terrecotta pot that the rainbows have claimed.

There is a good article here
http://www.cichlidae.com/article.php?id=50

Very nice fish you have there, all the best with them.

cheers


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## Rift485 (Dec 3, 2004)

Nice article, especially the breeding advice. Thanks for that :thumb:


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## Rift485 (Dec 3, 2004)

Anyone else keep these?


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## cosmiccow (Jun 10, 2007)

I have a pair that I keep in my 8 ft. tank with a pair of blue acaras, one female salvini, one male jewel cichlid and one male convict.

I had to put a divider in the tank because the rainbows were breeding about every two weeks. Although they claimed a corner of the tank for their own, it was stressing them out trying to keep the other tank mates out. Also, as much as they try, they can not defend themselves very well against these tank mates.

They continued to breed with the divider but the latest problem I have is that the male is beating up on the female real bad becasue she is not wanting to breed. So yesterday I had to put another divider in the tank and seperated the female for her to recover.

Personally, I am getting fustrated with breeding cichlids. It is stressful to me when my wet pets get injured or killed due to aggression. I am just a hobbyist not a fish breeder. I'm thinking about selling my pairs of rainbows and acaras and just keeping single sexed species.


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## [email protected] (Nov 25, 2009)

i think this is one of the coolest central american cichlids for a smaller tank. this species fits so much better then anything that grows over 6 inches, in e.g. 55 gallon tank


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## Matt724 (Dec 8, 2009)

Hey you guys I got my rainbows maybe a month ago and they are my favorite fish. Unfortunately they are all from the same parents so I really need new strains to add and I was wondering If anyone was interested in helping a fella out? Shoot me a pm and I'm sure we can make proper negotiations and whatnot.

--Matt


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## Rift485 (Dec 3, 2004)

You don't have to worry about introducing new genes into the pool if you were doing so to avoid "inbreeding". In cichlids inbreeding is natural and will not increase the likelihood of genetic mutations etc. If you want to do it just to get some new strains and have some fun then go right ahead!

Do you have any pics of your group? They are a great fish.


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## Matt724 (Dec 8, 2009)

as a matter of fact, I do have recent pics, but the forum won't let me post a url/link until i have 5 posts, so i will go do those five posts and then attach the link. give me 5 seconds,

(when i post the link) if you follow this link you can see updates from a few days ago and if you follow the link in the link :lol: you can see them from when I first got them. I use it as an online journal for my tank so I can go back and see my tank's progression. :zz: Anywho, yea, Rainbows are my favorite fish and have so much personalities, just as juvi's my guys are all over the place and eating like pigs! BUt I only have 5, and 3 of them haven't even colored up yet, they're still that semi-ugly grey with dark vertical bands. And since I know they are prolific breeders and I am very moralistic when it comes to reproduction (of fish :thumb: ) I really don't want to hurt the fish hobby by weakening the family tree. Which is why I want to add some new specimens to my group, plus it's always nice to get new cichlids with different personalities and I like that. I'm hoping to get rid of all the SA fish and then do a little rescaping to make it more biotopish, and also because my rock structures are really fragile :wink: . Anyways,

If ANYONE IS INTERESTED IN GIVING  /SELLING ME SOME HEALTHY SPECIMENS I'D BE EVER GRATEFUL!!!! And you'd be helping the entire future of the fish hobby of H. multispinosa ( :? or maybe it's A. multispinosa, never can hear of a direct answer) as I plan to give away most of the fry to hobbyists around the nation and maybe even around the world for free as to spread the influence of this beautiful species. =D> =D> =D> =D> lol, im sorry i think that deserved an applause, so i gave myself one :lol:


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## Matt724 (Dec 8, 2009)

let's see: http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forum ... p?t=290702 here we go =)


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## Rift485 (Dec 3, 2004)

Nice effort on that :lol:

Your group is very nice. How big are they, about 2.5"? I would think you'd be able to find some somewhere near to you because from what I've heard rainbows are prolific and semi common in the hobby. I actually have a bunch of fry from my group but am all the way across the country from you so that might not work!

Rainbows can change colors in an instant and I've found that in my group of 6 I will usually have 2 colored up and the rest either always drab or going in and out depending on if they are "arguing" with any of the others. From my pair the male usually has more of an all around yellow coloration and the female gets the jet black underside but I'm sure it can vary. I'm trying to decide what to do with them because even though they are only 3" they take over half of a 55 gallon when they breed and with a 6" Vieja in there I'm not sure if it will work long term.

Too bad you're not closer. Let me know if you're ever out east and I can send you home with some


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## Matt724 (Dec 8, 2009)

hmm, wow :x . Okay, well it turns out I was taking a North East College Tour about a month ago, touring basically all over that side of the country and I must say, it is beautiful over there; bit too chilly for my cup of tea though :lol:. Too bad I didn't check this out a month and a day before today  And for shipping across the US, it's not that hard, so I believe. Overnight with some very good insulated boxes should do the trick, but that could get a tad bit costly . Let me know if you're still interested in selling them to me and I can do some research on proper boxing, otherwise we could just wait till spring, when it warms up or if you ever come out here to the West Coast (which i think you should cause LA is wonderful this time of year! DisneyLand 24/7! :thumb: ) :lol:


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## Rift485 (Dec 3, 2004)

Haha. I have shipped fish before but its just such a pain in the you know what that I hate doing it. It takes an entire day for me since I hardly ship and am not 100% efficient. But do some searching I bet you can find them MUCH closer!


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

Can I jump in here with you guys? I found rainbows to be pretty hard to find. Maybe just did not turn over the right rock but I finally broke into some by going to Aquabid for some. Found two sellers there and got a lead to one other. I read they are common but was not what I found. Shipping 8 in from Ohio. Hope to have a house full someday? I have a seventy gallon with four tetras in it just to keep it going. Isn't that overkill? Have no problems with the bio load!  For a source that I would vouch for getting them to you, I would recommend Tangledupincichlids.com. He has some up this week and does for sure know what to do on shipping.


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## Chromedome52 (Jul 25, 2009)

The Golden Red Eye (that's what they were called when I first bred them in 1968!) or Rainbow Cichlid is very tolerant of higher temperatures due to inhabiting shallow areas in nature. As the PVL article points out, they are not found with any other cichlid species, and this is why they are not as aggressive as most. My most recent pair was lost for this reason; I put them with fish that didn't seem that aggressive, but were.

I do believe Rapps is occasionally importing some wild stock, but this species is not at all susceptible to the normal degradation of inbreeding. I've known sources that selectively bred for a decade or more, at least 10 generations, with no loss of color, size, or fecundity. If you don't see problems by generation five on a species, you are usually pretty safe.

Availability of any fish is always going to vary by region, but I must say I've seen them in big box stores on more than one occasion. They are not a constant like Gold Saums or Bloody Parrots, so it's probably a timing thing. My last pair was found at a Petco, and they were beautiful.


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

I think it may be partly a matter of what"s hot in the sales right now. Here in central Texas, it seems to be African cichlids that are making waves. The area's hard alkaline water is one big plus for that if one doesn't want to get into looking at what else there might be. Many cichlid keepers here on this forum seem to think it required to have hard alkaline water for cichlids almost as if they don't know what a broad grop they are talking about when they say cichlid. I went looking for a fish to fit my situation and fell for the color of this little rainbow.


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

What do other Rainbow keepers find for preferred spawning sites? In the referenced article them mention vertical sites like slate or the glass. Any other things you guys might have found? I guess it shocks me to see we are still using an article by Dr. Paul from 1983. The world has turned over a couple times since then.


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## Rift485 (Dec 3, 2004)

PfunMo said:


> The world has turned over a couple times since then.


You can say that again! My pair chose an inclined section of the back of a piece of driftwood in my tank as their spawning site. The male dug pits to herd the wrigglers to once they hatched but I pulled them before they were completely free swimming. I had to bc it was too close to the middle of the tank and the pair was disrupting everyone else. Not enough to do any damage but just stressing everyone out.


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## Matt724 (Dec 8, 2009)

oh, yeah. I read they're supposed to be common, but there's only a few I can find and they're a bit on the expensive side for breeding almost as much as convicts :-? . And I got my group from the cheaper vendor on aquabid, but I want some new strains and I understand that tangledupincichlids.com is a reputable seller, they are a tad bit out of my price range  , and when shipping is added, it just doesn't seem worth it  . That's why I'm trying to find some hobbyists who are either willing to open up space in their tank or give me some fry for me to raise :thumb:


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

I would but then I'm also a thousand miles away as well as a year in advance of being able. That's with luck and the spanwing gods on my side. 

Should not count my fry before they hatch?


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## AquaticTurtleGuy (Dec 23, 2011)

ur rainbow cichlid is beautiful. i saw the pic of ur rainbow cichlid when i searched rainbow cichlid images on google. the reason y i searched it is because i too have a rainbow cichlid and mine looks just like urs. i bought this rainbow cichlid about a month ago and just the other day i noticed how beautiful it became. it always looked healthy, but up until now it was kind of dark with dark colors. now it looks vibrant with yellow and bright color on both its body and fins just like urs (= id like to know how ur caring for ur rainbow cichlid so i can compare ur methods to mine. my setup is a 125 gallon with 4 turtles, and 13 fish including 10 central and south american cichlids, 1 red-tailed black shark, 1 bala chark and 1 pleco. also, there r only 1 of each species of each turtle and fish in the tank. i feed my fish tetra color granules, omega one super color flakes and omega one veggie rounds (for my pleco) on a daily basis twice a day. i also feed my fish frozen foods like brine shrimp, blood worms and beef heart on an every 2 day basis by replacing one of their daily feedings with the frozen foods and i rotate the foods so it's never the same kind 2 times in a row. last but not least i feed my fish live foods like trout worms and nightcrawlers every few days, sometimes once a week, crickets once a week, sometimes once every 2 weeks, and guppies once a month. my fish also eat some of my turtle food like frozen krill, turtle sticks, and crustaceans. please let me know if there is anything else i can do or if u have any questions just ask. thanks


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## AquaticTurtleGuy (Dec 23, 2011)

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## AquaticTurtleGuy (Dec 23, 2011)

about the pic, dont judge it by this pic, it looked alot brighter in person and on my camera as well. idk this pic didnt come out as bright on my comp. kinda sucks


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## livingroomdiver (Oct 10, 2011)

I have a pair in a 55. They've attempted to breed once (didn't take) and they get along well with their tank mates. They have left my plants alone, except for the java ferns, which they've picked to pieces. They love to graze on algae, and really enjoy chasing each other around and fighting over algae tabs  All in all, they are easy to care for, and you will get a lot of enjoyment from them. Good luck! :thumb:

Here's some vids of my set up if you're curious. http://www.youtube.com/user/livingroomdiver/videos


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

This item is from back in 2009 but it's still a good subject! Since my last posting here, I've gotten rid of my adults, shipped off the last four to a tank at my daughter's house and then got two of them back again. She has a 29 gallon and all four young rainbows were ready to raise a family. They would have worked it out I think but there are no real fish fanatics over there! Better for one pair to move back to my tanks. Now I've got a pair who have spawned twice. The first time, they had not given me time to finish setting up what I thought would be nice for them. I added wood and rock at one end and had a new piece of wood soaking but they laid eggs at the far end of the tank which was almost bare. I'm getting no firm idea of what they want as a spawning site. They have spawned on nearly vertical rocks, horizontal flat rocks and curved rocks. They had chosen a small limestone rock that was left without plan the last time and I sucked off enough for me to raise. Now they have just lost most of the second group to other fish. This time they chose to clear a spot near the corner of the tank and laid eggs on both the bottom and side glass. It is a 75 gallon tank that I had intended to use as a grow out tank for an overflow crowd of 35 African cichlids (insignus)

It really seems most any arrangement suits them once they are ready. 
The last group which I saved a few to grow out:








In this picture they are laying the eggs on the small rock and have a spot cleared. When the eggs hatched, they moved the wigglers to this spot and cared for them until they began to swim.

I find them to be the easiest cichlids I've worked with other than I have to be careful not to let them get bullied too much. They are a very meek little pair other than when spawning. They do their best to protect fry. I wopuld think a turtle and the pleco would make it hard to save the fry, though. I feed just cheap flakes and a variety of other food at times. Frozen bloodworms are really a fav with them but they seem to eat almost anything except hard pellet food. Young rainbows seem to love algae tablets. New fry were a problem to feed at first for me. I found newly hatched brine shrimp was about the only first food they wanted. I learned to have it ready as they got the egg sac used up and became free-swimming. If I did not have it ready, the new fry seemed to slowly disappear. Whether that was from lack of food or what???


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## Unclescanner (Sep 23, 2011)

i have a pair of rainbows in a 75 gallon with a firemouth, 7 tiger barbs and 6 brilliant rasboras. my rainbows flash from yellow to greenish blue in the blink of an eye. love their personality


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

Yes, their color change is something to see. It's almost like they can flip a switch. The pair in the last picture wer not showing much unusual color at all when they were setting out the eggs. Suddenly when i next looked in they were wearing their war paint and the bottom half was almost solid black. I'm guessing that it would work as something of a sign for other fish in the area. 
Watch out, stand back, I'm in a mean mood until I get these kids raised!

I can kind of relate to that!!!

Protecting the little black pile of wigglers. See them on the bottom below the pair in warpaint?

He was just checking and nobody got hurt!


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## Jaws (Oct 30, 2003)

I have 4 a pair, m/f in one tank and the other two in another tank. Very friendly/outgoing for me, like a mini oscar. My pair has bred but ate the fry every time. Seem to like having tank to them selves for breeding otherwise they don't overtake tankmates to breed like a convict would. In a 29g anyway. Mine as just as colorful as the one pictured. Turn blacker though when breeding dress is on. I just did some tank decorating and have my adult pair alone in the 29g with one firemouth. We'll see if they try to breed now. They are wobbling!

Maybe we can trade stock someday as I'm only in CT and am always looking for an excuss for a beach run!


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

My rainbow have never eaten fry that I have seen but they have been in bigger tanks. I would think the firemouth would be toostrong for them but it might work. When I have not tried to save all the fry, the parents have done their best to save that were left. I never syphon off more than I can rasie and thet leaves the parents with a lot to protect. I wait until they are free swimming and beginning to wander off before I take them. As they begin to swim farther and farther from the group and in larger numbers, the parents can't keep them all in the group and other fish in the tank begin to pick off the strays. The surrent tank has about 40-60 mixed African cichlid fry that are 3/4 1" long. When the parents were laying the eggs, they had the other fish convinced to stand back. Although the small fish were spread across the top over the nest site, nobody came down near it. But when it was found that there were tiny fish to be had, the small fish began to get more interested. They would go under a couple rocks nearby in twos and threes and then when the parent spotted them some would be chased away but the other would often nab a fry. Finally they were all gone. The fry had no idea of hiding or avoiding the small fish so the parents had to try to protect a group that was gradually spreading farther in all directions. I am left with about twenty fry in a ten and that is more than I really will want to grow out. That's when it is really helpful to have an active Craigslist handy!


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