16 Types Of Rainbow Fish (With Pictures)

If you close your eyes and visualize the rainbow fish, what image comes to your mind? Maybe you imagine a vibrantly colored fish with a shape like the rainbow. Rainbowfish are small, colorful, and lively fish. They’re vertebrates. This means that they’re made of bones, and, like all fish, they breathe oxygen through the water via gills.

They’re approximately 4-6 inches in length and have thin bodies. Rainbowfish develop from eggs fertilized and laid in plants. In the beginning, they’re simple silver-white colors. As they grow older, they begin to build vivid shades.

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The red rainbowfish Glossolepis incisus is a freshwater fish species native to Lake Sentani in New Guinea. Red rainbowfish are part of the Actinopterygii family and are a kind of fish. In their natural habitats, this fish is considered an endangered species.

The exact number of fish living in the wild is not known. The red rainbowfish can only be seen at Lake Sentani, Irian Jaya, New Guinea, and its tributaries. The red rainbowfish are freshwater fish that naturally lives in a tropical and densely established habitat. In captivity, they prefer an alkaline atmosphere ranging between 7.2-8.

They must be kept at a temperature between 75 and 82 degrees Fahrenheit (23.9-27.8 degC ) because they require warmer temperatures to flourish. Red rainbowfish schools are typically located in groups of 10 or more. These schools include a mix of males as well as females. Red rainbowfish can live for 6- 8 years inside their original habitats or if they are adequately taken care of as pets.



1. Banded Rainbowfish

Banded Rainbowfish
Banded Rainbowfish

The Banded Rainbowfish is found in the northernmost region of Australia; However, their distribution is very restricted. Their source is the Northern Territory and Queensland in Australia and North America.

They appear silver-like to blue-green along the sides of the body with a lighter silver hue on the lower part of the back. They can eat Arachnids, aquatic insects, and crustaceans. The average length of these animals is 3.1 inches. They can be found in lagoons, rivers, and slow-moving streams.



2. Boesemani Rainbowfish

Boesemani Rainbowfish
Boesemani Rainbowfish

Boseman Rainbowfish is a popular freshwater species. Their rear comprises warm colors such as oranges, reds, or yellows. Boseman Rainbowfish can be described as omnivores, and they consume both meaty fish and vegetation.

Boseman Rainbowfish can last for quite a long duration, generally between 5-8 years. They are only found throughout the Ayamaru Lakes in Indonesia.



3. Crimson-Spotted Rainbowfish

Crimson Spotted Rainbowfish is a slender freshwater fish with the body compressed with two fins on the dorsal side. The color appears farther down the body when it becomes lines of stripes on males finishing at the caudal pedicle.

Their diet is tiny crustaceans, insects, and a few plants. Males have a maximum length of 12 centimeters. They are found in a variety of freshwater habitats.



4. Checkered Rainbowfish

The Checkered Rainbowfish lives in the northernmost extremes and is located throughout northern Australia. The stripes are either yellow or red in hue. They are Omnivorous, feed on frozen flake, flake, and live. They can grow to a length of 12cm. It is found mainly in the rivers of northern Queensland



5. Neon Rainbowfish

Neon Rainbowfish
Neon Rainbowfish

A dwarf rainbowfish is one of the Rainbowfish species belonging to the family of Melanotaeniinae. Neon Rainbow Fish’s appearance includes vibrantly colored fins, red for males and yellow for females. They feed on plants, bugs, small worms, and fish eggs. The size of this fish is about 2 to 2 1/2 inches.

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6. Desert Rainbowfish

It is believed that the Desert Rainbowfish is an omnivore species that is a food source for aquatic plants, algae, and invertebrates within the wild. The Desert Rainbowfish lives in streams in the central desert of Australia.

This Desert Rainbow Fish has a sandy-colored body and orange-colored fins. The Desert Rainbowfish are omnivore species and feed on algal plants in the water and invertebrates in the wild.

The Desert Rainbowfish can reach a length of 10 centimeters. The life forms include ephemeral streams, lakes, waterholes flowing bores, dams that stock.



7. Lake Kutubu Rainbowfish

Lake Kutubu Rainbowfish
Lake Kutubu Rainbowfish

The Lake Kutubu rainbowfish can be described as a fish species within the family of Melanotaeniidae. They are typically cobalt blue-teal on top and change from green to yellow or silver at the bottom.

They are a source of tiny crustaceans, insects larvae, and algae in their natural habitat. Lake Kutubu Average adult size: 4 – 4.8 inches. It’s a very active fish, which lives in schools in Papua-New Guinea’s Lake Kutubu and the connected River Soro.



8. Lake Wanam Rainbowfish

It is believed that the Lake Wanam Rainbowfish is a critically endangered species Rainbowfish belonging to the family of Melanotaeniinae. Lake Wanam Rainbowfish is an Omnivore species that requires both vegetarian-based and meaty foods in its diet to remain healthy. Males measure around 3.93 inches, and females are around 8 cm long.



9. Madagascar Rainbowfish

Madagascar Rainbowfish

It is believed that the Madagascar Rainbowfish prefers slow-flowing streams, which provide shade through dense plants that grow along the riparian zone. Madagascar Rainbowfish is an omnivore and consumes small plants and insects in their natural habitat.

They are Madagascar Rainbowfish is about 3 to 4 inches long. Madagascar Rainbowfish are found in the clear and swiftly flowing river that flows through Madagascar.



10. Red Rainbowfish

The red Rainbowfish, also known as salmon-red Rainbowfish, is found in Lake Sentani in Irian Jaya. They take on a dark red-orange coloration with gold Iridescence. They will require both plant and animal food sources. The red rainbow could grow up to 4 inches.

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11. Pacific blue-eye

Pacific blue-eye
Pacific blue-eye

The Pacific blue-eye is one of the species of fish belonging to the subfamily Pseudomugilinae indigenous to the eastern part of Australia. Pacific Blue Eye for freshwater aquarium acids. Pacific Blue-eye, with a diverse and healthy diet in the aquarium. The Pacific blue-eye typically attains a length of approximately 3-3.5 cm



12. Threadfin Rainbowfish

Threadfin Rainbowfish Threadfin Rainbowfish is a type of fish distinguished by its fins, beautiful and long. They can be found in tropical northern Australia in Australia and New Guinea. They have a variety of colors like gray-green, yellow, blue, red, and.

They consumed planktonic algae, diatoms, other plants, and small insects. The adult size of the Threadfin Rainbowfish can reach 5.1 cm in length. They can be found in freshwater swamps and demersal or thickly cultivated areas with flowing water.



13. Eastern Rainbowfish

Melanotaenia splendida Splendida, also referred to by the name of eastern Rainbowfish, is an individual fish species belonging to the family of Melanotaeniidae. They are found in the eastern river systems from the Great Dividing Range of Queensland, Australia.

They are highly variable in color, generally ranging between pale bluish-green and greenish-brown. They feed on algae, microcrustaceans, insects, and other invertebrates of small size. They can be found from 8 cm to 8 cm, but are they can reach as high as 14 centimeters. They live in smaller freshwater creeks.



14. Axelrod’s Rainbow Fish

Axelrod’s Rainbowfish is a type of Rainbowfish that belongs to the family of Melanotaeniinae. Axelrod’s Rainbowfish is found in the north-western region of Papua New Guinea.

Male fish are bluish-grey over his mid-lateral line and silvery-white beneath. Axelrod’s Rainbowfish consume a large number of filamentous algae.

Axelrod’s Rainbowfish can stretch to the length of more than 10 centimeters. The Rainbowfish of Axelrod lives in a small, narrow rainforest stream.



15. Dwarf Rainbow Fish

The Dwarf Neon Praecox Rainbowfish is one of the most well-known and vibrant rainbowfish species. It is native in the Mamberamo River basin in West Papua in Indonesia. The color of the body is generally pinkish gray.

The fish eat vegetation insects, small worms, insect larvae, and fish eggs. The species can reach up to 5 centimeters (2.0 inches) in length. They are found in tiny, lush streams of the jungle.



16. Murray River Rainbow Fish

Murray River Rainbow Fish
Murray River Rainbow Fish

The Australian Rainbowfish referred to less frequently informally as Murray River rainbowfish or the Rainbowfish with a crimson-spotted pattern is freshwater fish. It lives in the rivers that flow through south-eastern Australia.

They have a silvery-green color on the side and over. Whitish below. They consume aquatic invertebrates and terrestrial invertebrates when they are carnivores. Rainbowfish are carnivores. Rainbowfish can reach an 11-cm length.

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