3 week old rainbow shiner fry ( notropis chrosomus ) feeding well on liquifry ,frozen rotifers and baby brineshrimp ,will be able to accept larger foods like copepods and daphnia soon.
rainbow shiners are native to rivers and streams of alabama ,tennessee and other parts of North america they are similar in apperence and life cycle to our native eurasian minnow ( phoxinus phoxinus) and require very similar care they will eat any live , frozen ,flake or pelleted food , they can be kept in cold water aquariums but can also be kept in outdoor ponds and can survive the uks climate provided the pond is reasonably deep and has running water, warming water in spring is the trigger for them to breed when they will gain there bright colouration from which they get there name ,reaching a max size of around 3 inches and living between 3 and 5 years depending on water temperature and food availability.
rainbow shiner fry ( notropis Chrosomus )
Rainbow shiners start breeding from March to June where they may breed multiple times in a year. Males start to develope their breeding colouration of bright red and blue , they breed in shallow running water with a gravel or rocky bottom. To acheive breeding conditions in your pond simply put gravel and small rocks near the outflow of your filter to simulate the fast flowing oxygenated water the minnows naturally breed in.
