Ricefish - Behavior question

[nabokovfan87]

For those who have kept them, do they swim midwater or towards the bottom of the tank at all?  For feeding do they eat off the substrate?

I am considering some and would potentially like to house them with shrimp.  I do not believe I can because I expect they will predate on the baby shrimp.  My instinct tells me that they will stay to the top of the tank/upper section, but I am not sure. 

If you've kept them, please share all the details!

[AnimalNerd98]

I’ve found that they’re similar to guppies, where they move all throughout different levels of the water. When I’ve kept them indoors and outdoors in bowl ponds, they tend to swim up near the top when it’s bright out but go lower when it starts getting dark. They will eat food off the bottom. 

I don’t keep them with shrimp normally, but I have kept their spawning brushes in with shrimp. 

[nabokovfan87]

I spent last night doing research... More of it.

For some reason I had in my mind that these were ~2" fish.

Very beautiful, very cool shape and size for what I want. The problem I read into is.that they can breed very easily. For me specifically, that can lead to an issue.  Shrimp breeding I can handle a little easier than something like fish going into the 100s in a few months.

Ultimately, just not the right species for me at this point in time.... But one day, definitely going to have some.

[kammaroon]

On 10/11/2023 at 5:45 AM, AnimalNerd98 said:

 

I’ve found that they’re similar to guppies, where they move all throughout different levels of the water. When I’ve kept them indoors and outdoors in bowl ponds, they tend to swim up near the top when it’s bright out but go lower when it starts getting dark. They will eat food off the bottom. 

 

I experience the same. They go all different levels in a tank, maybe because of the clear sides.

I keep them with neos. They probably do eat baby shrimp (numbers are lower than a shrimp only tank), but enough survive to grow the shrimp colony.

 

[TOtrees]

I've found that they breed indoors and out, but fry survival indoors is nearly zero, if left in with the adults. Outdoors it's a whole different ball game, probably because sunlight can power a whole other level of plant growth where the fry can shelter. Plus micros for the adults to eat, so they they're less likely to hunt down the babies. 

And yes they'll eat shrimp babies. I've never seen it directly, but shrimplet production crashes when the ricefish are in. 

They are very willing and greedy top feeders, but spend the rest of their time at all levels. Adults and larger juves tend to hang out lower down outside of feeding time. When present, fry and smaller juvies are almost always near the top though. 

[vividheckel]

In general, I would assume them to be similar to other schooling/shoaling fish, like guppies/other livebearers. They do in fact replicate very easily and I've seen them do really well (sometimes better) in ponds, so if that's an option (you really want to keep ricefish, but they don't have to be in a tank) you could consider that.