Lake Kurumoi rainbowfish "Wild"

Name: Lake Kurumoi rainbowfish "Wild"
Brand: Best4Pets
Price: 1800.0 INR
Availability: InStock

Rs. 1,800.00

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Lake Kurumoi Sunset Rainbowfish (Melanotaenia parva)

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<strong style="color:#FFFFFF;">One lake. That is the entire range of this species.</strong> <em>Melanotaenia parva</em> lives in Lake Kurumoi, a small body of water on the Bird's Head peninsula of West Papua, and nowhere else on earth. A mature male in display turns a saturated sunset red-orange from gill to tail, sharpening and fading within seconds as he flares at a rival. There is no other rainbowfish that goes quite this red.

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It is also smaller and better mannered than the big rainbowfish most people meet first. Where a Boesemani or a Parkinson's needs a four-foot tank to look right, this one settles into a standard three-foot planted setup and behaves like a normal community fish while still delivering the full rainbowfish display. Juveniles arrive silver and unremarkable; the colour is earned over the following year.

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<strong style="color:#FFC978;">Colour is a behaviour, not a fixed trait.</strong> Males produce it to compete with other males and court females. Keep one alone and it will stay a silver fish for life. Keep eight or more with several males and you get the red every day, strongest in the first hours after the lights come on. This is the single most misunderstood thing about rainbowfish.

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<h3 style="font-size:13px;letter-spacing:.12em;text-transform:uppercase;color:#5FD4C4;margin:0 0 12px;font-weight:700;">Care Snapshot</h3>

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<td style="padding:9px 12px;border-bottom:1px solid rgba(255,255,255,0.14);width:42%;color:#A9BCCB;">Scientific name</td>

<td style="padding:9px 12px;border-bottom:1px solid rgba(255,255,255,0.14);color:#EAF0F5;"><em>Melanotaenia parva</em></td>

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<td style="padding:9px 12px;border-bottom:1px solid rgba(255,255,255,0.14);color:#A9BCCB;">Also known as</td>

<td style="padding:9px 12px;border-bottom:1px solid rgba(255,255,255,0.14);color:#EAF0F5;">Lake Kurumoi Rainbowfish, Sunset Dwarf Rainbowfish</td>

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<td style="padding:9px 12px;border-bottom:1px solid rgba(255,255,255,0.14);color:#A9BCCB;">Family</td>

<td style="padding:9px 12px;border-bottom:1px solid rgba(255,255,255,0.14);color:#EAF0F5;">Melanotaeniidae — rainbowfishes</td>

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<td style="padding:9px 12px;border-bottom:1px solid rgba(255,255,255,0.14);color:#A9BCCB;">Origin</td>

<td style="padding:9px 12px;border-bottom:1px solid rgba(255,255,255,0.14);color:#EAF0F5;">Tank-bred; endemic to Lake Kurumoi, West Papua, Indonesia</td>

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<td style="padding:9px 12px;border-bottom:1px solid rgba(255,255,255,0.14);color:#A9BCCB;">Conservation</td>

<td style="padding:9px 12px;border-bottom:1px solid rgba(255,255,255,0.14);color:#EAF0F5;">Threatened in the wild — single-lake endemic</td>

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<td style="padding:9px 12px;border-bottom:1px solid rgba(255,255,255,0.14);color:#A9BCCB;">Lifespan</td>

<td style="padding:9px 12px;border-bottom:1px solid rgba(255,255,255,0.14);color:#EAF0F5;">4–6 years</td>

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<td style="padding:9px 12px;border-bottom:1px solid rgba(255,255,255,0.14);color:#A9BCCB;">Minimum tank</td>

<td style="padding:9px 12px;border-bottom:1px solid rgba(255,255,255,0.14);color:#EAF0F5;">120 litres, minimum 90 cm length</td>

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<td style="padding:9px 12px;border-bottom:1px solid rgba(255,255,255,0.14);color:#A9BCCB;">Temperature</td>

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<td style="padding:9px 12px;border-bottom:1px solid rgba(255,255,255,0.14);color:#EAF0F5;">7.0–8.0 — alkaline preferred</td>

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<td style="padding:9px 12px;border-bottom:1px solid rgba(255,255,255,0.14);color:#A9BCCB;">Hardness</td>

<td style="padding:9px 12px;border-bottom:1px solid rgba(255,255,255,0.14);color:#EAF0F5;">8–20 dGH — moderately hard to hard</td>

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<td style="padding:9px 12px;border-bottom:1px solid rgba(255,255,255,0.14);color:#EAF0F5;">Omnivore — dry, frozen and live foods</td>

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<td style="padding:9px 12px;border-bottom:1px solid rgba(255,255,255,0.14);color:#A9BCCB;">Temperament</td>

<td style="padding:9px 12px;border-bottom:1px solid rgba(255,255,255,0.14);color:#EAF0F5;">Peaceful, active, shoaling; keep 6–8+</td>

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<td style="padding:9px 12px;border-bottom:1px solid rgba(255,255,255,0.14);color:#A9BCCB;">Care level</td>

<td style="padding:9px 12px;border-bottom:1px solid rgba(255,255,255,0.14);color:#EAF0F5;">Easy — hardy and adaptable</td>

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<td style="padding:9px 12px;color:#A9BCCB;">Swimming zone</td>

<td style="padding:9px 12px;color:#EAF0F5;">Middle and upper</td>

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<h3 style="font-size:13px;letter-spacing:.12em;text-transform:uppercase;color:#5FD4C4;margin:0 0 12px;font-weight:700;">Why This Fish Matters</h3>

Single-lake endemics are the most fragile category of freshwater fish there is. One species, one small body of water, no second population anywhere. Introduced predators and competitors, changes to water level and catchment, and the ordinary pressures on a lake that people live around can take a species like this from common to gone inside a decade, and there is nowhere for it to retreat to.

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<strong style="color:#FFFFFF;">The fish we sell are tank-bred, and that is the entire point.</strong> Rainbowfish breed readily in captivity, and hobbyist and breeder populations of threatened Papuan species now function as a genuine genetic reserve — several are far more secure in aquaria than in their home waters. Buying captive-bred stock puts no pressure on Lake Kurumoi, and every keeper who breeds a group adds to that reserve. If you spawn them, keep records of the line and pass fry on to other keepers rather than crossing them with other rainbowfish. That is what makes an aquarium population worth something.

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<h3 style="font-size:13px;letter-spacing:.12em;text-transform:uppercase;color:#5FD4C4;margin:0 0 12px;font-weight:700;">Setting Up For It</h3>

<li style="margin-bottom:9px;"><strong style="color:#FFFFFF;">Length over height.</strong> A constant swimmer. 90 cm is the working minimum; 120 cm is noticeably better. Plant the back and sides and keep the front two-thirds open for the displaying lane.</li>

<li style="margin-bottom:9px;"><strong style="color:#FFFFFF;">Dark substrate deepens the red.</strong> Over pale gravel the fish looks washed out even when it is displaying properly. Dark sand costs nothing and changes everything.</li>

<li style="margin-bottom:9px;"><strong style="color:#FFFFFF;">Give them current.</strong> Rainbowfish want moderate flow and will swim into it. A decent filter return or a small circulation pump is a benefit rather than a stress.</li>

<li style="margin-bottom:9px;"><strong style="color:#FFFFFF;">Morning light is when they perform.</strong> Displays peak in the first hours after lights-on. Put the tank somewhere you actually sit in the morning.</li>

<li style="margin-bottom:9px;"><strong style="color:#FFFFFF;">Tight lid.</strong> Active surface-oriented fish and capable jumpers. Close the gaps around filter pipework.</li>

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<h3 style="font-size:13px;letter-spacing:.12em;text-transform:uppercase;color:#5FD4C4;margin:0 0 12px;font-weight:700;">Tank Mates</h3>

<p style="margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:700;color:#5FD4C4;">Good matches</p>

<p style="margin:0;font-size:15px;color:#EAF0F5;">Other rainbowfish of similar size, larger rasboras, Congo Tetra, Denison Barb, Corydoras, Bristlenose Pleco, and peaceful bottom cichlids such as Bolivian Ram. A shoal of these above a working substrate-sifter is a well-balanced tank.</p>

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<p style="margin:0;font-size:15px;color:#EAF0F5;">Dwarf shrimp and nano fish small enough to swallow. Also avoid long-finned slow feeders such as Bettas and fancy Guppies, which cannot compete at feeding time, plus nippers and aggressive cichlids. Do not mix with other rainbowfish if you intend to breed a clean line.</p>

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<p style="margin:0 0 30px;font-size:15px;color:#A9BCCB;">Males spar and chase constantly. It looks dramatic and is almost never damaging, provided the group is large enough and the tank long enough for a loser to withdraw.</p>

<h3 style="font-size:13px;letter-spacing:.12em;text-transform:uppercase;color:#5FD4C4;margin:0 0 12px;font-weight:700;">Feeding</h3>

Fast, enthusiastic, upward-facing feeders with small mouths for their body size — keep particle sizes modest. They will clear a community tank before slower fish reach the food, so feed any bottom-dwellers separately.

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From the <strong style="color:#FFFFFF;">AQA</strong> range, use a colour-enhancing flake or small floating pellet twice a day, with frozen or freeze-dried meaty foods two or three times a week. Carotenoid-rich food makes a visible difference to the red on this species specifically, so a plain staple is a false economy here.

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Foods it responds to particularly well: frozen brine shrimp, daphnia, mysis, bloodworm, live blackworm. A little spirulina flake or blanched greens supports long-term condition.

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<h3 style="font-size:13px;letter-spacing:.12em;text-transform:uppercase;color:#5FD4C4;margin:0 0 12px;font-weight:700;">Sexing & Breeding</h3>

<strong style="color:#FFFFFF;">Males</strong> grow larger and deeper-bodied, develop the red-orange flush over the body and fins, and carry longer, more angular fins. <strong style="color:#FFFFFF;">Females</strong> stay slimmer and largely silver with a yellowish cast. The difference is clear by around 5 cm and invisible before that. Two or three males to every female gives the strongest display.

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Breeding is straightforward and worth doing. Rainbowfish are continuous spawners: a conditioned group scatters a few eggs daily among fine-leaved plants or a wool mop, each anchored by adhesive threads. Lift the mop into a separate container every few days. Eggs hatch in 7–10 days and the fry are tiny — infusoria or liquid fry food first, then baby brine shrimp. Growth is slow and full colour takes 12–18 months. Keep the line pure and record its origin.

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<h3 style="font-size:13px;letter-spacing:.12em;text-transform:uppercase;color:#5FD4C4;margin:0 0 12px;font-weight:700;">Keeping It In Indian Conditions</h3>

<li style="margin-bottom:9px;"><strong style="color:#FFFFFF;">Indian tap water is close to ideal.</strong> Rainbowfish want hard, alkaline water — the same chemistry that makes South American blackwater species difficult here. No RO, no buffering, no catappa. For most of the country this is a species you can keep straight out of the tap.</li>

<li style="margin-bottom:9px;"><strong style="color:#FFFFFF;">Summer heat is a non-issue.</strong> The comfortable range extends to 30 °C, so peak Indian summers cause no trouble provided aeration is adequate. Very few colourful community fish can say that.</li>

<li style="margin-bottom:9px;">A heater is needed only for northern and hill-station winters. Set it to 25 °C to prevent sharp night-time drops.</li>

<li style="margin-bottom:9px;">At 90 cm minimum this is a far more practical rainbowfish for Indian apartments than Boesemani or Parkinson's, both of which really want 120 cm or more.</li>

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<h3 style="font-size:13px;letter-spacing:.12em;text-transform:uppercase;color:#5FD4C4;margin:0 0 12px;font-weight:700;">What You Receive</h3>

Tank-bred juveniles, quarantined and conditioned at our Bengaluru facility before dispatch. These are not yet in adult colour — the red develops over 12–18 months and cannot be guaranteed by sex at this size. Packed with oxygen and insulation for pan-India delivery.

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Cove

red by the Best4Pets live arrival guarantee. Please film an unboxing video before opening the bag — it is required for any DOA claim.

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