Quick Stats
Minimum Tank Size: 5 Gallons (10 Gallons recommended)
Care Level: Very Easy
Water Conditions: PH 6-8 and Soft to Very Hard
Temperature: 32-100 (0-37C)
Maximum Size: 2 inches (5 cm)
The rosy red minnow is normally sold as a tropical fish, but it is actually a color variant of a native North American fish – the fathead minnow. The fathead minnow is found throughout streams and rivers in North America, and its natural coloring is a brilliant silver, with the males developing dark horizontal stripes during mating season.
If someone is looking to purchase a rosy red minnow, the only place that they can normally be found are the cramped and filthy feeder tanks at most fish stores. But if you can find some healthy ones, they make an attractive and interesting addition to nearly any community fish tank.
Housing
The same qualities that make rosy red minnows great feeder fish, also make them one of the easiest fish to keep. It can be kept in densities that would kill any other tropical fish and tolerates both poor water quality and low oxygen levels in an aquarium. In the stores you will often see hundreds or even thousands crammed together with little in the way of water circulation and many will still be active and healthy after living in these wretched conditions.
Rosy red minnows can also tolerate a wide range of water types – from mildly soft to very hard water and a pH range of 6pH – 8 pH. These hardy minnow will also adapt to nearly any temperature, with reports of it thriving at temperatures below freezing, and in temperatures as high as 100F (37C). It prefers temperatures in the range of 70-80F (21-26C), and will breed continuously if it is kept at these temperatures.
If you are planning to keep rosy red minnows in a species only tank, a 10 gallon tank is the preferred size. It is important that you provide a few cave like structures or overhangs in their tanks. Once the males hit breeding age, they will claim a cave and defend it against any other males rosy reds or other fish in the tank. The easiest way to provide a cave, is to purchase a plain, unpainted clay pot, and then partially bury the pot on its side in the substrate. This creates a perfect cave environment for rosy red minnows.
The rosy red minnow generally isn’t a messy fish, and most types of filtration will be more than adequate. A good HOB (Hang on back) filter, or sponge filter will keep the tank clean and well filtered. With that being said, the sponge filter is usually a better choice, as it provides good aeration for the tank and is far safer for the fry that are certain to appear at some point. If you choose to use a HOB filter, you should use something (nylon, sponge) to cover the intake, or the fry will be sucked up into the whirring impeller of death.
I would strongly recommend choosing an Aquaclear Power Filter
Feeding
In the wild, the rosy red minnow is an omnivore, and eats algae, plant matter, small invertebrates and insect larvae. In the home aquarium, they seem to prefer plant based foods, and if you are having trouble keeping rosy red minnows well fed, they should be fed a high quality spirulina flake or pellet food. I personally feed mine Hikari Spirulina Floating Pellets
They will also appreciate the occasional treat of frozen foods, and can be feed frozen bloodworms, daphnia and brine shrimp. These should be fed sparingly, and their main diet should be herbivore fish food.
A rosy red minnow’s diet can also be supplemented with vegetables, with blanched zucchini medallions, cucumber medallions and shelled peas being their favorites. Always make sure to clean the vegetables well before adding them to the aquarium, and any uneaten vegetables should be removed after 24 hours, so they don’t foul the water.
Breeding
One of the most compelling reasons to buy rosy red minnows is to experience their fascinated breeding behavior. While most minnows scatter their eggs and show no parental care, the rosy red minnow breeding behavior closely resembles a cichlids. In fact, rosy red minnows are probably the easiest fish to breed in the aquarium hobby, and many people with predator fish breed rosy red minnows to ensure they have healthy feeder fish.
In order to trigger breeding in this fish, you should provide a photo period of 12-14 hours a day and keep the temperature constant in the 70-80F range. When the male is ready to breed, he will develop fatty tissue and breeding tubercles on the top his head (thus the name fathead). Once he is ready to mate, he will claim a cave or overhang in the tank and clean the surface thoroughly with his head. Other males that are ready to breed may challenge the male for his newly claimed territory, but any fights are generally brief and rarely result in injuries.
After the male has successfully fought off any challengers, he will attempt to entice a female into the cave or overhang. An intricate dance will commence between the two fish, and if the male impresses the female, he will lead her back to the cave and she will deposit her eggs. The female is then usually pushed out by the male, and he sets about fiercely guarding the eggs.
The male will watch over the eggs carefully, occasionally rubbing them with his head and snout which contains an anti-fungal solution. Other females may sometimes be enticed into his cave until the walls of the cave are completely filled with eggs. The male will guard the eggs until they hatch, and he will attack fish many times his size to protect his brood.
After a short period, the eggs will begin to hatch, and free swimming fry will appear. At this point, they should be fed with mircoworms, or baby brine shrimp. Another effective, but unorthodox method for feeding the fry is to feed them powdered Spiraluna. Once all of the eggs have hatched, the male will usually abandon his cave, and will ignore the fry. In most cases it’s safe to leave the fry in the same tank as adult rosy red minnows, as they rarely eat their young.
Rosy Red Minnow Health
The most difficult aspect of keeping rosy red minnows, is actually finding healthy ones. The feeder fish tanks at most fish stores are full of parasites, diseases and have absolutely terrible water quality. Rosy reds should never be put into an aquarium containing other fish, until they have been quarantined for a minimum of four weeks in separate quarantine tank and treated for parasites and disease.
Even taking this approach, quite a few will die since they are already likely ill from living in a feeder tank. Some may also end up stunted and eventually deformed from the parasites that they have been infected with. But rosy red minnows breed very quickly, and the next generation that is born in the home aquarium will have much better coloration and size than their parents. So just stick it out, and you will end up with some amazing rosy red minnows.
Where can I order the minnows! I want a pound or two! Can I have them shipped to my home address? I live in Clinton Indiana 47842
They tend to be pretty hard to find this time of year. The best time to get them is during the spring, when many garden centers carry them, as many bait shops. You can still find them in most stores feeder tanks, but they’ll probably take a lot of care to make them healthy. And unfortunately, I don’t know anyone who ships to America right now.
I buy my Rosie’s at petsmart.i haven’t had any issues yet .none of them died either!
I’ve actually bought them at Petsmart, too. Some of them are occasionally sick, but some anti-parasite medicine usually helps to get them healthy. And since they breed so fast, they usually have very healthy offspring relatively quickly.
I bought some at Petsmart on a whim and put eight in my backyard fountain. Lost only one. Didn’t hardly feed them for a year, only a chunk of vacation food once a week. They are thriving in Palm Springs where summer weather is triple digits.
They’re an amazing pond fish for outdoor ponds and they need almost no care. I wish more people would give them a chance like you did.
I recently bought 20 from petsmart (they were the only ones who had them in stock at the time). 2 died after a week, but the rest are thriving. I put them directly into my raised water garden that was already established of about 80 gallons and large cattail plants that I snagged from my mom’s bayou, plus a small bog filter. It gets lots of sun. They are rooting around in the plants, eating algae from the sides. I’ve been feeding them a little to transition them to natural foraging but probably didn’t need to. They do love the algae wafers. Water temps have been swinging wildly in S Mississippi as we move into winter – from 40 to 70, and they just go quiet in the cold and come back out when the water warms. I plan to add lots more plants from local ponds in the spring and I let leaves and debris blow in to supplement the biology. I had been looking into Medaka, but I’m very happy with these. Hoping they’ll breed next year.
Petsmart almost always has them. All their tanks cycle the same water so they stay fairly healthy if they’re healthy when they arrive at the store. I keep a few in my goldfish tank although its not recommended. No problem yet. I have another tank with large Tin Foil Barbs and they make short work of the Rosy Reds.
http://ellineebait.com/ They have thousands of rosy red minnows !. three dollars a dozen.
https://www.michigan.gov/documents/minnowdealers_85723_7.PDF
here is a list of bait & tackle shops in Mi. and a few in Ind.
Are they compatible with mosquito fish?
If the tank is large enough they are, but I find the male mosquito fish can be very aggressive – especially in smaller tanks. But I’ve keep them together in tanks around 40 gallons, and there were no problems there.
We put about fifty rosy minnows and 100 feeder goldfish in an outdoor pond about 1/3 acre in size, for mosquito control in April 2019. There were no fish of any kind in it as far as we could tell–there’d been a drought before we bought the place and we figured it must have dried up at some point, as we knew it had been stocked with bass in years past. Our local mosquito abatement district doesn’t supply fish until about June, and when the weather is warm, mosquitoes are already a problem by then, so we were counting on the minnows and even the goldfish for control until we were able to get some mosquito fish planted. We didn’t see many fish through the summer, but they tend to stay in among the cattails and other pond growth. One afternoon I happened to be out near the pond later in the day when the sun was hitting it just right, and there were literally thousands of fish at the surface. Among them, noticeable rosy minnows as well as mosquito fish.
As far as the goldfish, we have a great blue heron that flies in daily and feeds on frogs and probably some of the fish. A couple of weeks ago we saw him come up with a HUGE goldfish–at least eight inches long and bright reddish-orange. I have no idea how many have survived, but they’re certainly not starving! The fish have survived freezing temperatures (the pond has frozen across the entire surface a few times) and bloodthirsty mallard ducklings who start eating fish from the first day they hit the water. They seem to be adaptable and reproduce like crazy. We’ve never had to feed them, as it’s a natural pond with plenty of insect life, so everyone appears to have plenty to eat.
Put 6 in my 900 gallon pond 2 years ago they finally spawned this summer. The fry are about 1/8 inch. Hundreds of them. Have koi also but never bothered them.
We just bought 20 at our local Pet-Co for 19 cents each. They were actually in a clean tank and looked very healthy so we put them in a 180 gallon tank with our other fish at 75F and they appear to be adjusting nicely. Our tank is highly under populated with all small fish so they have plenty of room, and we have over twice the filtration needed. In the spring we plan to move them into a breeding pond in the back yard because these fish are also good to eat, like sprats or sardines. We’re also growing 4 dragon carp – also known as butterfly koi for breeding stock, for the same function. But in the meantime, they are fun to watch – very active and happy as they explore their new home.
These are really under rated fish, and they breed like crazy in the right outdoor conditions. But in the future, I’d still probably treat them for parasites since they generally aren’t as well cared for as other aquarium fish.
I bought my rosy red minnows at PetSmart for 14 cents each. I had to buy over 20 because my killifish ate one entire school of ten. At least I didn’t spend a lot of money on them. They are beautiful fish. I have a school of rosy reds in my 55 gallon tank, along with two golden killifish, one cory catfish, five blind cave tetras and ten apple snails. For the first time, they have spawned and laid eggs in the two caves I provided after reading an article on breeding. I heavily ‘planted’ the breeding half of the tank with plastic plants (my snails would decimate real ones). I had thought the plants would keep out the predatory killifish and tetras, but they seem to actually like them. I don’t know how I’m going to protect the fry when they hatch. Any ideas? I am planning on putting them in a different tank if I can catch them.
I’m glad you’re enjoying these fish, as they are some of my favorites.
But it’s really hard to protect fry in a community tank. The only way to really protect them is to give them places to hide. I find floating plants, and thick mops of Java moss allow at least some of them to survive, and both of those are mostly immune from hungry snails.
I plan on transferring any fry that I see to a small tank I am setting up. I’ll use the water from the big tank partly. That way it already has some of the bacteria and stuff that a new tank needs. Floating plants are a good idea. The live plants in my area are mostly anachris. Would that count as a floating plant?
They count, but they don’t give great hiding spots. I find the roots of water lettuce, Amazon frogbit, and the spine of hornwort work best.
And water doesn’t have much bacteria – you’ll have better success transferring a piece of the filter, or a small amount of gravel to the new tank. A technique I use, is to setup a sponge filter a few weeks before the new tank is needed, and then transfer the whole filter to the new tank. It works great for any new tanks you need to setup.
I bought a sponge filter for the fry tank. That’s a good idea. Would some charcoal from the filter in my big tank work to transfer enough bacteria for new tank?
I looked in the tank this morning and saw my killifish greedily eyeing the caves. They can inhale whole fish. This worries me. I might just see if the caves fit in the small tank and see how that works. One of these days, the killifish will get old and die. Then I won’t have to worry about them.
Hi, we just started a 38gal tank and bought some feeder rosy red minnows to start the tank. They were from the feeder tank at petsmart. I’ve been planning to go to a reputable aquarium store to get fish when the tank is ready, but after reading your article I’m concerned that our minnows might have some diseases or parasites that could spread to any dish we introduce to the tank.
How long should we wait to get more fish, and is there a way to know whether ours are healthy?
I would wait a minimum of at least three weeks, and with feeder fish, it never hurts to give them at least one course of anti-parasite medication. Usually, the first generation of rosy red minnows aren’t the healthiest, but their offspring are usually very healthy fish.
Loads of useful information here..thanks.
Always glad to help. And it’s great to hear from someone else who appreciates rosy red minnows.
I have one rosy Rd and he is 2 years old. He is not doing well today after hiding for several days, he is floating upside down in the tank. What should I do?
Unfortunately, once they reach that point, there’s not much you can do. The only hope is that it’s a swim bladder problem, and feed them some lightly boiled shelled peas. Those will clear up many problems. If that doesn’t work, you should try to diagnose the problem by looking for symptoms. Is there any bloat? Fungus?
But once they’re floating upside down, the damage is usually pretty bad and not many come back at that point.
My rosies are spawning like crazy. I haven’t had a heater in there for over a month and the temp had been 60-65. They do get adequate light from my grow lamp near by. I have 5, 2 males and 3 females I’ve learned. It was cool at first but now they are terrorising my fancy goldfish. It’s a 20 gallon tank (upgrading to a 30 soon). I’m thinking I’m going to have to put up a divider? Any other ideas to give my goldy some peace?
I wish I had some ideas for you beyond separating them. They seem like perfect candidates to keep together, but the rosy red minnows always end up attacking the goldfish – or at least nipping at their fins. The best thing to do is use to a divider or get separate tanks. Though you may have more success with much larger aquariums.
thanks for the reply, definitely going to upgrade the tank soon so they can live together. I wasn’t able to find a divider today soI have to wait for delivery. Last night I rearranged things so the plants make a makeshift divider and turned all caves toward the planted side wall. This seems to have calmed things down a bit. I hope they can stay together. 🙁
They seemed like perfect candidates to me as well, but my fancy goldfish ate a whole school. 12 or so… And he can’t even get them in his mouth while .
I’ve never heard of that before. What type of fancy goldfish was it and what was its size at the time? Also, how small were the rosy red minnows? Usually they coexist quite well.
Hello, my husband and I had 4 rosy minnows. Last night we moved them to a new tank we set up for them. We’ve had the minnows for 2 months, but overnight 2 died and another died during the day. We used the same water that had been in their fish bowl and other than adding more rocks and some new hiding spots for them, their water conditions really didn’t change. Any idea what could have happened? We are both very sad and confused.
The shock of moving to a new tank can sometimes kill fish. Did you use any methods to acclimatize them to the new tank? It’s very important to do that when moving a fish.
Also, was everything cleaned you put in the new tank and was it aquarium safe? Sometimes there are toxins in rocks or uncleaned aquarium accessories. That might have caused the fish fatalities.
If it wasn’t either of those, did anything look odd about them before they passed away?
The only thing I can think of is that either the rocks are toxic or that the new tank wasn’t cycled and the filter didn’t have the proper bacteria balance.
My Rosys are eating the Fry before i even get to see them. The eggs just disappear and i never see any fry. That’s all i have in that tank. Any suggestions?
That’s quite odd, since they usually take care of the fry. Are you feeding them enough? How’s the water quality?
I would try adding some live plants, and more hiding spaces. That will give the fry a chance to avoid the adults if it’s a problem.
I am feeding them allot more now to see if that is it. I have floating plants and have added weight to provide more cover.
I even separated the cave, the male, and a female from the others. I put them in a separate tank with plants all the eggs are gone and no sign of that they were ever there. Not even on the filter sponge. After 6 mo of trying i’m done.
Do the fry need to be separated from the adults when they hatch?
In most cases, the fry are pretty safe with rosy red minnows. The adults occasionally will eat some fry, but it’s not a regular occurrence like with most fish. I’ve kept them in with dozens of batches of fry with no issues. Just make sure there are plants for the fry to hide in and you should be fine.
Our Rosy Reds have bred successfully in our pond for the first time in three years. I think it is because I have re-homed the snails. I think these guys just hoovered up any eggs and were immune to the efforts of our protective male minnow. He is now very thin, but gaining weight by the day as the fry are ‘out and about’.
That’s great news. I do know some larger snails can definitely feast on fish eggs. I hope all the fry do well in the pond.
I bought 10 feeder roses this summer and 3 have survived. I am not sure if the gender. One is much larger than the others. I would like to move them to a community tank. Do I need to buy more for them to be happy and to lessen any nippy behavior? Are they safe with endlers, guppies, emerald tetras, and other live bearers? Thanks!
They generally do quite well in community tanks, though they may nip at the guppies a little bit. The main concern is whether the fish are carrying any parasites or diseases – the feeder fish often carry very nasty illnesses. Are you certain they are healthy? Make sure there is nothing wrong with them before introducing them to an community tank.
If you’re going to do anything, I would provide several small cave structures for the males the claim. If there are males they will develop ‘fatheads’, thus the name.
Thanks for your speedy reply! How would I know if these fish did harbor illness? At this point I’ve owned them for four months. The many that died just kind of withered away, but these three look strong and have now been dosed with a course of API General Cure. Do you have other suggestions on what I would need to do to make them community ready?
Mainly you’d be looking for anything out of the ordinary – bumps, cysts, fungus (little white fibers), strange behavior, bloating, little white speckles (like grains of salt) or sores on the fish. The API general cure probably cleared up most of the problems with the rosy red minnows though, and the surviving ones should be pretty healthy. As long as they all act very healthy and don’t have any of the problems I describe, you should be relatively safe relocating the fish into your community tank.
Transferring some of the filter media is a great idea. Never would have tought of that. Also using Rosy Reds to help get the new tank cycling on the cheap is genius. Glad I found this page.
Always glad when someone can get something new out my articles.
Hi,
I have rosey reds in my turtle tank and she only eats them after laying eggs so they’ve had babies. We’ve decided to keep some of the babies in a separate tank and keep them as pets. We did this 6 weeks ago and they are doing well however, they’ve had more babies in my turtle tank. Is it safe to put some babies in with the 6 week olds or will the older fry eat them.
Thanks for you help!
Generally speaking, rosy red minnows don’t tend to eat their own kind. But if they’re small enough to fit in a fishes mouth, then they can be eaten. I would wait until they’re at least as large as the mouth. That way, you probably won’t lose any to predation.
Thanks for the tip!!
Good afternoon, I am thinking of starting a 10gal tank just for rosies, to use strictly as feeders, my big tank devours 50 feeders with a 24 hour time span, 3 cichlids, sleeper goby, 2 rope fish… After adhering to all of your suggestions (which are very direct and upfront, tyvm for being so informational and helpful) how may fish would you suggest starting out with, to start trying to create a productive atmosphere?
Thank you so much for any advice 🙂
Unless you’re able to accurately sex them, I would recommend at least six. That should give you a decent mix of the sexes. But you’re going to have difficulty growing them out in such a small tank. If you want to produce a lot of feeder fish, I’d recommend 29 gallons. That way they have lots of space to grow into adults.
Really appreciate all your information on rosy minnows. We bought 100 of them from PetSmart along with 100 small goldfish in late May for a natural quarter acre pond, mainly for mosquito control, as we only had a few mosquito fish delivered at the start of the season. There weren’t any fish of any kind when we first bought the place. Since adding them to the pond, we hadn’t seen many of the minnows and only a few goldfish, now about four or five inches long, and wondered if the mallard ducklings had eaten most of them–they’re voracious hunters from the day they hatch.
Today, however, the light was just right and it appears that we have hundreds of rosy minnows, feeding on something at the surface. Just wanted to emphasize that your comment that they are good breeders was right on target! The pond has all the attributes of a very large aquarium, with an aerator, plenty of pond plants and open water, along with a resident western pond turtle population, so now we’re hoping they’ll survive the winter when the pond freezes over at least a few times during the cold months. We’ve had goldfish in other ponds survive really well in cold conditions, (we could watch them swimming under the ice) so we’re hoping the minnows are as tough.
I’m glad the minnows are doing so well in your ponds. What you’ll notice is that many of the minnows will begin to develop their natural colors over the next few years, until the rosy variant are quite rare. And they should survive the winter no problem as long as the pond doesn’t freeze completely. They are very hardy fish and do well in northern climates. Within a few years the pond should be filled with the rosy red minnows and they are one of the best fish for mosquito control. Good luck!
Good to know. Thank you.
I live in N Y by Lake Erie. I have a confined pond 3 1/2 feet deep 12X 15 . Bought $5.00 worth at pet smart Last August . They survived the winter with my 15 year old Gold Fish . Which I bought at the same place for 7 cents each ….We went from 75 to 67 in 15 WINTERS. The Gold’s are up to 9 or 10 inches long …HEALTHY. The Rosies are in the hundreds after August First . Put a light at night and see short of 800 in the whole pond surface. FANTASTIC TO WATCH….shared little guys with my neighbor for his pond.Also have 4 Bullfrogs from TADPOLES AT $ 4 each.
Having a POND is a great comfort…I have PTSD & PTSI Multiple injuries and Pain ,BUT feel no PAIN observing and working on the pond…..Learned a Ton AND spend LITTLE $$$$ I improvise & re-use articles like an old pool filter…..I will take Questions ….May take days to answer BUT GLAD to help & I WILL GET BACK TO YOU.
We recently were gifted a 65 gal tank from my brother in law. It was a pre established tank and we were given the 3 rosy reds, 1 silver fish, and an angel fish with it. Yesterday my 3 yr old noticed one of the rosy reds had a brown colored “string” coming from its belly. This morning that “string” is now an orange color. Since we are so new to this I would love to get some help identifying what this may be!!
There’s nothing to worry about. That’s just the fish taking a poop. The colour changes are likely from the food it’s eating. Only if it changes consistency should you be concerned.
Would RRM be able to live with ghost shrimp and nerite snails. The snails sucking up eggs would really not bother me if it was to happen.
They should be fine with the ghost shrimp and nerite snails shouldn’t eat the eggs. However, I would make sure you have some live plants or somewhere for the ghost shrimps to hide, as the rosy red minnows may harass them a little bit depending on the fishes temperment.
I have a numerous fry in my pond right now. I have comet, shubunkin, and a few rosey reds. Some are hanging out in groups and some are hanging out on their own. The schooling ones are uniform in shape and color. The other ones are too small yet to tell whether they’ll look the same. Any idea whether the schooling makes them more likely to be rosey reds? Thx
Unfortunately, while rosy red minnows are more likely to shoal, goldfish are also known shoal in the wild, which makes it very hard to determine the fish type. The rosy red minnows do form tighter schools though, so you can probably safely assume the main shoals are rosy red minnows, while the loan fish are goldfish.
Hi I want to keep minnows but I can’t have the population too big, any tips
I do have a 30 gallon tank to keep them in, how many can I keep in a 30 gallon?
Generally speaking, the rule is you can keep one inch of fish per gallon. So, since they grow to two inches long, you could keep around 12-13 fish comfortably. But you should only add about 3-4 fish are a time, since the aquarium takes times to adjust to the new waste load. If you add too many at once, the bacteria won’t be able to process the waste, and you’ll have an aquarium crash.
I recently purchased a dozen from Petsmart for 39 cents each (Canadian). I think they cost a bit more because of how far north we are and because Covid makes everything more expensive. I have them in a 26 gallon tank which is highly landscaped and fully carpeted. I stumbled across them in a corner tank and fell in love with them right away. I knew nothing about them so I stepped out and did some reading. I thought they were familiar in body shape if not color. We did a minnow rescue a few years ago from a local creek which was drying up. From the description in the article it is clear we had stumbled upon the Rosey minnows’ wild cousins. I couldn’t be happier. Mine made a mad dash to the bottom of the tank as soon as they were introduced. All of them either buried themselves in the thick vegetation carpet or else hid in the crevices between my lava rock slope. Essentially this is a minimal species tank comprised of (presently) 23 bloody mary/Cherry cross shrimp, 2 striped loaches and the minnows. So far I have noted they spook pretty easily and cluster together on the bottom under the wood feature. When I feed them and they notice the flakes drifting down they dart about like starving things and nab the food as quickly as they can. When they are “relaxed” they tend to hang out on the bottom half of the tank and rarely climb up the slope. At the slightest sign of outside movement they huddle together on the lowest section until something signals the all clear. So far they don’t seem to have paid much attention to the shrimp or the loaches except just in passing although I do note the shrimp now seem to hide a little more. I have noticed a few, probably males, have taken to exploring and spending time in the narrow caves so I suspect they will start breeding soon. Also, I have not noted any evidence of disease yet. I know this can happen with feeder fish but these all seem quite healthy. I am very pleased indeed. Need to experiment with the food a bit I think.
That sounds awesome and it’s nice to see someone else giving these underappreciated fish a chance. And as a fellow Canadian, it’s nice having the chance to keep some native fish in the aquarium. Good luck and I hope they breed for you.
Would Hakari Seaweed Extreme be a good food for Rosy Red Minnows?
Unfortunately, that is formulated for saltwater fish. I would stick with a spirulina based food, like Hikari Algae Wafers.
My rosy reds bullied and killed our new koi we just bought yesterday. I thought they were just curious about him and left him in the pond over night. I thought they were supposed to be compatible?
lol thats funny
Is a 5.5 gallon tank ok for these fish?
You could probably get away with a handful of them in a 5.5 gallon if your careful with maintenance. But if they start breeding, you’re going to have some problems.
I have mine in a pond that measures about 1/3 acre in the winter and spring, shrinks to less than a quarter acre this time of year, (late October) but we started with 100 rosy minnows, in summer of 2018, added some mosquito fish and goldfish (all for mosquito control) and mosquitoes are not a problem, but on a warm afternoon last spring, we spotted a school of rosy minnows that had to number in the thousands. Not all were pink as they’d been in the pond for two years, but the numbers were astonishing! so yeah, that small tank might not hold them for long!
Thanks, will do.
I’d like to know how large the “cave” for the males to guard should be. And is it really needed when there are a lot of plants? I have an outdoor pond in the 20 or 30 gallon range, in the shade, with “elephant ears” (aka taro), frogbit and Java fern. I am trying a couple of pieces of 2″ ID PVC pipe because I had them on hand. I have clay flowerpots on hand, too. Is there minimum or maximum size for a “cave”?
I went and put in a 4″ clay pot, too. I’ll see what they do.
A few years back, I bought a bunch of Rosy Reds to use to cycle a few new tanks. They worked great and are very hardy fish. I just recently set up a 36 ga bow front planted tank with only about 7” of water this was a fully cycled tank that I tore down but kept the media and filters. I put in a few Rosy Reds. After watching them for a few evenings, I’ve decided to keep them as the only fish in the tank. I will keep introducing plants but won’t add anymore fish.
I have a planter box on the porch of my 7th floor apartment that I made into a pond with a liner. It’s about 40 gallons. I put in a good layer of 1″ gravel, higher at one end. I have native plants and a water lily in it. The air conditioner drips into it, and I have a tube from an air pump for a bubbler. Every so often I have to siphon out some water when it gets to overflowing. Today I scattered some fish flakes on the water, which I do maybe once a week, and I noticed that some of my Rosy Reds had shrunk! The ones I got from PetSmart were all about 2 inches long, but now some of the fish are only an inch long! What have I done wrong!??? 🙂
/I’m very happy to see this. No reply is necessary.