The rainbow dace, also known as the red shiner, originates in the Mississippi River basin and is widespread throughout North America and has been introduced to Northern Mexico. Rainbow dace are deep-bodied and laterally compressed, and can grow to about three to four inches in length. For most of the year, both males and females have silver sides and whitish abdomens while males in breeding coloration have pink/purple/blue iridescent sides and a red crown and fins (excluding the dorsal fin which remains dark in color). Breeding Males will also develop raised white tubercles all over the head area.
The rainbow dace prefers a cooler water temperature range of 59°F to 77°F and can therefore be kept in an unheated aquarium. It prefers a pH range of 7.0 - 7.5 and a hardness range of 10 - 20dH.
The rainbow dace is as active fish that should be kept in groups of at least 4 to 5 in an aquarium of 30 gallons or larger. They mix well with other cool water tolerant fish such as white cloud mountain minnows and zebra danios. Rainbow dace should be provided with plenty of open swimming space and areas of plants or driftwood (ZM2000) for shelter.
In the wild, rainbow dace feed on both terrestrial and aquatic insects and algae. In the aquarium, rainbow dace will accept a wide variety of foods including, flakes, freeze dried foods, live foods and frozen foods. A good quality flake food (OSI4010 or OSI4008) can be used as a staple diet and supplemented with freeze dried foods such as Calanus (SIC530), live black worms, and frozen spirulina enriched brine shrimp (SF8179).