Freshwater Fish
Scissortail Rasbora.
A silvery, active rasbora named for its scissoring, black-and-white forked tail. Peaceful and beginner-easy; keep an energetic group in a 20-gallon-plus tank with room to swim and a lid, since they're jumpers.
In-store purchase only. Live fish, coral, and invertebrates are sold at our Erie store only. They cannot be bought online, and we do not ship live animals under any circumstances.
Live fish are priced per supplier batch — prices may vary. Call to confirm current pricing.
- Condition
- new
- Fulfillment
- Local pickup — Erie, PA
Live animals are sold in store only — we do not ship fish, coral, or invertebrates. Every animal is acclimated and health-checked in-house before it reaches the sales floor. This is a species we carry — it's most likely in the tanks around delivery days, but live stock changes daily. Please call (814) 456-9445 to confirm availability before you drive in.
Care at a glance
What to know before you take one home.
- Care level
- Beginner
- Temperament
- Peaceful
- Community
- Community safe
- Adult size
- 4"
- Min tank size
- 20 gallons
- Diet
- Omnivore
- Scientific name
- Rasbora trilineata
Good tank mates
Scissortails are peaceful and community-safe, and being active, slightly larger rasboras they suit a roomier community tank. Good matches are other peaceful, active fish: larger tetras, other rasboras, corydoras, peaceful barbs like cherry barbs, and peaceful gouramis. A few real examples are harlequin rasboras, lemon tetras, and bronze cories. Avoid aggressive or much larger fish, steer clear of known fin-nippers, and don't pair them with anything big enough to eat them.
Good to know
The scissortail rasbora is named for its deeply forked tail, whose black-and-white lobes open and close like scissors as it swims.
Stock and individual temperament vary — call (814) 456-9445 for pairing advice before you buy.
Good tankmates
Plays well with.
Species we’d keep in the same tank, with why each pairing works. Stock and individual temperament vary — call (814) 456-9445 to confirm before you buy.
New to stocking a tank? Read our guide on which fish live together.
Bronze Cory
Peaceful bottom dwellers that occupy a completely different tank level than scissortails. Water parameters align well (soft, slightly acidic). No size, aggression, or dietary conflicts. A textbook community pairing.
Harlequin Rasbora
Well-documented pairing across multiple authoritative sources. Both are peaceful schooling cyprinids with identical soft, slightly acidic water requirements. While harlequins are smaller (4–4.5 cm) than large scissortails, rasboras are not piscivorous and their small terminal mouths are not adapted for eating other fish. Fishiology and AquariumStoreDepot both explicitly confirm compatibility.
Zebra Danio
Active, fast mid-water schoolers with overlapping pH and temperature ranges. Zebra danios' fin-nipping tendency specifically targets slow-moving fish with long, trailing fins — not the compact, forked caudal fin of a fast-swimming scissortail. AquariumStoreDepot specifically lists them as compatible.
Siamese Algae Eater
Occupies the bottom level, creating no spatial competition with scissortails. Any adult territorial behavior is directed at conspecifics and similar-looking fish, not at mid-water rasboras. Water parameters are compatible. Suitable in tanks with adequate space and cover.
- R
Rainbowfish
Comparable adult size, active peaceful temperament, and sufficient parameter overlap (pH 6.5–7.5, 74–78°F works for most Melanotaenia species). SeriouslyFish's species profile for Rasbora trilineata specifically endorses rainbowfish as tankmates. Hobbyists should select species with softer-water tolerances (e.g. M. praecox) rather than hard-water specialists like Boesemani.
Visit the store
660 East 14th Street,
Erie, PA.
Mon–Fri 12–6 · Sat 11–4 · Sun closed. Call ahead on livestock — what's on the floor rotates.