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My sister and I bought some danios at a local store a few days ago, and I can't figure out what they are. They look like a mix between a Pearl Danio and a Silvertip Tetra, with a body shape more like a hatchetfish (not really evident in the pictures because of the angle).

They are mostly silver colored with a black stripe on their caudal peduncle, and some iridescence on the body. The outer edges of the caudal fin are white. The guy in the store didn't know what they came in as, and I searched all the pictures of Asian Cyprinids on Fishbase to no avail. Here is a picture:



Any ideas?

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

The body doesn't look deep enough in that picture for the fish I have in mind, but if it's the camera angle that's causing this, then one possibility to look up is Laubuca laubuca or one of its relations. These are colloquially referred to as "Indian Hatchet Fishes", but they are in fact Cyprinids.

The name I've cited, incidentally, is the old name by which they were referred to in the venerable Innes book. They've been renamed since, and I believe they're known as Chela laubuca now - sometimes called the "Indian Glass Barb", though most of the few that are imported come from Sri Lanka.

If you DO have Chela laubuca or a relation, then these are fairly big fishes when fully grown. Fishbase cites 17 cm for Chela laubuca itself.

You'll know if you DO have this fish or one of its relatives if you look closely at the pectorals, because they're wing like, similar to the Characoid Hatchet Fishes of South America. Fishbase's server is running like a legless dachsund on Mogadon at the moment, so my ability to check your fish against the members of the Genus Chela is temporarily handicapped ... sigh.

Chela laubuca itself has a bluish iridescence. I'm hoping that the server lets me check the other species so I can find a better match.

Oh, needless to say, if you DO have one of the "Indian Hatchet Fishes", of whatever species, it goes without saying that they are rocket propelled jumpers that need to be covered just as much as the Characoid Hatchet Fishes!

Feeding - try them with wingless fruit flies. This probably approximates their wild diet pretty well. They should also take fairly well to live mosquito larvae. Not sure about their adaptability to flake foods, but if they're eating flakes in your aquarium, then you should have few maintenance problems other than their propensity to perform ICBM impersonations when the cover is left off!

UPDATE: here is a list of species from Fishbase you can browse. Several of the species are illustrated. Note that some of them are relatively Danio-like, while others are markedly deep bodied.



Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I'm thinking they might be some sort of Parachela species, but I can't find any good pictures of many species. The body shape looks about right though.

I'll probably just end up emailing one of the Cyprinidae collaborators.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

looks kinda like those ones i keep seeing that are supposed to glow at night

Fish tanks are an expensive addiction

No devario/danio I know is a 100% match with the aforementioned fish. At first, I suspected d. roseus, but it definitely does not appear as such after a more critical glance.

Yeah, I can't find any really close matches on Fishbase either, but then again a lot os species don't have photos.

And I couldn't find any collaborators for Cyprinidae to email about it.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

I found a posible fish that it could be but atleast this link might help.http://www.danios.info/Contents/species/danio28.asp

That's similar, but mine don't have any vertical barring on their sides.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

i found one other maybe "kerri" from what i found there are a few color morphs of it or they just haven't been described as difrent sp as of yet.

I'm fairly certain they are Parachela rather than Danio.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.