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I got a small shoal of Galaxy Rasboras (Microrasbora sp.) this afternoon, and now that they are settled a bit (not fully colored up, but eating well) I decided to get some pictures. The pictures look crappy, and so does the tank they are in because it's my spawning/holding/spare plant tank.

These are very interesting little fish, more interesting than most Cyprinids I've kept. While very skittish (particularly mine because they are new), they also have a certain cockiness to them that I've never seen in Rasboras. They'll hide if they see me move (which is why most of them are hiding in the pictures), but if I sit for a while they boldly swim up and investigate.

The males are constantly engaging in harmless skirmishes with one other, and incessantly vie for the attention of the females. They are almost like little killifish. They don't seem to school much unless something startles them.

They are feeding well on pretty much anything they can fit in their mouths, including flakes. In regards to water parameters, they also seem to be somewhat tolerant. The guy I bought my group from was keeping them in tap water (pH 7.6, heavily planted though), and said they were exhibiting spawning behavior almost constantly.

I'm going to be bringing them to my tank at school on Monday. Anyway, here are the pictures...























That last picture is one of the males trying (unsucessfully) to impress a female.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

cool looking fish, I 've seen a few photos on line. Did you get then at LFS or on line?
I would not mind getting a school to add to my community tank.

Don't count on them being easy to find, apparently their natural habitat is already in danger from too many being taken for the aquarium hobby. I'd stay away from them until they can be bred reliably and we can get stock from there rather than from the wild.

~Michael

Nice, Natalie. These little guys color pattern make me think they are miniature versions of brook trout, Salvelinus fontinalis.

Jim

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Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. -- Mark Twain

Pretty!

But they're making me rethink about smaller fish. Maybe there is such a thing as "too small?"

A former aquarist society colleague of mine, Paul Dixon, has bred these at Boltom Museum. Captive breeding is likely to be underway on an industrial scale in fairly short order. Exercise a little patience, everyone, and soon aquarium bred Galaxy Rasboras will be present in numbers.

Go here for details.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I got them from a guy who lives a bit north of me who has an awesome fish room and specializes in breeding rare fish (Discus, Apistos, rare corys, like 10 different kinds of shrimp, you name it). He says he is eventually going to try and open a shop (which I would gladly patronize), and he is also breeding the Galaxy Rasboras.

Exercise a little patience, everyone, and soon aquarium bred Galaxy Rasboras will be present in numbers.

I would have to agree with that, this guy's fish are anything to go by. The tank he was keeping them in was amazing... It was one of those flat 30 gallon tanks, 18" long, 18" wide, and 12" tall, and was planted with all sorts of rare mosses, Riccia, and a bunch of plants I've never seen before.

He had about 75 of the rasboras in there (only had one loss from that order), and it looked like he easily could have put 30 more in. A lot of the females looked like they were about explode with eggs, and had males chasing them around constantly (keep in mind the pH in this tank is still 7.6). Had this tank not been the tank where he also kept his Cherry Shrimp breeding colony, there probably would have been lots of baby rasboras.

It seems these Galaxy Rasboras not only look good, but are also easy to keep and breed as well (and captive bred specimens would be showing up in stores shortly).

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Here they are drip acclimating to their new (and final) tank in my dorm. It needs way more plants. The guy I bought the fish from threw in a clump of Christmas Moss though, which was really cool. The Microrasboras really like that stuff.

I'm going to put them into the tank in like half an hour.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Continued good luck with them Natalie and keep us posted on how they fair. It would be great if you can breed them and give us all a first hand account of what it takes.

Jim

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Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. -- Mark Twain

Yeah, I hope they spawn in there. The only problem is that I have like five Cherry Shrimp in the tank that will probably eat any eggs if they can find them. I might bring them home or something.

Here is the best picture I could get of them in the tank before the batteries on the camera died.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Got new batteries... Too bad my camera makes everything look crappy (I think because of the flash). The fish look way better in real life.

Fish coming up to investigate the camera.


This picture is merely for comparison... The Galaxy Rasboras are slightly smaller than the Cherry Shrimp.


Two of them out in the open.


More of them together (the front and center one is a female).


Male and female together (female is the top one).

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Oh yeah, can anyone identify this moss for me? It's the stuff I got with the fish, and there were at least three or four different kinds of moss growing in that tank and I'm not sure which one he put with the fish. First I thought it was Christmas Moss, but it doesn't look quite "bushy" enough. Then I considered Java Moss, but mine is more bushy than Java Moss and the leaflets look too long. Now I'm thinking it might be Fontinalis antipyretica...

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Not sure about the moss

Congrats on the fish...nice-looking setup and I hope you have success with breeding them

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

Very cool looking fish. I read about them recently, but I don't think they have hit LFS here in AUS yet. I hope they do soon.

Good luck with them & thanks for sharing.

Cheers
TW

Here is a less crappy picture of the moss...

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

After looking at this latest photo and comparing it to images on google I think it appears (my guess anyways) to be Fontinalis antipyretica.

Jim

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Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. -- Mark Twain

Taxiphyllum "frond" arrangement, I tihnk, is based on environmental conditions, and are not an effective way of differentiating between aquatic moss genera, unless you're speaking of general growth patterns, like that of christmas and taiwan moss, which orient themselves in a triangular fashion (even then, it appears to be somewhat variable). However, it does appear to be "Taiwan/Xmass" moss to me, albeit grown in conditions that keep it leggy and noncompact. I am by no means a bryo expert, so don't hedge all bets on the above.

The tank it came from had exceptionally bright lighting, but I think this particular clump was trapped under a bunch of other plants. Regardless of what it is, I've tied it to a rock and placed it under brighter light, so it should be growing better soon.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.