Danio erythromicron

Danio erythromicron is a beautiful little fish from Lake Inlé where it lives between the plants and the floating islands. It is a very calm and easy fish.

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Danio erythromicron

Danio erythromicron was originally described by Annendale in 1918. By then he received the name: Microrasbora erythromicron. New research has, however, discovered that this species should be placed in the genus Danio.

The name: erythromicron, comes from Latin. Erythros means red while micros means small. This is a reference to the fish’s short length and red fins.

Synonyms: Microrasbora erythromicron, Celestichthys erythromicron.

Description

This Danio species has an orange color. Blue, vertical stripes can be seen on the body of the fish. This pattern covers the whole body. At the end of the tail, the stripes will stop just before a blue blotch. The fins have, as mentioned before, a red coloration. This is clearest on the pelvic and anal fins.

The differences between the sexes are rather hard to see. The females are somewhat rounder-bellied while the males are more colourful. However, when the fish get ready to mate, these differences become more clear. The females will become rounder, as they carry eggs by now. Furthermore, the males show their color at their best in order to impress others.

Distrubution and Habitat

Danio erythromicron inhabits lake Inlé in Shan state, eastern Myanmar. This species, however, can also be found in the waters surrounding lake Inlé. For instance, there have been observations of this species in the city of Loykaw.

In Lake Inlé, the fish can mainly be found in the dense vegetation. On some occasions, the vegetation has become so dense that it started to form “floating islands”. These islands consist of entangled plants that can support enough weight to be able to walk on them. The local population modifies these islands in order to be able to grow crops on them. The Danio erythtomicron is occasionally caught between the plants that form these islands.

The lake itself consists of very clear water. The substrate is very fertile and loamy in texture. The depth of the lake is rather shallow as most parts are only 2 to 3 meters deep.

Diet

In the wild, these fish probably live on small insect larvae, algae and plankton. In the aquarium, it can be fed with frozen and live foods. The fish can get used to dried foods. This is, however, harder with wild-caught specimens. Fish that were bred in the aquarium tend to accept dried food much easier. When feeding these fish, one needs to keep in mind that it rarely gets up to the surface. Therefore it will be necessary to feed food that sinks.

The Aquarium

An aquarium from 40 centimeters is sufficient for a school of these small fish. The aquarium is best set up with many plants. In nature, this Danio also likes to be hidden between plants. In addition, it is recommended to use a dark substrate. This ensures more beautiful colored fish.

Danio erythromicron is rather harmless to other species. However, it is important to take into account that these fish tend to be out-competed for food by bigger and more dominant species.

They can be aggressive towards each other. Mainly males chase each other. Torn fins are therefore regularly visible. To give all fish a rest now and then, it is advisable to provide sufficient hiding places. The dense planting helps enormously with this. In addition, it is also important to keep a larger group. 20 or more would be ideal. As a result, they distribute the aggression better among themselves.

Breeding Danio erythromicron

Breeding these fish is not very hard. it is not uncommon that these fish will breed in a community tank. As these Danios tend to eat their own fry, not many of the eggs will eventually grow to mature fish. So in order to increase the yield of these fish, a separate aquarium has to be set up.

This breeding tank should contain a lot of plants with small leaves. One could use, for example, Taxyphillum (Java Moss) for this. It is, however, also possible to fill the tank with wool mops. Either way, there has to be enough of them in order to mimic the dense vegetation where these fish normally live. Lightning is not needed and too bright lightning might even prevent the fish from breeding. When the tank is set up, one pair of these fish can be introduced to the tank. When adding fish to these tanks, keep in mind that the more fish the higher the chance is that eggs will be eaten.

When these fish are in a good condition the fish will start to spawn and scatter about 30 eggs across the aquarium. When the eggs are laid the fish should be caught. After 72 hours the eggs will hatch. Three to four days later will the fry start to swim freely across the tank. Once the fry starts to swim, they can be fed with very small food. This food has to be very small. One could use very small dry food or Paramecium. Do not feed Artemia nauplii until the fish are large enough to eat them.

Videos

Author

Rick

Copyright images

Peter Maguire

References

Fishbase.org
Seriouslyfish.com

Conway, K. W., Chen, W. J., & Mayden, R. L. (2008). The “Celestial Pearl danio” is a miniature Danio (ss)(Ostariophysi: Cyprinidae): evidence from morphology and molecules. Zootaxa, 1686, 1-28.

Kottelat, M., & Witte, K. E. (1999). Two new species of Microrasbora from Thailand and Myanmar, with two new generic names for small Southeast Asian cyprinid fishes (Teleostei: Cyprinidae). Journal of South Asian Natural History,4(1), 49-56.

Kullander, S. O. (2015). Taxonomy of chain Danio, an Indo-Myanmar species assemblage, with descriptions of four new species (Teleostei: Cyprinidae).Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters, 25(4), 357-380.

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Additional information

Family

Genus

Species

erythromicron

Synonym

Celestichthys erythromicron, Microrasbora erythromicron

First described by

Nelson Annandale

Character

Social behaviour

Breeding behaviour

Diet

Min. aquarium length in cm

40

Zone

Origin

Country

ecosystem

,

Minimum length

2

Length maximum

2.5

Temperature minimum

20

Temperature maximum

24

pH minimum

7.0

pH maximum

8.0

GH minimum

13

GH max

21