Brachydanio

Endemic to the Rakhine Yoma/Arakan mountains in Rakhine state, western Myanmar; this range forms a natural barrier which cuts the state off from the remainder of the country. It was originally collected from a handful of streams and rivers of the western, interior, slopes of which the type specimens originated from the Kananmae Chaung, a coastal rivulet draining into the Bay of Bengal (Kullander and Fa...

Doubts remain whether B. albolineata is representative of a single species or a group of similarly-patterned, closely-related fish, and the form from Chantaburi province in eastern Thailand was revalidated as B. pulchra (formerly Danio pulcher Smith, 1931) by Kottelat (2013). The status of the currently invalid Danio tweedei (Brittan, 1955) from Kedah state, northern Peninsular Malaysia may also be in question, since fish from that area are clearly...

Typically inhabits small forest streams. In the Yan Khaw Chaung (Yan Khaw stream) it occurs alongside Devario xyrops, Garra rakhinica, G. vittatula, Xenentodon cancila, Sicyopterus fasciatus and unidentified species of Lepidocephalichthys and Channa (Fang and Kullander, 2009). When sampled during the dry season the habitat consisted of nothing more than a series of small, interconnected po...

To date known only from the Jaintia Hills district, Meghalaya state, northeastern India meaning its natural waters are part of the Brahmaputra River system. The type locality is given as 'Tre Rangriang, Jowai' in the description paper, but we've been unable to locate this on any map. The paratypes were collected at 'Thlu Muwi', which probably refers to the ancient stone bridge built over the Muwi stream, a place popular with tourists due to the nearby Muwi waterfalls.

Can be hard to find in aquarium shops, and there has been some confusion surrounding its identity in the past. Base body colour is either powdery-blue or yellow-green (see 'Distribution') and this continues into the caudal-fin, while pinkish-yellow lateral stripes extend from opercle to caudal peduncle.

At least two similar-looking fishes have been available in the aquarium trade; one, usually referred to as 'Danio sp redfin', resembles the striped form of B. kyathit but is a smaller fish and the red pigmentation in the fins is comparatively more intense. The other is also striped with red fins but grows larger; it's usually labelled as 'Danio sp. KP01' or 'Burmese zebra danio'. It remains unclear whether these are regional variants of B. kyathit or undescribed species.

The genus Danio contains only the type species, D. dangila, separated on the basis of its larger size and the shape of the caudal-fin, which in adults is only slightly emarginate or even truncate in shape, a feature it shares only with Tinca tinca (the common tench) among other cyprinids. The remaining species, of which B. rerio is thought to be the most ancient, are included in the revalidated genus Brachydanio Weber & de Beaufort, 1916.

This species is very peaceful indeed and can be combined with many of the most popular fish in the hobby including other small cyprinids as well as tetras, livebearers, rainbowfishes, anabantoids, catfishes and loaches. As always when selecting a compatible community of...

B. rosea is a relatively recent addition to the aquarium trade but has proved very popular since it's colourful, hardy and usually quite cheap making it ideal for beginners. It's sometimes sold as 'purple passion danio'. It's very similar to B. albolineata sensu stricto but differs in several characters, notably the relatively slimmer body, shorter rostral barbels and lack of...

This potentially-undescribed species first became available in 2002, and males and females were marketed as 'Danio sp. hikari yellow' and 'D. sp. hikari blue', respectively. Subsequent DNA testing in the United States revealed them to be the same species and genetically distinct from the very similar B. kerri. It can be told apart as the central body (P) stripe always extends into the caudal fin whereas in B. kerri it terminates at the caudal peduncle. Only a single population of B. kerri was sampled in the stu...

Apparently discovered close to the coastal town of Gwa in Rakhine State, western Myanmar. Rakhine is largely cut off from the rest of the country by the Rakhine Yoma/Arakan mountains which form a natural barrier along its eastern side. Rakhine is located within a tropical monsoon region and has a pronounced rainy season between May and October, while at other times it can be quite dry. The streams thus swell in depth by a metre or mo...

Adult size is comparable to B. nigrofasciata, and in the description paper the authors hypothesise that the two are closely-related given they share other features such as similar barbel length (plus some additional merisitic counts), absent lateral line and spotted pelvic fins. The two are easy to tell apart, however, since in B. tinwini the P+1 stripe is composed of a series of spots (vs. solid), it possesses an indistinct P+2 str...