Best Dither fish with Pics

[Vancmann]

Of all the Dither fish I have had, these seems to be the most happy and most capable of evading advances from even my most agressive Tiger, day and night. They have out lived all the other dithers. I have video taped these fish at night and they never sit still, they are just as active skimming the surface at night. They also spawn every 6 weeks or so. Its a food day for my loaches especially the beauforti when the Danio lays eggs. Here are some pics of the males being very active sparing (not fighting really, although close to it) and being very vibrant. These guys are gorgeous and big enough to be my main mid-top water dwellers. They school very nicely and love rapidly flowing water.

[Blue]

Lovely.

[Jim Powers]

What beautiful fish!!!
Are those D. aequipinnatus (Giant danio) or some other Devario?

[Vancmann]

Thanks Blue, thanks Jim. These were labled Giant Danios when I bought them. The store which I bought these from still have some and they look quite pale in comparison of color.

[killforfood]

I've been searching the web trying to identify these and so far it appears these are some type of Devario but none of the pictures I can find even compare to the beauty of these.

[chefkeith]

The best dithers are very Nice.

[Jim Powers]

There is a danio and devario website that is sometimes hard to get onto, depending on the browser you are using. Right now, I can't connect to it at all.
I think its http://www.danioinfo.net
If that's not it I'm sure someone will com along and correct it.

[killforfood]

I think I may have found the site you're thinking of.
http://www.danios.info/
Now to see if they have the above beauties.

[killforfood]

here's the link for D.aequipinnatus, but again not nearly as vivd as Vancmanns fish.
http://www.danios.info/fish/aequipinnatus.aspx

I wonder Would these tolerate the parameters of a Hillstream tank.
Totters off for more research.


Biology: Inhabits hill streams up to an elevation of 300 m (Ref. 4832). Found in shaded, mid-hill clear waters with pebble or gravel substrates (Ref. 11966). Occurs in schools at the surface in small high-gradient upland streams (Ref. 12693). Feeds mainly on exogenous insects (Ref. 12693) and also on worms and crustaceans (Ref. 7020). Not seen in markets, but popular in aquarium trade (Ref. 12693, 44325). Aquarium keeping: in groups of 5 or more individuals; minimum aquarium size 100 cm


Oops just one more edit.
In my haste to post I overlooked this little tidbit. Climate: tropical; 22 – 24°C
This may be a problem for the Hillstream tank.

[Mark in Vancouver]

Excellent detail - but clean your glass!

[killforfood]

What beautiful fish!!!
Are those D. aequipinnatus (Giant danio) or some other Devario?

Just wanted to give credit to who got it right first.
Nice call on the species Jim.

Here's another link with a bit better write up.
http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/c ... tDanio.php

[Whitey_MacLeod]

Excellent photos- those are seriously nice fish

[Jim Powers]

killforfood wrote:

Just wanted to give credit to who got it right first.
Nice call on the species Jim.

Not sure I did.

[Vancmann]

Thanks Killforfood and nice research!! chefkeith thank you as always, and thank you whitney. Mark thank you and I will get right on that (cleaning my glass)

A few things to add on the color: The food that gets most of my fish colorfull is Krill. These guys are not always this colorfull although they are still brighter than the ones on the web when they are normal.

Yesterday when I took these pictures was the day before breeding. They males were trying to out shine and body slam each other and were at their max display. Earlier this morning they were vigirously chasing and competing for one of the female that was apparently ready to release eggs. Also, these guys are my Nitrate tester. They look their brightest after large water changes like I did a couple days ago and they look not as bright when the nitrates are above 50ppm or 8-10 days after a water change.

Added: There is a gold ridge along side the top ridge of the male fish that is very hard to photograph with flash. You can barely pick it out on some photos. This gold ridge makes the fish look even cooler especially when the night lights are on. Under the dim lights, you mostly recognize the gold ridge darting about.

[Rocco]

Fantastic pictures. These would be great dithers indeed. That handy nitrate fading is great for timing your water changes.