Celestial pearl danio
Danio margaritatus
2 cm
Adult size
40 L
Minimum volume
10
Minimum group
5 years
Lifespan
Water parameters
Understand these values- Genus
- Danio
- Diet
- carnivore
- Social life
- shoal
In the wild
Overview
The “galaxy” or celestial pearl danio is one of the most publicised discoveries in the hobby: spotted in August 2006, it was shown online by a Thai exporter the following month, to the point that some thought the picture had been doctored. Thousands of fish were exported within a few months.
It was described in 2007 by Tyson Roberts as Celestichthys margaritatus (“celestial fish adorned with pearls”); it is now placed in the genus Danio. It barely reaches 2 cm. The IUCN lists it as data deficient.
- Scientific name
- Danio margaritatus (Roberts, 2007)
- Classification
- Cypriniformes › Danionidae
- IUCN Red List
- Data deficient (DD)
Natural habitat
Shan State (eastern Myanmar), Salween basin, down to northern Thailand
Observations (GBIF) and localities Native countries Rivers and lakes
It was first found in shallow pools at the foot of a mountain near Hopong, in Shan State, at about 1,040 m above sea level; other populations have since been discovered in the Salween basin and as far as northern Thailand.
These spring-fed pools, about thirty centimetres deep, have clear water and thick beds of Elodea and similar plants, in the middle of open grassland. In January the water was at 22–24 °C. It lives there with a predatory snakehead (Channa harcourtbutleri).
Behaviour
Gregarious but not a tight shoal: males spar all day long and nipped fins are common within the group, though other species are not targeted. A group of around twenty spreads out these tensions.
Shy, it is easily intimidated or beaten to the food by larger fish; it rarely comes up to the surface. It feeds on small invertebrates, algae and zooplankton. An egg scatterer, it was bred in the aquarium only a few weeks after it arrived in Europe. It is better not to keep it with Danio erythromicron, with which it could hybridise.
Sources:FishBase Seriously Fish GBIF · Base map: Natural Earth