Devario maetaengensis. Fang Fang. 1997¹
There seems to be some confusion regarding the correct name of this fish. Reference to ‘Checklist of Freshwater Fishes of Thailand’ lists it as Devario maetaengensis along with Devario (Danio) regina and Devario (Danio) annandelei. www.fishbase.org refers to the fish as Danio maetaengensis as do all other sites found. One supposes, that in the days of Brachydanio, it could have been assigned that genus. But, for ease of recognition, I will refer to it as Devario maetaengensis. Reference to the paper written by Fang Fang, reveals that the holotype was collected in 1933 as were most of the paratypes. They were identified then as Danio shanensis even though there were differences in those fish and Danio shanensis found in Myanmar. Devario maetaengensis is only found in a very restricted area of Northern Thailand where new specimens have been collected.
This is a beautiful ‘new’ Danio that is now available in Germany, where it is also known as Devario maetaengensis. We brought back some from our recent visit to Fischhaus Zepkow and all survived the journey home in excellent condition. Indeed, they were in such good condition, they had settled in and were eating ravenously within hours. The females were already looking full of roe and the males were active. When we returned from Germany, they had been placed in temporary accommodation containing a few wool mops purely to act as shelter. The fish had other ideas!
I noticed that within twelve hours of being placed in the tank, they were diving in and out of the mops. Sure enough, on checking the mops the next day, they were full of eggs. Possibly the change of water acted as a trigger to spawning. The parents were removed to another tank and the eggs allowed to develop. Within 48 hours the eggs had hatched and fry were clinging on to the tank sides. Another 24 hours saw them free swimming. First food was homemade liquid fry food for five days. They were then large enough to accept newly hatched brine shrimp. Following brine shrimp, they went on to regular flake food, sifted Daphnia and chopped tubifex worms. Growth is reasonably rapid. Within two months, they are around ¾ of an inch. At this size, there is little colouration evident just a hint of the bars on the sides and a slight purple tinge of colour. This is by no means a large species of Danio. The adult fish will probably attain a S/L of no more than 45 to 50 mm. This breeding was of course accomplished easily to say the very least! Since then, I have spawned them using a conventional net method and they responded with similar results. In spite of its relatively small size, this fish is a prolific egg producer and yields are very high.
This is an attractive Danio, which will looks very nice as a shoal in a community tank.
References:
1. Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters. Volume 8 No1.
© Pete Cottle, 2003. This fact sheet may not be reproduced in any form without the permission of the author.