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Thread: Your Smallest Fish

  1. #1
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    Your Smallest Fish

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    Here's a deviation into an area that not many of us go into. The world of tiny fish. A picture of the smallest fish in my care. Anyone else into miniatures?

    Fish.. Simply Irresistable
    Back to Killies... slowly.

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    Yep,

    I like little fish a lot. BG just sent me a herd of Heterandria formosa that I really dig.

    For years we thought they were the world's smallest vertebrate, but a few gobies have them beat. Is yours one of those?

    Wright
    01 760 872-3995
    805 Valley West Circle
    Bishop, CA 93514 USA

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    Just to add, this little goby is just 15mm in size. Sometimes I have a hard time searching for the little fella. Feeds on tubifex and invertebrates like daphnia and BBS.
    Fish.. Simply Irresistable
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  4. #4
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    My Boraras urolpthamoides are circa 1 cm and fat too. Do they count as small or do I have to lop off their caudals to qualify??

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    Wright, that's quite possible considering how small this fella is. There is a species of goby from the Philippines that takes the cake. Called Pandaka pygmaea, males are 7.5 - 9.9-mm (0.28 - 0.38-in) long and weigh 4 - 5 mg (0.00014 - 0.00018 oz) at maturity.
    Fish.. Simply Irresistable
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    budak, B. urophthalmoides can achieve sizes beyond 1.5cm. I have several that are 2cm now. Overfeeding with tubifex, daphnia and dried foods causes them to grow to such sizes.
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    A certain Danionella from Myanmar (in one of my stashed old TFHs) is supposed to be the smallest (in bulk)... though longer than the Philippines goby it is less heavily built.... although I wonder if those tiny red cyprinids caught by Kuching in Sarawak would beat the Danionella.

    PDF here

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    My Baensch lists my formosa as the world's 7th lsmallest fish, but it is, no doubt, out of date.

    He shows the males as 2 cm and the females to 4.5 cm. Mine are smaller but may be young.

    I'm checking for a collection location for mine, but knowing BG, I would suspect just N. of Lake Ponchartrain near New Orleans.

    I love some of the tiny Boraras species, but they rarely make it to the stores here. Robert Nhan visited Viet Nam a couple of years ago, and brought back some lovely tiny yellow ones he caught there. IDK what species they were, but they were certainly small, too.

    Any pics of B. urophthalmoides around? I have not seen them before, I suspect.

    Wright
    01 760 872-3995
    805 Valley West Circle
    Bishop, CA 93514 USA

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    Wright, I don't have a picture of the species but a local hobbyist has a splendid photograph of this species. I gave up photographing mine because they can't stay in position long enough for me to get a decent shot off.

    They are characterised by a single black marking (with an occasional metallic green sheen) running from behind the gill cover and ending at the base of the caudal fin.

    This marking is usually like an odd-shaped oval with pointed tips.

    Body colouration is usually clear to occasionally light sandy brown. Dorsal and anal fins are tipped black, as is the two tips of the caudal fin. Body is rather stocky, with a short stout body. B. brigittae, which is very similar, has a more streamlined shape.

    B. urophthalmoides can get pretty big for a Boraras and they are incessant feeders. Very greedy for a very small fish. I bet they're the ones Robert brought back from Vietnam. They're found in Vietnam too. :wink:
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    And very hardy and long lived too for their size! Mine (except for those gobbled up by a wild einthoveni) are approaching two years in my mini tank.

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    Somehow or rather they do better in mini tanks 1ft and below. When you keep them in large shoals in a big tank they seem to suffer from malnutrition and all sorts of problems.
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    In the wild, I find Boraras maculatus in very sheltered, stillish blackwater water habitats, small forest pools with overgrown foliage and good leaf litter. Cohabitants are typically Paros, Chocolates, Systoma hexazona, wine bettas, smaller rasboras like pauciperforata.... you won't find them in waters with harlequins, elegans, einthovenii..... but where they exist, they seem to form large numbers.

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    I have Neoheterandia elegans mixed in with my Rivulus frenatus and xiphidius as dithers. They supposedly only reach 2 cm in length. You can find a picture here.

    tt4n

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    I keep H. formosa. The males differ quite a bit in size IME.

    Tyrone: How do the N. elegans compare to H. formosa?

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    Hi,

    Does anyone know where I can get Heterandria formosa in Singapore?

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    Hello there Danny1 (I presume Danny's your name),

    I don't know of anyone keeping Het. formosa but we do have Gambusia holbrooki that crops up in feeder mollies at the LFSes here in Singapore.
    Fish.. Simply Irresistable
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    Quote Originally Posted by whuntley
    Any pics of B. urophthalmoides around? I have not seen them before, I suspect.

    Wright
    beware some Internet pics confuses this with the B. brigittae. some B. urophthalmoides will show flushes of red.

    Boraras urophthalmoides
    why I don't do garden hybrids and aquarium strains: natural species is a history of Nature, while hybrids are just the whims of Man.
    hexazona · crumenatum · Galleria Botanica

  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by stormhawk
    Hello there Danny1 (I presume Danny's your name),

    I don't know of anyone keeping Het. formosa but we do have Gambusia holbrooki that crops up in feeder mollies at the LFSes here in Singapore.
    stormhawkii, if you come across these "other" species can keep some for me?
    why I don't do garden hybrids and aquarium strains: natural species is a history of Nature, while hybrids are just the whims of Man.
    hexazona · crumenatum · Galleria Botanica

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    choyii, if I do come across any of these oddballs I'll update you accordingly. :wink:

    Another bit to add on to B. urophthalmoides. Some specimens will show a metallic green sheen to the black mid-body marking.
    Fish.. Simply Irresistable
    Back to Killies... slowly.

  20. #20
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    Gen-X in marine parade has a tankful of very nice specimens of B. urophthalmoides with many showing a red flush.
    why I don't do garden hybrids and aquarium strains: natural species is a history of Nature, while hybrids are just the whims of Man.
    hexazona · crumenatum · Galleria Botanica

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