what fish is this?

[hwchoy]

Got this fish from Plantas today. According to the owner supposed to be a kind of lampeye, a killifish. But I thought it looked like a rice fish Oryzias sp. What do you guys think?

The eyes glow bright blue, and looks silver from the top, like two headlights. the anal fins are torn in this specimen, I have three others with complete fins. size about 2cm.

[wks]

Beautiful fish. SE Asian?

[timebomb]

Choy,

The common name for the fish is Java Medaka. It's from India. Madan Subramanian hand-carried some for me when he visited Singapore recently. He caught them from a pond somewhere in northern India.

I'm not too sure about this but I think the fish is no longer classified as a Killie. It belongs to the "Rainbow Fish" group now, I think. I'm not sure of its scientific name too but it could be "Oryzias melastigma".

The fish has very interesting breeding cycles. The females carry the eggs outside their bodies in a clutch. They breed easily in a heavily planted tank. I have many fry now.

Loh K L

[hwchoy]

Hi Timebomb, great as I was pretty sure it should be a ricefish (or Medaka). Now we just have to figure out which species. Apparently Oryzias melastigma is no longer a valid name.

According to fishbase, the ricefish and killi used to be grouped/confused together. What was the Oryzias melastigma became the blue panchax Aplocheilus panchax. Ricdefish are now classified under the order beloniformes, as as the needlefish.

I'm thinking it could be Oryzias dancena. I found the paper by T.R. Roberts on Oryzias. I will have a look and post some comments later.

thanx for the ID!
[:]

[hwchoy]

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On 12/21/2003 11:03:11 AM

Beautiful fish. SE Asian?
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wks, Indian as KL pointed out. Could be a nice fish for small pond because of the bright eyes.

[timebomb]

Choy,

Thanks for the clarification. Inspired by the picture you took, I spent the better part of the morning trying to capture a picture of the female carrying the eggs outside her body. I took about 200 pictures before I finally got one good one. If you like to take a look, go to:

http://killies.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3429#3429

Loh K L

[hwchoy]

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On 12/21/2003 4:14:28 PM

Choy,

Thanks for the clarification. Inspired by the picture you took, I spent the better part of the morning trying to capture a picture of the female carrying the eggs outside her body. I took about 200 pictures before I finally got one good one. If you like to take a look, go to:

http://killies.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3429#3429

Loh K L
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follow this link for continued discussion of this fish.

[MrTree]

the native japanese medaka, females carries the eggs and then stick them onto plants or glass surface of the tank. Used to be one of the most comon pet-in-the-class-room but it's on the endangered list now.

[hwchoy]

I believe this is the Oryzias dancena from India. Go over to www.killies.com for continued saga.