Sundadanio Axelrodi 'Blue'

[vannel]

Hi Guys,

It's been some time since I bought the 5 Sundadanio Axelrodi from an LFS (unfortunately some jumped and I'm left with 2). Recently, I decided on trying my luck with breeding this species and have comm'ed them together in a species tank with another batch of 5 which my colleague also bought.

Breeding seems to be quite rare for this Asian blackwater species and my limited Googling turned up only some limited information (low ph, ktp leaf bottom, very low light, alot of plants/dw as shade and security). Has anyone successfully bred this species or has knowledge on the intricacies?

Also, sexing this species doesn't seem so straightforward. I've read quite a number of websites that state the males usually exhibit black colouration on their anal fin. However, this is more for the red variant of this fish. Does anyone know if this is true for the blue variant as well? If so, I might be out of luck since all 7 of my batch seem to display the black anal fin. I do notice some are larger than others though.. Anyone has a batch of these or knows of any on sale?

Thanks in advance!

[stormhawk]

If there is a black tip to the anal fin then you might have Sundadanio margarition. This is however, dependent on the source of the fish. The species S. axelrodi was found to be a mixture of several Sundadanio species. They were described in a recent paper on Sundadanio species.

[vannel]

I think I've read that paper. If I remember correctly they are being described as 7 different species. Anyway, the ones I have are with a blue sheen and all of them sport a nice black anal fin closer to the posterior region. They were originally brought in by GC but I only ever saw 1 batch of them come into our shores. Not sure if anyone else still has them. I'll try my luck anyway with a very low light, blackwater setup.

[stormhawk]

http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species...anio-axelrodi/

This entry contains info on the Sundadanio.

http://www.danios.info/fish/axelrodi.aspx

This link contains a very brief paragraph on breeding conditions.

[vannel]

Thanks! I've actually already read through the links you provided.. plus a few more from the popular fish bases. It does seem like this breeding project is a long shot. Even sexing them is very grey. Oh well, that's what makes this an interesting project I guess.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[taoyeah]

i think the female is plumper.male more colorful when excited.