Danio margaritatus (Galaxy Rasbora/Celestial Pearl Danio)

[d2sign]

A bit regret to bought them after knowing they are under threat. Any galaxy owner kind to share your experience? What's their habit like, diet? If can, share your pic and your setup here please... Will post mine when I able to see them as they hiding most of the time when I try to walk closer.

Found a few successful cases to bred them:
http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/...ra_Galaxy.html
http://www.h2.dion.ne.jp/~domestic/hanabi.htm (Japanese)
http://www.aquaristikecke.de/Haltung...garitatus.html (Deutsch)

* Can use google translate the whole page

Please stop buying them until they are successfully breed in large amount commercially. Cheers!

Share some pic I found online. Source: http://www.aquaristikecke.de/

[Quixotic]

There was a recent revision on the taxanomy of the fish and they have been reassigned to the genus Danio.

Some previous threads,
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...ad.php?t=23742
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...ad.php?t=36676
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...ad.php?t=27200

[EvolutionZ]

they are very beautiful fishes..
they are rather easy to keep as well..but for me, i find them way too shy.. you get close too the tank, it goes into hiding.

[hwchoy]

it depends on which school you subscribe to. having personally knowing the scientist and a glimpse of his fanatical working methods, and also a poll of the opinion of some of the taxnomists I know, and of course a critical reading of the revision paper (as much as a layman could, at any rate), I am not inclined to go with the revision. It is still Celestichthys margaritatus in my books. bearing in mind the original describer is a scientist who prefer to err on the side of caution, and did not assign Microrasbora erythromicron into the new genus.

[Quixotic]

Thanks Choy on the insight.

...having personally knowing the scientist and a glimpse of his fanatical working methods...

I take it the scientist you are referring here is Tyson Roberts, and not Kevin Conway et al. right? Because those who aren't aware could have read the sentence both ways.

[hwchoy]

yes yes I meant Tyson he was visiting NUS/RMBR during the time he was working on Celestichthys margaritatus and I had the pleasure to actually look at the hundreds of stained and preserved specimens (yes bro, hundreds of dead galaxy rasbora). he even showed me an interesting bone structure in the fish which resembles the Death Star in Star Wars

I also had a discussion with him about the colour patterns (spots) and how spots are not so different from stripes and bars. I had read about a series of studies of how the chromatophores develop and migrate in Danio fishes to create all the various patterns we see. He was not aware of that study and he actually got in touch with those scientists to understand more about the process. He was very definitely aware of the colour and pattern structures and development in Danio fishes.

[hwchoy]

by the way Tyson actually told me the reason he did not reassign Microrasbora erythromicron to Celestichthys. simply, he did not have enough specimens and time to do the necessary proper research to warrant such a major reassignment.

we did discussed how closely both fishes resemble each other, including the hump shape of the dorsal surface, even though one had bar and the other had spots. that was when I mentioned the chromatophore study papers.

[torque6]

we do know they are under threat some time back, but just last week i saw polyart have a glass full of them. So not sure if those are farm breed or wild caught.

[Panut]

I saw in polyart too. I think they are wild caught, given the sunken bellies (due to transport?)

Anyway, they are are living in hell, so many in a tinyyyy tank!

i hate these LFSes. profit profit profit. Sucks big time.

[d2sign]

Those I bought was the last few... See them so so skinny but still couldn't resist their beautiful and unique texture.

Thanks everyone for the info, any owner kind to share some tips on taking care of these beautiful fishes?

[Quixotic]

yes yes I meant Tyson he was visiting NUS/RMBR during the time he was working on Celestichthys margaritatus and I had the pleasure to actually look at the hundreds of stained and preserved specimens (yes bro, hundreds of dead galaxy rasbora). he even showed me an interesting bone structure in the fish which resembles the Death Star in Star Wars

Wow, hundreds of them? That is A LOT of specimens. For such studies, you don't actually need hundreds of them, right? No wonder you mentioned fanatical. I'll go re-read the Tyson and Conway papers.

I also had a discussion with him about the colour patterns (spots) and how spots are not so different from stripes and bars. I had read about a series of studies of how the chromatophores develop and migrate in Danio fishes to create all the various patterns we see. He was not aware of that study and he actually got in touch with those scientists to understand more about the process. He was very definitely aware of the colour and pattern structures and development in Danio fishes.

Hmm... interesting information about the chromatophores. Do the development and migration happen in progressive phases (i.e. as they grow older), or depending on certain external/internal conditions? Is the chromatophore development applicable to other fishes besides Danio as well?

Now you've got me curious. What is this paper on the chromatophores? If you could, can I request for a copy to be dropped to my mailbox? Many thanks.

[hwchoy]

yes they were in a large tray and he was presumably going to sort through them.

You can see the title of the papers in the references cited, under Parichy and Quigley. Tyson made me an acknowledgement, which was a surprise and a very nice gesture. send me your email and I will pop the papers over.

[Shadow]

Just wondering does this Tyson and Conway papers are publicly available? So that common people like my self able to download and read it.

they are very beautiful fishes..
they are rather easy to keep as well..but for me, i find them way too shy.. you get close too the tank, it goes into hiding.

Mine was previously shy but after I put 15 Trigonostigma espei in the same tank, they end up schooling together. Interesting, I guess that was the trick

[Panut]

Yes, mine's more brave when there are other fishes around, and super super super shy when there are no other types of fishes.

[hwchoy]

Just wondering does this Tyson and Conway papers are publicly available? So that common people like my self able to download and read it.

most of us here are all "common" people, althought there is a couple of systematists/taxnomists lurking around.


Explore the Raffles Bulletin of Zoology archive: http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/rbz/index.php

The Roberts paper The “Celestial Pearl Danio”, a new genus and species of colourful minute cyprinid fish from Myanmar (Pisces: Cypriniformes). Tyson R. Roberts. Pp. 131-140 is here http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/rbz/biblio/55/55rbz131-140.pdf

[hwchoy]

and here is the Conway paper:

The “Celestial Pearl danio” is a miniature Danio (s.s) (Ostariophysi: Cyprinidae): evidence from morphology and molecules
KEVIN W. CONWAY, WEI-JEN CHEN & RICHARD L. MAYDEN

http://wjchen.actinops.googlepages.c...yetal.2008.pdf

[hwchoy]

Now you've got me curious. What is this paper on the chromatophores? If you could, can I request for a copy to be dropped to my mailbox? Many thanks.

here, there are lots of papers on the subject of pigmentation and pattern development by David Parichy.

http://protist.biology.washington.ed...blications.htm

[hwchoy]

and this is particularly interesting to read: Zebrafish in the Field and features Andrew Rao who so kindly sent me many new and rare specimens from India.

http://protist.biology.washington.ed...202007comp.pdf

[d2sign]

Mine was previously shy but after I put 15 Trigonostigma espei in the same tank, they end up schooling together. Interesting, I guess that was the trick

That is interesting. I got 12 in a nano tank, will in be too crowded if intro a few Trigonostigma espei?

[d2sign]

Bought another 4 galaxies and 6 Harlequin Rasbora instead of Trigonostigma espei. As expected, all the galaxies are not as shy now, 20+ of them school together and fight for the food, cute! Enjoy looking at them now.