Edit Danio albolineatus

You can suggest changes to this profile. A moderator will review each change.

Name

Scientific name

Danio albolineatus

Described by

Authority Blyth, Year 1860, Bracketed

Family

Cyprinidae

Common names

Pearl Danio

Photograph credits

All 13 credited

Summary

The pearl danio, Danio albolineatus, is a small cyprinid recorded from Myanmar and Indochina south to Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra. Colo…

Size and aquarium

Maximum size

55mm, standard length

Aquarium size

Minimum length 90 cm, Minimum depth 30 cm

Water

Water conditions

Temperature 16–25°C, pH 6–8

Hardness

1–20dGH

Conductivity

Not recorded

Behaviour

Temperament

Peaceful

Community suitability

Community-safe

Where it lives

Countries, regions, rivers and lakes

Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Ayeyarwady, Chao Phraya, Mae Klong, Mekong, Salween

Writing

Etymology

Danio: from Dhani, a Bengalese vernacular term for small, minnow-like cyprinids. albolineatus: from the Latin albus, meaning 'white', and lineatus, meaning 'li…

Distribution

Currently understood to be widely-distributed with records existing from parts of Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Peninsular Malaysia and the Indon…

Habitat

Inhabits various habitat-types from well-oxygenated, clear streams with rocky substrates running through forested areas, to still bodies of water such as ponds…

Aquarium size

Minimum base dimensions of 90 ∗ 30 cm are recommended for this active species.

Maintenance

Looks particularly effective in a heavily-planted arrangement with a darker substrate, and may appear paler in sparsely-decorated set-ups. We suggest maintaini…

Water conditions

Not written yet

Diet

Stomach analyses of wild specimens have revealed this species to be chiefly insectivorous, feeding on a variety of aquatic/terrestrial insects and their larvae…

Behaviour and compatibility

This species is very peaceful indeed making it an ideal resident of the well-furnished community tank. Since it places no special demands in terms of water che…

Sexual dimorphism

Sexually mature females are usually rounder-bellied, slightly less colourful and a little larger than males. The differences are especially clear when the fish…

Reproduction

Like many small cyprinids this species is an egg-scattering spawner that exhibits no parental care. That is to say when the fish are in good condition they wil…

Notes

Doubts remain whether D. albolineatus is representative of a single species or a group of similarly-patterned, closely-related fish, and the form from Chantabu…

Doubts remain whether D. albolineatus is representative of a single species or a group of similarly-patterned, closely-related fish, and the form from Chantaburi province in eastern Thailand was revalidated as D. pulcher Smith, 1931 by Kottelat (2013). The status of the currently invalid Danio tweediei Brittan, 1956 from Kedah state, northern Peninsular Malaysia may also be in question, since fish from that area are clearly identifiable from other forms and have even been misidentified as D. kerri in aquarium literature.

Specimens collected from different areas exhibit clear differences in colouration and patterning, e.g., those from western Thailand tend to show some orange colour in the dorsal half of the body while in central parts of the country the same portion is coloured blue. The length of the central orange stripe which extends from the caudal peduncle can also vary in both thickness and length, even among specimens collected from a single locality.

There is also a natural form from Yunnan province, China (see images) that superficially resembles D. roseus this is unlikely to have been collected for the aquarium trade.

Breeders in eastern Europe have successfully crossed D. albolineatus with D. roseus, and some of the fish traded are likely to be hybrids. If you want to avoid these beware of examples with a cheap price tag that show a high proportion of both powdery-blue colouration on the body and red in the ventral and anal fins.

According to Kottelat (2001), D. albolineatus can be told apart from congeners by the following combination of characters: 'body pink with two light yellow-white (iridescent in life) stripes from below dorsal origin to caudal base; short lateral line with 5-7 pored scales; 33-34 + 2 scales in lateral row; 7½ branched dorsal rays; 12-13½ branched anal rays; two pairs of long barbels, rostral barbels extending beyond eye, maxillary barbels beyond pectoral base.'

In recent years it's become commonplace to refer to the stripes on the body and fins of danionins as follows:

- P stripe: or "pigment stripe" is the central, dark, lateral stripe on the body which extends into the caudal-fin in some species. Stripes above it are numbered P+1, P+2, etc. and those beneath P-1, P-2, P-3.
- A stripe: the central stripe on the anal-fin; the proximal stripe (above it) is A+1 and the distal stripe (beneath) A-1.
- D stripe: The submarginal dorsal-fin stripe.

Following Fang (2003) Danio spp. are characterised by the presence of an A stripe on the anal-fin and two or more P stripes on the caudal, plus some internal characteristics such as enlarged nasal lamellae.

The genus has undergone some significant taxonomic reshuffling in recent years following the publication of a series of phylogenetic studies.

Older, molecular, phylogenies tended to agree that it represented a monophyletic group consisting of two major clades; the 'Danio devario' group containing the larger, deeper-bodied species and the 'D. rerio' clade comprising the smaller, slimmer fish.

However in 2003 Fang conducted a more detailed study based on morphological characters which included members of other related genera, and the results suggested for the first time that the genus Danio as previously considered represents a polyphyletic grouping, i.e., not all members derived from a single common ancestor.

The genus name Devario was suggested for the larger species with Danio being applied only to the smaller fish (with the exception of the type species, D. dangila which can grow to around 89 mm3.5 in SL). Recent molecular studies by Mayden et al. (2007) and Fang et al. (2009) resulted in further changes, with the latter study considering the genus Danio to be composed of three subclades. These were subsequently split into distinct genera by Kottelat (2013), as follows:

The former species D. erythromicron, D. margaritatus, D. choprae and D. flagrans were grouped together in the revalidated genus Celestichthys Roberts, 2007. These exhibit unique body patterning consisting of vertical bars (D. erythromicron, D. choprae, D. flagrans) or light spots (D. margaritatus) and possess either very short barbels or none at all.

Kottelat (2013) left only the type species, D. dangila, in Danio, separated on the basis of its larger size and the shape of the caudal-fin, which in adults is only slightly emarginate or even truncate in shape, a feature it shares only with Tinca tinca (the common tench) among other cyprinids.

The remaining species, of which D. rerio is thought to be the most ancient, were placed in the revalidated genus Brachydanio Weber & de Beaufort, 1916. Kullander (2015) did not follow this split, because phylogenetic analyses strongly support a single Danio in the sense of Fang (2003), with Devario a separate genus. The Catalog of Fishes and FishBase both keep all of these species in Danio.

Editing needs JavaScript. This is the text as it was last saved.

Where does this come from?

My own experienceFor example, I've kept twelve in a planted 60 cm tank since March 2024.A website I sawFor example, an IUCN Red List assessment, a museum catalogue or a FishBase page.A paperFor example, Marshall et al. (2011), Water temperature differences in interfluvial palm swamp habitats of Paracheirodon axelrodi and P. simulans.A book, or something not onlineFor example, Tappin (2010), Rainbowfishes: their care and keeping in captivity.Something already on the pageFor example, the Behaviour and compatibility section already says this.

Web address

Paste the address of the page that says this. What counts as a source

DOI

Paste a DOI and we will look up the rest of the reference. A DOI looks like 10.11646/zootaxa.4694.4.1, and most papers print it on the first page.

Title

Enter the title of the paper, book or page. If you leave it empty, we will use the website's address.

Authors

Separate authors with semicolons, e.g. Tan, H.H.; Ng, P.K.L.

Year

Journal or publisher

Pages

Enter the page that says this, e.g. 218 or 218–221.

Anything worth adding

Describe what you saw, or which part of the source says this.

References

9 on this profile

Name

Scientific name

Described by

Family

Common names

Photograph credits

Summary

Size and aquarium

Maximum size

Aquarium size

Water

Water conditions

Hardness

Conductivity

Behaviour

Temperament

Social needs

Community suitability

Where it lives

Countries, regions, rivers and lakes

Writing

Etymology

Distribution

Habitat

Aquarium size

Maintenance

Water conditions

Diet

Behaviour and compatibility

Sexual dimorphism

Reproduction

Notes

References

References