Edit Devario assamensis

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Name

Scientific name

Devario assamensis

Described by

Authority Barman, Year 1984, Bracketed

Family

Cyprinidae

Common names

Not recorded

Photograph credits

All 6 credited

Summary

Devario assamensis is a deep-bodied devario from Assam and West Bengal in northeastern India, in tributaries of the lower Brahmaputra. It h…

Size and aquarium

Maximum size

90mm, standard length

Aquarium size

Minimum length 120 cm, Minimum depth 45 cm

Water

Water conditions

Temperature 15–22°C, pH 6–8

Hardness

2–12dGH

Conductivity

Not recorded

Behaviour

Temperament

Peaceful

Community suitability

Community-safe

Where it lives

Countries, regions, rivers and lakes

Bhutan, India, Brahmaputra, Kalmoni, Mahananda, Mirik

Writing

Etymology

Devario: appears to be derived from a local vernacular name for the type species of the genus Cyprinus (now Devario) devario Hamilton, 1822. assamensis: named …

Distribution

Type locality is 'Streamlets near Tangla, Darrang District, Assam, India', but records also exist from the Mahananda River in West Bengal state and other tribu…

Habitat

If distribution records are correct this species occurs in both lowland and higher altitude environments, from around 250 m AMSL in Darrang to 1767 m in Mirik,…

Aquarium size

An aquarium with surface dimensions of 120 ∗ 45 cm or equivalent should be the smallest considered.

Maintenance

Not difficult to keep in a well-maintained aquarium. It's likely to thrive in an aquarium set up to resemble a flowing stream or river with a substrate of vari…

Water conditions

Temperature: Prefers cooler water within the range 15 – 22 °C and will not thrive in tropical conditions. Additional aeration may be required during summer mon…

Diet

Almost certain to prey chiefly on insects and their larvae in nature and likely to prove an unfussy feeder in captivity. A good quality dried product can be us…

Behaviour and compatibility

Not an aggressive fish but may upset slow-moving or timid tankmates with its constant activity and vigorous feeding behaviour, and is therefore most appropriat…

Sexual dimorphism

Sexually mature females should be rounder-bellied, less colourful and a little larger than males.

Reproduction

Like most small cyprinids Devario spp. are egg-scattering free spawners exhibiting no parental care. When in good condition they will spawn often and in a well…

Notes

This species has been traded as Devario sp. 'Mirik red', D. sp. 'redline', or D. sp. 'blood stripe'. It's very rare in the aquarium hobby and to date we've bee…

This species has been traded as Devario sp. 'Mirik red', D. sp. 'redline', or D. sp. 'blood stripe'.

It's very rare in the aquarium hobby and to date we've been unable to obtain diagnostic details although it's certainly a deep-bodied fish with a P stripe (see below) extending to the fork of the caudal-fin, and in these respects is similar to the congener D. ostreographus (McClelland, 1839)[9], which was also described from Assam.

The latter was considered a synonym of D. devario for a number of years but was revalidated by Conway et al. (2009) on the basis of colour patterns since McClelland's figure clearly depicts a fish with several lateral stripes on each flank whereas D. devario has only a single, broken stripe.

McClelland also described the widespread D. aequipinnatus auct. from Assam, and there is uncertainty surrounding the taxonomic status of this group of nominal species which will hopefully be resolved with further study.

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) Devario spp. are characterised by: possession of a P stripe extending onto the median caudal-fin rays; a short maxillary barbel (absent in some species); absence of the A stripe (a less distinct, relatively wide stripe is present in some species, e.g., D. acrostomus, D. annandalei, D. xyrops); a short, wide premaxillary process (cleft in the upper jaw) with a tiny apophysis (bony tubercule) touching the kinethmoid bone; infraorbital 5 not or slightly reduced.

The current genus name has only been in general use since 2003 prior to which members were considered to belong to the genus Danio.

Older, molecular, phylogenies tended to agree that the latter 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 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, although Kottelat (2013) later restricted Danio to its type species, D. dangila, and placed most former members in the revalidated genera Brachydanio and Celestichthys. Kullander (2015), the Catalog of Fishes and FishBase do not follow that split and keep those species in Danio.

These results have largely been supported by subsequent phylogenetic analyses (e.g. Mayden et al., 2007), although Devario has still undergone a little reshuffling, particularly following Fang et al. (2009) and Kottelat (2013).

In the former study the two species previously comprising the genus Inlecypris were brought into synonymy with Devario and three species formerly included in Microrasbora were moved into the new genus Microdevario based on possession of shared synapomorphies with Devario. The existence of a monophyletic clade consisting of the genera Devario, Chela, Laubuca, Microdevario and Microrasbora was also hypothesised, a theory upheld in the more recent study by Tang et al. (2010). The genus Betadevario (Pramod et al., 2010)[5] is also nested within this grouping and is sister to Devario and Microrasbora.

Kottelat (2013) revalidated the genus Inlecypris whilst noting that phylogenetic evidence suggests the existence of two genetic lineages within Devario. The first contains the species with prominent lateral stripes, which leaves the remaining members (D. apogon and D. chrysotaeniatus) of uncertain taxonomic placement. In addition, a number of the striped species share a colour pattern comprising a midlateral stripe on the posterior half of the body with a few bars in the anterior portion and golden patches between them. These may eventually be placed in a separate genus for which the name Parabarilius is available.

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References

11 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