Description
The dwarf emerald rasbora, or Celestichthys erythromicron, is a tiny fish that is native to Lake Inle. Once thought to be endemic, it has also been collected in the surrounding watershed, as well as a bit further south. This nano fish is a base gold color, with various numbers of vertical dark bars covering it. When these bars reflect the light in the perfect angle, these bars can appear a beautiful smaragdine green, which earns it the name emerald. Do note that these bars show up most strongly when the fish are fired up and trying to breed, so sometimes this fish will appear mostly its golden base color, which is very pretty on its own too.
Located in Myanmar, lake Inle is a huge lake that is about 45 square miles, but at its deepest point during the wet season is only about 17 feet deep, making it an amazing spot for many different species of flora and fauna, a large number of which are truly endemic to the lake. Due to how shallow the lake is, a large diversity of nano fish and invertebrates flourish there, and the erythromicron danio is no exception. Because the lake is relatively shallow, there is enough light in most of it for a lot of plant life to flourish as well, all throughout the lake. Due to its location in a karstic zone, the water tends to be slightly alkaline in ph, and typically has some minerals dissolved in, such as limestone from the nearby underground rivers and caves. The water hardness there is typically in the 200 to 350 ppm range. In the home aquarium they tend to not be bothered all too much about water hardness, but definitely appreciate clean water. Even though their water in the wild does not have much flow, because of how large the lake is, as well as the density of plants, the water never has a chance to get dirty. This is the most important factor that you should remember when setting up your aquarium, and you should definitely have a seasoned filter that can handle any waste your fish might produce. These fish are most comfortable as well as active in a densely planted tank which matches their natural lake.
Although these danios can be added to a peaceful community aquarium, but they are very small, and tend to be both outcompeted by larger fish as well as shy. The best way to make them show off is to keep them in a species only setup where the males can spar with each other without interruption, and you will definitely see the most stunning colors these little fish have to offer. Alternatively, you could try to keep a lake Inle biotope, since there are so many fish, and even plants, that are endemic just to that lake! These shoaling fish do not ship individually bagged.
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