Mini Putao Danio

[BillT]

These are some new fish I got today. They are probably not a named species since Dennis and his connections could not ID them. They "scientific" name the wholesaler is using is Devario cf putaoensis. Devario is the genus of the Giant Danio and a lot of other similarly shaped fish. Putao is a town in Myanmar (AKA Burma) and I believe is also where the Danio flagrans came from.

These are small fish and look not yet mature to me. One of the reasons I am interested in them is because they are supposed to be small. As a group they are 1.5" or shorter in length. I am hoping that they don't get much larger.

[BillT]

I am expecting the look of these to change quite a bit as they mature. The same guys that wholesaled these to the local fish store were also selling them on aquabid and the picture had a lot more color (and I think more red). I would guess the aquabid picture was of an adult from the exporter where they came from (Myanmar).

[Mugwump]

Nice find, good catch, if they mature to good coloring....good luck

[BallAquatics]

Hey Bill, what did these guys grow up to look like?  We need an update photo please.

Dennis

[BillT]

I'll try to take some pictures of them this week. I also want to take pictures of what I think are their sister species, Devario devario. This fish looks a lot like the "mini's", but has a more normal (longer) looking body.

I also got what I think is their sister species, Devario devario, and I want to get some lab guys interested enough in them to do a bone stain on some of each species so we can see if they are lacking some of the vertebrae in D. devario. The bone stain will make the bones red and clear the body tissues. Looks really cool.

Pictures of both of these species will hopefully convince them to stain them.

[BallAquatics]

I was hoping they would turn out to be Danio flagrans, but if they look like the sister fish of Devario devario instead of Danio choprae I guess that not going to be the case.

When they called them Mini Putao Danio, I assumed they were from Putao township in northern Myanmar.  Of course that's probably what the exporter was hoping for!

Dennis

[BillT]

I think they are from the Putao township Dennis, but they don't look like flagrans.

Here's a picture I made to compare Devario devario (bottom row) with the "mini's" (bottom row):



I'm think the distance between the operculum (gill cover) and anal fin is longer in the Devario devario fish.
Could be a difference on the number of vertebrae.

[Mugwump]

Very nice picture detail..