Zebra Loach

Native

The zebra loach, is a small freshwater fish native to Southern India.

Description

Zebra loaches (Botia striata) are peaceful fish suitable to community aquarium tanks. However, being bottom feeder, they may show some aggression against other smaller bottom feeder. They should be kept in group of at least two or three and require some caves to hide during most of daylight. They will accept a wide variety of fish foods, including live food such as black worms, snails and small shrimps, and most commercial brands of sinking fish foods. The maximum size is about 3 “(7.8 cm).

Native

The Silver shark occurs in the Mekong and Chao Phraya River basins, Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo

Description

The Silver shark, (Balantiocheilos melanopterus) is also known as the tricolor shark, Bala shark, or shark minnow. This species is not a true shark, but is commonly called a "shark" because of its torpedo-shaped body and large fins. These fish are generally peaceful and good companions to many other types of tropical fish. These fish can reach 35 cms (15 “).

Bleeding Heart Tetra

Description

Bleeding Hearts (http://tetraz.blogspot.com)are generally a peaceful fish but fin nipping may become a problem. Keep them in a small school (6 or more) and try not to keep them with fish with larger fins such as angelfish (http://ciclidzzz.blogspot.com). They do well in a variety of community tanks, and like most tetras they do best in groups and with bushy plants. They have a splendid body shape and, after a month or two in captivity, their colors get very beautiful, especially when fed (two or three days a week) with frozen brine shrimp. They have the eye-catching, blood-red spot at the heart area and the black/white patch on the dorsal fin.

Blue Gularis

Description

This fish is called the Blue Gularis because of its bright color. People often find them in the hollow of a tree. How on earth do they get there? With the help of birds. The birds wade in shallow puddles looking for worms, the wet mud clings to their feet and in the mud is the roe of the Blue Gularis. When the bird has found its worm it flies off home to its hollow tree, where it cleans the clay off its feet. The roe comes off as well, and out hatch the young. People come out after the rain, find a puddle has formed in the hallow tree, and in the puddle Blue Gularis are swimming.

Tiger Barb

Native

This fish comes from Indonesia, from the island of Sumatra, and is also called Sumatra Barb. Tiger barbs are also found in many other parts of Asia.

Description

The tiger barb (Puntius tetrazona) or sumatra barb, is a species of tropical freshwater fish. The Tiger Barb is yellow, with black stripes across its body. This coloring helps it to hide away from its enemies. It goes down to the sand at the bottom and takes up a position among the stems of the weeds there, and you can’t make it out at all. The dark stem against the yellow sand look just like the stripes on the Tiger Barb’s body. The tiger barb is an active schooling fish that is usually kept in groups of five or more. They are often aggressive in numbers less than 5 and are known fin nippers. If you only keep two in a tank, one will eventually chase the other. They are not recommended for tanks with slower, more peaceful fishes such as gouramis, angelfish and others with long flowing fins. One of the best tankmates for the tiger barb is a clown loach, which will school with the tiger barbs and act as they do, and the tigers act as the loaches do. These barbs are omnivorous and will consume processed foods such as flakes and crisps as well as live foods.

Red-Tailed Shark

Native

Red-tailed black sharks are originally from Mae Klong River in Thailand, but may already be extinct in the wild, and are therefore listed on the Red list of endangered animals.

Description

Red tailed Shark, is a bit aggressive towards its own kind but is very peaceful towards other fish. These fish are territorial and hostile. They can be kept in community tanks with care. This beautiful fish has no problem eating varieties of foods but prefer its food to be alive. It has a black body ending in a red caudal base and tail.

Clown Loach

Native

The clown loach, Chromobotia macracanthus, or tiger botia is a tropical freshwater fish belonging to the Cobitidae (loach) family. It is the sole member of the Chromobotia genus. It originates in inland waters in Indonesia on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo.

Description

Their body is elongated and mostly asymmetrical. Loaches have barbells(or feelers) around their mouth and are bottom dwelling fish with flattened undersides. Their bodies are often armed with erect spines-such as those situated in front of the eyes-which act as defense mechanism. Loaches may take air from surface and extract oxygen in the gut. This shows that they have evolved to live in stagnant waters. Clown Loaches are very active fishes with funny behavioral characteristics as rolling over and lying around as if dead!. The maximum size in aquarium is 30cm.

Kissing Gourami

Native

These fish originate from Thailand to Indonesia. They are highly commercial food fish which are farmed in their native Southeast Asia.

Description

Kissing gouramis, also known as kissers (Helostoma temminckii), are large tropical freshwater fish. The most distinctive feature of the kissing gourami is its mouth. Other than being terminal rather than superior, the kissing gourami's mouth is highly protrusible. Kissing gouramis reach a maximum size of 30 centimetres (12 “).Kissing gouramis are also popular with aquarists for the fish's peculiar "kissing" behaviour of other fish, plants, and other objects. These fish may be useful as algae eaters to control algae growth. The fish will accept vegetables such as cooked lettuce and any kind of live food.

Clown Knifefish

Native

Most knifefish species come from Southeast Asia, specifically Thailand, Borneo, Malaysia, India, and Sumatra.These fish usually are found in lakes, swamps, and river backwaters. They prefer still waters and can survive with low oxygen.

Description

The clown knifefish, clown featherback fish or spotted knifefish, Chitala ornata, is a nocturnal tropical fish with a long knife-like body. The clown knifefish is very distinct, normally silvery gray with a long knife like body (laterally compressed) and a long anal fin that gives these fish their common name. Mature fish normally have 5-10 (or even more) black spots ringed with white that usually increase in number and size as the fish grows. The clown knifefish grows to a fairly large size, up to 100 cm and 5 kg in the wild. It has 2 nasal tentacles above their large toothed mouth. They normally hunt live prey and will try any fish that fits into their mouths. Clown knifefish are hearty eaters, one of the reasons people like them as pets. They are predatory fish and will take live foods such as feeder fish, ghost shrimp and blackworms. With time they can be adapted to foods such as beefheart and will sometimes learn to accept commercial food pellets. They prefer feeding when the lights are off.

BlackGhost Fish

Native

The black ghost knifefish, Apteronotus albifrons, is a tropical fish belonging to the ghost knifefish family (Apteronotidae). They originate in South America in the Amazon Basin in Peru and from Venezuela through Paraguay in the Paraná Rivers.

Description

They are becoming popular in aquaria. The fish is all black except for two white rings on its tail, and a white blaze on its nose, which can occasionally extend into a stripe down its back. It moves mainly by using a long fin on its underside. It will grow to a maximum length of 25 inches (60 centimeters). They are nocturnal, but they are weakly electric fish and use an electric organ and receptors distributed over the length of their body in order to find insect larvae. They should not be kept with neon tetras and other very small fish because the black ghost knifefish will eat the small fish. In the aquarium black ghost knifefish will eat carnivore pellets, bloodworms and feeder fish. They will also eat peas, earthworms and frozen community fish foods.

Pompom Goldfish

Native

The Country of their origin is Japan and China.

Description

Pompoms or pompon or hana fusa are a type of fancy goldfish that have bundles of loose fleshy outgrowths between the nostrils, on each side of the head. The pompom has a similar body shape and finnage to the lionhead but instead of supporting a head growth it has nasal outgrowths. The extent of the nasal outgrowths, which are enlargements of the nasal septum, vary in pompom goldfish. In some, the outgrowths hang down past the mouth. These skin outgrowths around the nostrils of pompoms are developed through selective breeding. Pompoms may have either metallic or nacreous scalation, and can occur with or without a dorsal fin. It will be best if these fishes are engaged with the same variety or other dorsal fin less fishes.

Butterfly Goldfish

Native

The butterfly tail goldfish or jikin, as it is known in Japan, is believed to have been developed from the hardy wakin, a Japanese goldfish variety (also common in China and the rest of Asia) which is very similar to the river carp.

Description

Butterfly tail is also called as star tailed.The butterfly tail is similar to the wakin except that, when viewed from behind, its double tail fin has a pronounced "X" shape. It has a characteristic long, cigar-shaped or torpedo-shaped body that is white, with red lips, fins and gill covers.

Pearscale Golfish

Native

The Country of their origin are Japan and China.

Description

The pearlscale or chinshurin in Japanese, is a spherical-bodied fancy goldfish with finnage similar to the fantail. The characteristic feature of the pearlscale is its thick, domed scales with pearl-like appearance.Its body is round and similar to a golf ball. The finnage may be long or short. Pearlscales can reach up to 8 inches long and grow up as large as oranges. However, pearlscale fancy goldfish are prone to swimbladder disorders which affect the ability to maintain normal position in the water. The colour may be metallic (self-coloured or variegated in a pleasing pattern and similar on each side) or calico. Metallic colours should appear as burnished metal, extending into the fins. Calico fish should have a blue background with patches of violet, red, orange, yellow and brown, spotted with black.

liohead Goldfish

Native

Lionheads were bred in China to depict the image of the mythical Chinese lion-dog They were introduced to Japan from China during the 17th and 18th centuries. The Japanese produced lionheads with more rounded back profiles, modified tails and diminished size of the headgrowth.

Description

The lionhead is a hooded variety of fancy goldfish. This fish is the precursor to the ranchu. The tremendous hood or headgrowth and fat cheeks of lionheads give them a facial appearance similar to canine puppies. Lionheads have short but deep bodies, and relatively straight or evenly arched backs without dorsal fins. The finnage, in general, is short. The tail of a traditional lionhead can be fully separated, partially separated, or webbed. The back of the proper lionhead is quite broad to support the placement of the raspberry-like hood. Hood development may vary but is more pronounced in males. The hood normally takes a year to develop in young fry. Mature male lionheads periodically shed patches of their headgrowths.

Veiltail Goldfish

Native

The veiltail is believed to have originated in Japan but has been bred in the United States in the 1900s.

Description

The veiltail is a beautiful and graceful fancy goldfish which is known for its extra-long, flowing tail. The veiltail has a modified deep-and-round They are not good swimmers but can be kept with other fancy goldfish.-shaped body accented by a lengthy and graceful tail. The tail is square but without any forking or indentation between the lobes. It also has a high, prominent and well-developed dorsal fin. The anal fins are paired and are quite well-developed as well. Veiltails are available in many colors and may have either metallic or nacreous scales. They can grow from 8 to 12 inches (20 to 31 centimeters). The long and trailing tail of the veiltail is delicate and can be easily damaged. Veiltails are also susceptible to low water temperatures. Telescope-eyed veiltails have difficulty competing for food with more active goldfish.

Shubunkin Goldfish

Native

Shubunkins are a hardy, single-tailed fancy goldfish with nacreous scales. The shubunkins are of Japanese origin.

Description

The shubunkin, nicknamed "Poor Mans Koi", are similar to the common goldfish .They have streamlined bodies with well-developed and even fins. However, the shubunkins like calico goldfish; they possess nacreous scales (a mix of metallic and transparent scales that are pearly in appearance). The overlapping patches of red, white, grey and black (along with dark speckles) normally extend to the finnage of shubunkins. It may take several months for the nacreous coloration to develop on a young fry(baby fish). Shubunkins are excellent pond fish because they reach a length of 9 to 16 inches (22.86 to 40.6 centimeters) at adulthood. A shubunkin goldfish is considered an adult at 2 to 3 years of age.

Koi Carp

Native

They originated from the Caspian Sea with natural habitat surrounding the North, Baltic, Mediterranean, Black, Azov, Caspian and Aral Sea basins. Wild populations of the common carp now exist in North America, Africa, Europe, Asia and South America.

Description

Koi carp belongs to Cyprinidae family(the largest group among freshwater fishes).They rely on their teeth in their pharynx to break up their food.These are cold water fishes from which the Chinese and Japanese have developed fascinating variations of colours and shapes over centuries, starting from the 11^th century in China.Koi varieties are distinguished by coloration, patterning, and scalation. Koi have many different colors. Some of the major colors are white, black, red, yellow, blue, and cream.Their maximum size in the aquarium is 30cm. They are well suited to life in aquariums and ponds,live for long years and grow to good sizes.

Calico Goldfish

Description

Calico or nacreous goldfish are goldfish of any breed that sport a mixture of metallic and transparent scales that produces a pearly appearance. The name "calico goldfish" is often associated, and sometimes confused, with the shubunkin goldfish. Calico goldfish have patches of red, yellow, grey and black along with dark speckles on a blue background. This nacreous coloration of usually extends over the fins. Although calico coloration occasionally occurs in other fancy goldfish varieties such as telescope eyes, fantails, ryukins, orandas, and ranchus, this nacreous characteristic is exclusive to the shubunkins which are single-tailed fish that are similar to the common goldfish and could grow up to 12 inches in length.

Ranchu Goldfish

Origin

The modern-day ranchu is a Japanese development of the lionhead.They are the direct outcome of crossbreeding experiments of different Chinese lionhead specimens.

Description

The ranchu is a hooded variety of fancy goldfish developed in Japan. It is referred to as the "king of goldfish" by the Japanese. Compared to lionheads, ranchus have a more downturned tail and tail fin. Although similar to lionheads, ranchus have more-arched backs and have much shorter tails that are tucked-in at a sharp angle. A ranchu has an egg-shaped body with a deep belly that is between 5/8 to 3/4 the length of the fish. The most prominent feature of the ranchu is its head. Mature ranchus can reach between 6 to 8 inches (15 to 20 centimeters) in length. Ranchus may come in orange, red, white, red-and-white, blue, black, black-and-white, black-and-red, natural, and chocolate coloration. Scalation may either be metallic, nacreous (calico) or matte. Ranchus with a pale-yellow bodies and bright red heads are rare.