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Lake Inle Danio (Devario auropurpureus) Profile

8K views 0 replies 1 participant last post by  Kayleyface 
#1 · (Edited)
Information on these fish seems to exist out there, but none from people who have personally kept them. Thus, I wanted to share what I've learned.

Trade Name: Lake Inle Danio
Scientific Name: Devario Auropurpureus (sometimes incorrectly called: Inlecypris Auropurpureus)

Personal Background: I found these in one of my LFS about three years ago now. Over the years I've kept ten different, distinct danio species (and three color variants), so I was intrigued. I went home and researched them, and then went back the next day and bought them. I originally bought a school of five (all they had). The person at the LFS also gave me a single devario jayarami for free, a species virtually unknown in the aquarium trade, which is from the same lake. I suspect that she had just been scooped up with the other danios when they were caught. The lake inle danio were very tightly bonded with the devario jayarami and clearly considered her one of their school.

I currently have three lake inle danio left (two died recently while I wasn't living with my tank because of strange living situations). The ones I have left spawned this morning (for the first time that I'd seen), so they must still be in pretty decent shape still.

Description: These fish are some of the only barred danios species. They have yellow and black barring running up their entire sides (20-30 total bars generally). They lack the typical barbels of many danio (as many of the devario genus do), but maintain the torpedo shaped body.

Sexual Dimorphism: The males have darker coloration, particularly on their fins. Their dorsal and anal fins are also longer than female's, which is most easily noted when they are displaying for the females. Females are paler, larger (discernibly, but not hugely), and rounder bodied (though this is frequently hard to tell because of the general shape of the fish).

Origin: As their trade name implies, this species is endemic to Lake Inle in Myanmar (formerly Burma). Lake Inle is a clear water lake, with slow moving water, which contrasts to the fast moving water that is the home to many danio species. The lake is currently undergoing a lot of deforestation and pollution, so it's been estimated there has been population loss.

Size: 3-3.75", My largest female was nearly the size of my male pearl gourami in length.

Life Span: There's pretty much no information out there on this figure, but from personal experience, 3+ years.

Tank Requirements: In truth, the only dimension that I think truly matters is the length of your tank. I would never put these in less than a 3' tank. Mine are happy in a 4', 55 gallon. I recommend keeping live plants, but I don't imagine they will have a problem with plastic plants. They enjoy swimming through the taller foliage. You must have a large swimming area for these fish, because they're either darting about or just hanging out in the open water.

Water Requirements:
Temperature: 68-76F, mine have easily maintained up to 85F for a week when treating for sickness
PH: 7-8, they are quite adaptable, so it's likely they could tolerate acidic conditions easily
Hardness: 90-250ppm

Food: I typically feed most of my fish stock flake food. They do, however, love bloodworms, and they are naturally insectivores. Mine have never pushed other fish away from the food or tried to steal food from other fish.

Hardiness: These are the hardiest fish I've ever had, even hardier than zebra danios. They've been through some not ideal water conditions while someone else was watching my tank (something I'm not proud of) and they were the ones who came through intact healthwise.

Behavior: As with all danios, these are boisterous fish, but never hyperactive, as I found my giant danios to be. They are extremely social and do seem to have a strong bond within their own species. That being said, they are probably the friendliest fish to other fish species that I've ever kept. Despite the fact that they're 3+" they make incredible dither fish. There is no species, no matter how shy they were reported, that has not become bold and playful with this species around. I have never seen mine even try to nip at a fin.

I've read that some people consider them skittish and with regard to movement outside the tank, that is roughly true. They won't ever hide, in fact, I've never really seen mine outside the open water, but they will bolt for a second and then reform. Unlike some species (my rainbows and gourami come to mind) I doubt they'll ever greet you when you come to the tank, but they don't mind if you're there.

They are schooling fish, and a relatively tightly schooling fish for most danio species, so assuming you can find the numbers, maintain a school of 5 or 6 at the minimum. That being said, I obviously only have a school of three currently, because I haven't been able to locate any more and I've had no behavioral issues or even changes in behavior.

They can jump. I have a fully covered aquarium, so I've never seen this first hand. However, a word of caution. While I was living apart from my 55 gallon setup for three months one of my lake inle danios disappeared. I found her dead and dried out behind my tank, when I was moving out of my apartment. I would guess that she jumped out while someone besides myself had been doing a water change.

Tank Mates: I have kept mine with a wide array of different species and sizes of fish. I did actually keep them with celestial pearl danio, goldring danio, dwarf emerald rasbora, and glowlight danio (all 1" or less in length). I was initially hesitant, but the nanofish thrived with these larger ones. There is nothing funnier than watching a school of cpd happily mix in and try to keep up with lake inle danio.

That being said, mine have always been closest to my rose danio (also 3" of length) and now that I only have a single rose danio left, all four first are extremely close.

When choosing tankmates, exercise common sense. Other danio are an excellent choice. I've had no problems with gourami (both full sized and dwarf), rams, rainbowfish, cories, loaches, or swordtails. I've never kept them with barbs, but I don't imagine it would be an issue. I did have problems with a school of bloodfin tetra, but I suspect it was just a group of aggressive tetra. As I said, I've even kept them with a large variety of nanofish. So, if you want to put smaller fish in with them, they almost certainly won't harm them or try to eat them, as long as you're cautious about the introduction.

The only thing that I would stay away from are: fish that require extremely warm tropical water to live and aggressive fish.

Breeding: I've never had them spawn until today actually, but my water parameters are better than they've ever been, so I suspect that plays a part in it. They are egg scattering species, so a separate breeding tank with marbles (or something like it to protect the eggs) is the way to go if you did want to breed them. I don't do a lot of breeding intentionally, so if you want more information, check out seriously fish.

Bottom Line: If you can find these fish, buy them. If you have the means to breed them, I recommend it, so maybe we can eventually create local stock. These fish have some color, so they're not bad to look at. They have great personalities and make the best dither fish I've ever seen. They're not particularly "people-oriented" but are fun to watch. They aren't picky eaters and can adjust to a wide variety of water parameters. Now, having written this, I'm going to talk to my LFS tomorrow and see if they'll ever get any in again.


I will post pictures of my own school, but my camera is still at my old place. In the meantime, here's two pictures for a reference.

I would guess from the coloring and fins that this is a female:


And this, again from the darker coloring and deeper dorsal and anals fins, I would guess is a male:


~Thanks for reading and I apologize for the long post, full of parentheticals about my personal experiences
 
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