Danios… probably more than you ever wanted to know

As beginning fish keepers most of us kept some Zebra Danios, but once we get a bit of experience, we think of them as beginner fish and move on to bigger and better.  This is rather sad because there are literally dozens of different Danios available.

Purple Passion Danio - Danio roseus
Photo by Dennis Ball

The group of fish we call Danios is quite diverse and includes both small and large species. They are peaceful, very attractive, inexpensive, and best of all, very easy to keep.  Danios are members of the carp family, and range in size from just under an inch, up to around 6 inches.  Danios are split into two main genera, Danio and Devario, but the group also includes some close relatives like Sundadanio, Danionella and Microrasbora.

In the hobby, we collectively call all of them Danios , but this can make things rather confusing if you are trying to talk about only the members of the Danio genus. As all of these fish are members of a minnow subfamily called the Danioninae, pedants (such as myself) think that it’s wiser to call all of the fish in the group Danionins (pronounced dan­ee­oh­nins), rather than Danios.  I believe it was Matt Clarke that first coined this term.  I liked it so much that I started a website using the name www.danionins.com.

Continue reading Danios… probably more than you ever wanted to know

Moina – A Love Hate Relationship

Moina
Photo by Dennis Ball

Over the summer, my son’s Red Eared Slider has been helping to generate loads of green water for the fish room.  With this in mind, I though it would be a good time to venture back into culturing some Moina.

If you are not familiar with Moina, they are small freshwater crustaceans, commonly called “water fleas”, belonging the Daphnia family.  I like them because newly hatched Moina average 430 µm and are just slightly larger than the smallest strain of newly hatched brine shrimp.  Also, adult Moina are about half the size of common Daphnia with a higher protein content.  They are simply fantastic live food for small fish.   Continue reading Moina – A Love Hate Relationship

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