Celestial Pearl Danio

[kylealastairlove]

anybody keep these little fish
they are nice looking, and i would like to know a bit more about them, and their behavior
so please if anybody has any info on them can you let me know
thanks

 

[Fishy friend2]

Scientific name: Celestichthys margaritatus

Common names: Celestial Pearl Danio / Galaxy Rasbora

Family: Cyprinidae

Origin: Southeast Asia

Maximum size: 4cm <1"

Care: This is a relatively easy fish to care for, It has proven to be quite hardy and tolerant of a wide variety of water conditions. It should be kept in average community parameters: soft, neutral to slightly acidic water conditions and kept at a temperature of around 26C (78.8F). As a small fish you should choose tank mates with care that are not likely to eat the fish or ones that are boisterous. This may cause stress leeding ot inadvertant injury of the fish.

Feeding: This fish inhabits the middle of the tank so any flake or sinking dry food will be accepted. I use Tetra Prima granules which are readily taken. The fish also appreciates meals of bloodworms or daphnia. Frozen or live is accepted.

Sexing: The male is slightly smaller but more colourful than the female with very red fins in breeding condition. The female is plumper with a paler belly.

Breeding: This fish will readily breed given the right conditions. I have had success with a suitable pair in a breeding tank with water conditions for general care. I had a sand substrate (but probably not essential). Bare bottom or gravel may do just as well. I also used a spawning mop. The fish showed signs of spawning activity on the second day in the tank. After that they were removed and I started dosing the tank with infusoria. About a week later I noticed what looked like slivers of glass around the sides of the tank. It took 6 weeks to get the fish to a recognizeable size and also to start showing their colour. The fry will take small foods like brineshrimp or microworms. I also had success with foods like Hikari First Bites and Tetra fry food.

Mod Note: Photo used with permission by sean from The Tropical Tank

 

[kylealastairlove]

thankyou fishy friend

 

[mattyeatsmatts]

they are beautiful fish

 

[Fishy friend2]

Your welcome

 

[Tizer]

I have 10 in a 35 litre tank, they are quite cool if a little boring to watch at times.

Seriouslyfish have a very good write up about them, worth checking out.

http/www.seriouslyfish.com/profile.php?genus=Danio&species=margaritatus&id=1079

 

[kylealastairlove]

thanks tizer !

 

[Juggler75]

I have 10 in a 35 litre tank, they are quite cool if a little boring to watch at times.

Seriouslyfish have a very good write up about them, worth checking out.

http/www.seriouslyfish.com/profile.php?genus=Danio&species=margaritatus&id=1079

Interested in this species as a possible addition to my shrimp tank, an Aqua One 620 (90litres or so) which is well planted (low tech and could always do with more) and currently home to a large breeding colony of cherries and a small (non breeding so far) colony of bee shrimp, 2 pitbull plecs (with 2 more arriving soon), 16 mosquito rasbora and 4 endlers (1 female and 3 males who have so far proved to possess a magical ability to dissapear whenever a net appears in the tank - and their offspring haven't so get quickly rehomed in the community tank to join the other endlers that used to call the tank home). Assuming I can get the endlers out, would the Celestials make good addition (hoping for some more action in the top half of the tank if the tank can sustain the extra bioload) and if so how many would people reccomend as Seriously fish suggests a group of 20 or more?

 

[Katch]

I've kept and bred these a bit. Here's what I've found.

Lovely fish - the males do a great circle dance when vying for female attention but they aren't aggressive to each other.

Keep more females than males or they'll get exhausted.

They can be tricky to feed at first - make sure you have some high protein small pellet type foods - Hikari first bites and micro pellets are best in my experience.

QUARANTINE QUARANTINE QUARANTINE QUARANTINE - I can't stress this enough - I've found Heximita to be pretty endemic in this species and unfortunately it is a disease that take a long time to show and then is hard to treat.

Also deformities are very common - try to pick the fish with the best body shapes - excessively curved spines will become worse with age and will be unhealthy fish.

Breeding is a piece of cake - add fish 3:1 female male ratio to a tank with lots and lots of moss. Leave them in the tank with just natural light and feed daily for 3 days. After 3 days remove the adults and start infusoria cultures (pour hot water over lettuce leaves in a jar and leave on the windowsill. About 2-3 days later the jars will be full of green water and the breeding tank will have little wriggly things hitched up on the glass (fry)

The fry can be hard to raise and feed like the parents. Start on infusoria and order microworms from ebay - move onto microworms when your culture is ready and hikari first bites.

This is all my experience your mileage may vary - but I would definitely observe good quarantine practices.

EDIT - I notice you want more action at the top of the tank - CPDs hang out in the plant beds more often than not. If you can find splashing tetra Copaldi Arnoldi (not sure of that spelling) they are amazing top water fish - just make sure your tank is covered as they are jumpers.

 

[Juggler75]

Thanks for the suggestion, more reading needed I think. Are the tetras shrimp safe?

Edit Just thinking about the quarantine period, how long? usually quarantine for 2 weeks but from your post it seems a longer period may be in order.

 

[Katch]

Thanks for the suggestion, more reading needed I think. Are the tetras shrimp safe?

Edit Just thinking about the quarantine period, how long? usually quarantine for 2 weeks but from your post it seems a longer period may be in order.

LFS stock of these fish are often very small - I'd say grow them on in a q-tank with plants (real or fake) for a month at least.

 

[Tizer]

I have 10 in a 35 litre tank, they are quite cool if a little boring to watch at times.

Seriouslyfish have a very good write up about them, worth checking out.

http/www.seriouslyfish.com/profile.php?genus=Danio&species=margaritatus&id=1079

Interested in this species as a possible addition to my shrimp tank, an Aqua One 620 (90litres or so) which is well planted (low tech and could always do with more) and currently home to a large breeding colony of cherries and a small (non breeding so far) colony of bee shrimp, 2 pitbull plecs (with 2 more arriving soon), 16 mosquito rasbora and 4 endlers (1 female and 3 males who have so far proved to possess a magical ability to dissapear whenever a net appears in the tank - and their offspring haven't so get quickly rehomed in the community tank to join the other endlers that used to call the tank home). Assuming I can get the endlers out, would the Celestials make good addition (hoping for some more action in the top half of the tank if the tank can sustain the extra bioload) and if so how many would people reccomend as Seriously fish suggests a group of 20 or more?

20 is quite an expensive outlay on a fish that i don't feel will give you any top level action. Its a really hard fish to describe behavior wise, other than "shy". Don't expect much schooling or interaction with yourself. They are more likely to scatter as you approach the tank and generally be all over the tank in little groups. The most interesting thing about CPDs is the males showing off their colours to the females and fighting the other males. I say fighting, its nothing violent. If i had the choice, i would probably pick 20 Ember Tetras and top up the mosquito rasbora to 20 in your tank instead of the CPDs. It would be a lot cheaper and i think you would get more action at the top of the tank, especially near feeding time. Also feeding CPDs with greedy fish like the rasboras cuold prove a challenge, Ember Tetras would get in there just as much as the rasbora, while the CPDs "might" not compete as much for food. Also, as already mentioned, you need to source good quality CPDs, many shops, even the MA stores only keep very young CPDs, hard to tell if they are any good.

 

[Juggler75]

Thanks for input guys