Dannio shoals

[glolite]

I have 4 Zebra and 4 leopard dannios. Probably a silly question but is this enough of each or should I have 5 of each species please?

 

[Tempestuousfury]

They school together. No worries.

The-Wolf said the leopard danio is a color mutation. I don't doubt that, and going my that knowledge, they should, in essence, school together.

Anyways, that's what happened in my tank.

 

[glolite]

Thanx
Merry Christmas

 

[The-Wolf]

again TF has given the correct information

 

[Tempestuousfury]

Thanks to you.

Do you happen to have an article with that info, or was it from some research long forgotten?

 

[The-Wolf]

The Leopard danio is a relatively new species of danio. It was originally described by Hermann Meinken in 1963 (i). However, no type locality is known (ii) and this places the scientific naming process in jeopardy. Some authorities assert that this fish is a native of Thailand while others believe it a mutation bred from the common zebrafish or zebra danio (D. rerio) by someone in Czechoslovakia (v). Kerr (ii) describes D. frankei as a "somewhat mysterious variety whose taxonomic position is questioned" which "came to America from Germany by way of Russia". Although several books list D. frankei as a distinct species (iii, iv, vi) the origins and scientific classification of this fish remain unclear. Riehl and Baensch suggest that this fish be considered a morph of D. rerio, until proven otherwise, since D. frankei can be crossed with D. rerio.

Referances
i) Riel, R. and Baensch, H. A., 1994, Aquarium Atlas, vol. 1, 4th edition, Tetra Press.

ii) Kerr, F. J., March 1978, Aquarium News, 4-5

iii) Ward, B., 1989, The Aquarium Fish Survival Manual, New Burlington Books, Quill Publishing Ltd., London.

iv) Van Ramshorst, J.D., ed., 1991, The Complete Aquarium Encyclopedia of Tropical Freshwater Fish, Bookmart Ltd., Leicester, UK.

vi) Cust, G. and Cox, G., Tropical Aquarium Fishes Freshwater and Marine, Lamplight Publishing

I cosider Riehl and Baensch as the most uptodate authorities and therefor go with them. I did have a doc file reguarding frank, the first to breed the leopards from zebras but I have lost it during my recent pc problems. I also remember reading, somewhere about there being one mutated gene in leopards than causes the patterns and also there is another one, D.rerio jaguar. I'll try and find that online soon.
Additionally I know a breeder here in the uk and he also belives this to be a colour morph.
Not conclusive proof but overwhelming to say the least.

 

[glolite]

That's interesting. I think you must be right (absolute amateur speaking here), but bothspecies are definately hyper and go completely nuts when food arrives and I think they both have that 'manic' look in their eyes. Plus of course they are bopth sparkly georgeous.

 

[Tempestuousfury]

Ah, but DNA characteristics are also used in classifying them. However, I doubt there'll be much research to find out the answer.

I suppose we can just go on the assumption that it's a color morp until it is disproven.

 

[FrAnK3333]

my zebras and leopards school together if that helps

 

[The-Wolf]

I doubt there'll be much research to find out the answer.

very true, most research is being done on Zebras for various reasons,
It would seem highly unlikly that anyone would get a grant to try and prove leopards and zebras are the same or different.

As my website staes, they are not known in the wild and are, by defalut, a man made colour morph (I'm sticking to that as my difinitve answer)