Jaintia danio

Danio jaintianensis

Also known as Jaintia hills danio, Rose line danio

FreshwaterFish

Jaintia danio (Danio jaintianensis) — Beta Mahatvaraj · CC BY-SA 4.0

Care at a glance

Temperature: 64–75°F (18–24°C)
pH: 6.5–7.5
Adult size: 2 in (5 cm)
Minimum tank: 20 gal (75 L)
Temperament: Peaceful
Social behavior: Schooling
Swim level: Middle
Difficulty: Medium
Breeding: No record
Rarity: Rare
Origin: Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya, India
Family: Danionidae

Overview

A small, cool-water danio best kept in a school of eight or more in a river-style tank with steady flow. It is peaceful and active, well suited to unheated communities with white clouds or hillstream loaches, and it appreciates open swimming room with planting around the edges. It jumps, so fit a tight lid. Feed fine floating and sinking foods, including flake, micro pellets, and frozen daphnia and bloodworm. Summer heat indoors is its main enemy, so around 75 liters kept cool suits it.

In the wild

The Jaintia danio lives in cool hill streams of the Jaintia Hills in Meghalaya, northeast India, one of the wettest regions on Earth. Give it well-oxygenated, moving water, a substrate of sand and gravel, some wood or stone, and open space to swim. Keep it unheated to cool, 18 to 24 degrees Celsius, with a pH of 6.5 to 7.5; it struggles if held warm for long.

Good to know

Danio jaintianensis is a member of the danio family, Danionidae, reaching about 5 centimeters, a slim hill danio with pearl-spotted, blue-grey flanks. Sen described it in 2007 and named it for the Jaintia Hills, where the first specimens were collected. Its breeding has not been recorded in the hobby.

Did you know

Its home hills sit where monsoon clouds pile off the Bay of Bengal and unload, giving Meghalaya some of the heaviest rainfall ever recorded, so this danio lives in the runoff of one of the wettest places on Earth.