Kuehne's white cloud minnow

Care at a glance

Overview

This is a small, peaceful schooling minnow that does best in a group of at least eight, where males colour up and display to one another rather than to nothing. It swims in the middle and upper water and stays active in the open once it feels secure. Keep it in cool, unheated water with calm, similarly sized tankmates, since it is easily out-competed by pushy fish. Feed small foods it can manage: fine flake, crushed micro pellets, and small frozen items such as daphnia and cyclops. A planted tank of around 54 litres or more suits a starter school, with gentle flow and some open swimming space.

In the wild

It comes from cool, clear hill streams in the Bach Ma mountains of central Vietnam, among plants and leaf litter in gently flowing water. Recreate that with an unheated tank held around 18 to 24 degrees Celsius and a soft to neutral chemistry of pH 6.0 to 7.5. Dense planting, a dark substrate, some driftwood, and a moderate current show off its colours and give it the cover it expects.

Good to know

It belongs to the white cloud family, Tanichthyidae, and reaches about 3.7 cm. The species was described in 2019 from fish that had reached the hobby a decade earlier as an undescribed Vietnamese white cloud, and it is told apart from its relatives by the width and placement of its side stripe and the white and black edging on its fins. Breeding is of moderate difficulty: it is an egg scatterer that drops eggs among fine plants and does not guard them.

Did you know

For decades the white cloud group was known from a single Chinese mountain species. A run of discoveries in Vietnam, this one described only in 2019, has since shown the genus reaches well south of China and holds several distinct species.

Tank mates

Kuehne's white cloud minnow is a peaceful, schooling species that keeps to the middle. These picks match on water type, temperature, pH, size and temperament.

• Chinese red ninja goby

  Rhinogobius shennongensis

  Freshwater

  2.4 in (6 cm)14 gal (54 L)61–73°F (16–23°C)
• Arnold's killifish

  Fundulopanchax arnoldi

  Freshwater

  3 in (7.5 cm)14 gal (54 L)68–77°F (20–25°C)
• Elongate moth catfish

  Hara horai

  Freshwater

  3.1 in (8 cm)14 gal (54 L)68–79°F (20–26°C)

• 

  Crescent gambusia

  Gambusia hurtadoi

  Freshwater

  2 in (5 cm)14 gal (54 L)68–79°F (20–26°C)
• Paraguay black otocinclus

  Otothyropsis piribebuy

  Freshwater

  1.4 in (3.5 cm)14 gal (54 L)68–79°F (20–26°C)
• Dwarf spineless eel

  Garo khajuriai

  Freshwater

  2.8 in (7 cm)14 gal (54 L)68–79°F (20–26°C)

Check the full mix in the stocking calculator

Common questions

Related species

• Thac Ba minnow

  Tanichthys thacbaensis

  Freshwater

  1.4 in (3.5 cm)14 gal (54 L)64–75°F (18–24°C)
• Simulatus tetra

  Hyphessobrycon simulatus

  Freshwater

  1.4 in (3.6 cm)15 gal (55 L)72–81°F (22–27°C)

• 

  Eyespot rasbora

  Brevibora dorsiocellata

  Freshwater

  1.4 in (3.5 cm)9 gal (35 L)68–77°F (20–25°C)

• 

  Hockeystick pencilfish

  Nannostomus eques

  Freshwater

  1.4 in (3.5 cm)15 gal (55 L)72–82°F (22–28°C)

• 

  Glowlight rasbora

  Trigonostigma hengeli

  Freshwater

  1.6 in (4 cm)12 gal (45 L)73–82°F (23–28°C)

• 

  Jae barb

  Enteromius jae

  Freshwater

  1.6 in (4 cm)16 gal (60 L)68–77°F (20–25°C)