Kwai garra

Garra fluviatilis

Also known as River garra, Sparkling garra

FreshwaterFish

Care at a glance

Temperature: 72–81°F (22–27°C)
pH: 6.5–7.5
Adult size: 3.9 in (10 cm)
Minimum tank: 29 gal (110 L)
Temperament: Mostly peaceful
Social behavior: Social
Swim level: Bottom
Difficulty: Medium
Breeding: No record
Rarity: Rare
Origin: Kwai Noi River, Mae Khlong basin, Thailand
Family: Cyprinidae

Overview

Keep the Kwai garra as a small group of three or more; it is a gregarious bottom fish that grazes stone and wood through the day with the genus's steady, bulldozing confidence. It is mostly peaceful but can shove its own kind around, so give it space and grazing surfaces to reduce friction. It pairs well with sturdy, current-loving midwater fish and pays little attention to what swims above it. Offer algae wafers and sinking pellets, with frozen foods like bloodworm to round out the diet. A tank of around 110 liters with rock, wood, and brisk flow suits a group.

In the wild

Garra fluviatilis lives in the hillstream reaches of the Kwai Noi River in the Mae Klong basin of western Thailand, in clear, fast, well-oxygenated water. Recreate that with strong current, a substrate of sand, gravel, and cobbles, and smooth stones and driftwood to graze. Keep it at 22 to 27 degrees Celsius, with a pH from 6.5 to 7.5. High oxygen levels and clean water matter to a fish adapted to tumbling upland streams.

Good to know

Garra fluviatilis is a hillstream cyprinid in the carp family, Cyprinidae, described only in 2016. Its species name means of the river. It reaches about 10 centimeters and clings to rock using the fleshy, modified lower lip and disc beneath its head, its papilla-fringed mouth one of the features used to tell it from similar garras. Its aquarium breeding is not recorded.

Did you know

It swims in the Kwai Noi, the river valley the wartime Death Railway followed and the source of the River Kwai name, yet the fish itself went unnamed by science until 2016, more than seventy years after the railway was built.