Ninescale rasbora

Rasbora ennealepis

Also known as Nine-scaled rasbora, Red fin rasbora

FreshwaterFish

Care at a glance

Temperature: 72–81°F (22–27°C)
pH: 5.5–7.0
Adult size: 2.2 in (5.5 cm)
Minimum tank: 20 gal (75 L)
Temperament: Peaceful
Social behavior: Schooling
Swim level: Middle
Difficulty: Medium
Breeding: No record
Rarity: Rare
Origin: Western Borneo, Indonesia
Family: Danionidae

Overview

An easy-going schooling rasbora for a Bornean community tank, kept in a group of eight or more with small, peaceful companions such as gouramis and small loaches. It is peaceful and stays in midwater, feeding on anything suitably small, so offer crushed flake, micro pellets, and frozen daphnia, cyclops, and baby brine shrimp. It shows its best color over a dark substrate in a planted tank with gentle flow. Around 75 liters with soft water and open lanes suits a group.

In the wild

The ninescale rasbora lives in streams of western Borneo, in soft, slightly acidic, often tannin-stained water among plants and leaf litter. Recreate that with a planted tank, a dark substrate, gentle current, and botanicals to soften and tint the water. Hold it at 22 to 27 degrees Celsius with a pH of 5.5 to 7.0.

Good to know

Rasbora ennealepis belongs to the danio family, Danionidae, and reaches about 5.5 centimeters. Roberts described it in 1989; the name means nine scales, counting the row of scales in front of the dorsal fin, the kind of fine detail on which rasbora identification often turns. It has no recorded aquarium spawning.

Did you know

Its name is literally a scale count: in a genus full of near-identical fish, taxonomists told this one apart by counting nine scales in the row ahead of the dorsal fin.