CARING FOR SUNDADANIO
Easy to miss and easier to love, the tiny Neon dwarf ‘rasboras’ have a unique charm but high demands. They’re also one of the cheapest home breeding projects you’ll ever meet.
The tiny Neon dwarf ‘rasboras’ have a unique charm but high demands. They’re also one of the cheapest home breeding projects you’ll ever encounter.
WHEN IS a Neon blue rasbora not a Neon blue rasbora? Often when it’s sold as a Neon blue rasbora. Here’s one fish that turned out to be many fish, all with their own individual names and descriptions. It’s just that a lot of the industry never noticed.
Some of you are currently puzzled. Not everyone has encountered the Sundadanio before, and their tiny stature is most likely the reason for that. They are especially small and delicate fish. In a retailer’s tanks that translates as either too sensitive to keep alive (word on the street is that they tend not to do well on recirculating systems), or just so small that they get lost in a set-up with other fishes. It’s all too easy to pass them by.
Some of you will know the fish I’m talking about, but are still puzzled. Sundadanio? That’s the gorgeous little Sundadanio axelrodi, right? The little rasbora-like fishes you saw in a store’s nano fish system once? You’re right. Sundadanio axelrodi is indeed a Sundadanio, but you might not be aware that it isn’t the only member of the genus. Furthermore, there’s a strong chance that the fish you’ve seen under the name
S. axelrodi weren’t S. axelrodi at all. A small handful of you know exactly what I’m talking about. Those of you who are intimately familiar with Sundadanio are probably gearing up for an exciting gallery of definitive images, and a comprehensive guide to who’s who. I hate to disappoint you in advance, but after months of searching, half of the photos I need just don’t exist, and unless there’s some pressure on
Indonesian authorities in the near future, some of the actual fish might not exist either. Like so many niche and obscure gems of the fish world, Sundadanio inhabit such delicate ecosystems that they could be wiped out by even a small-scale expansion of farmland across their natural ranges.
Who and where?
Some history first. Sundadanio axelrodi has always been a rare find in the hobby. Originally it was described back in 1976 by the ichthyologist Martin Brittan, but under a different name; Rasbora axelrodi. In 1999 it was reclassified as Sundadanio as further studies discovered the fish was more closely related to Danio than Rasbora, although the jury is still out as to exactly where Sundadanio fits into the grander taxonomic scheme. As for ‘Sunda’, that name is a reference to the fish’s origins; the Sunda Islands of Borneo, Java, Sulawesi and Sumatra.
So, how many?
To this day, most hobbyists and many retailers still seem to be aware of just the one species. But in 2011, ichthyologists Conway, Kottelat and Hui published an extensive work that sifted through what was originally considered a monotypic genus (a genus containing one species alone), and described seven new species, on top of redescribing the ‘original’ S. axelrodi.
Before this work, retailers on the ground already knew of the many different colour varieties of
The preferred dwellings of all Sundadanio species are peat swamps and blackwater streams. Not clear and clean water, but dark as malt vinegar and almost as acidic.