Please help ID my new Cyprinid

[Ger]

Just picked up what I consider to be an unfamiliar fish, and am hoping that someone else may know what it is I am about to feebly describe. I would like to know what it is, but don't have any pics to post as of yet.

Has danio characteristics of upturned mouth (*very* squared off looking) and 2 barbels on chin.
Color is a light-bluish-gray above the lateral line, a pinkish-gray hue below.
Has a metallic pink stripe starting at the base of the caudal in about 1/3 of it's body at a slight taper along the lateral line.
Sounds like a pearl danio, right? But wait... There is also a very metallic pink stripe along the top of its spine from the head to the dorsal -- this guy glows pink under the light.

And this fish is longer than any danio I've seen -- take a pearl and stretch it and add the extra coloration, which includes a faint *green* pattern on its anal fin.

I've looked in Axelrod (1987) and Baensch #1 and didn't see anything conclusive.

If you were to assume for a moment that I know that it's not a Brachydanio albolineatus or a B. kerri, (but some other cyprinid?), what could it be?
I hope to get some pics soon (have to borrow a digital camera) -- perhaps then everyone will yell, "It's a pearl danio!"

 

[carpguy]

There's another danio called a Meteorite Danio (danio shanensis), that looks a lot like a pearl. I've only seen it in my Barb book, so I can't really say. Coloration seems like it might be a little more intense, body a little longer(?). Haven't had very much luck finding a decent pic on google. I'll try to get a pic scanned from the book in the morning.

I've read that the pearl's colors can be very muted in store tank. Could it just be an expectation thing? I didn't know how intensely colored pearl gouramis could get until my pair settled in. How long are the barbs? And more importantly, where did you find them? (I could make Rhode Island by sunrise )…

 

[Ger]

Thanks for your help. Unfortunately, there is no them.. just this it, a 'contaminant', I believe. There was a pearl danio mixed in with the store's zebra tank, too. It was much rounder and more danio-like (shaped like the zebras) than this fish. I've been watching this fish for over a month in the store, mixed in with rainbows... The people who work there never even knew there was this oddball in the tank... So I took it (one of them claimed that it was an Australian Rainbow like the others!).

Anyway, I attempted to take some pics, and took the best ones and put them here . Proving that the Loch Ness Monster is real might be easier than trying to conclude what this fish is based on these pics, but the bugger never sits still. My hope is that these pics will at least give a general impression of its body shape and color, although little can be seen of the pink strip on top of it (which is half the reason why I got it, as I thought it would complement my featherfins'). The fish is about 1.5 inches long.

The more I look at it, the more I think it's 'just' a Brachydanio alblolineatus. How common are these in general? I have never seen danios other than zebras, leopards, and giants in my area shops... before now.

Thanks again for your help.

-- G.

 

[wetmanNY]

The chances are high that a "contaminant" slipping in with tank or pond-raised Danios is also a tank- or pond-raised fish, rather than a wild one.

Nowadays Cory "contaminants" are fewer than they used to be, as we get more and more fishmill Cories. What look like rare "contaminants" now may just be casual hybrids.

Not cynical. Just skeptical.

 

[Ger]

Sure, it may be a hybrid. I can accept that (although earlier I didn't want to). At this point I am a little skeptical, too. I always keep an eye out for contaminants and one-ofs when I go into the store. I picked up a Colletti tetra recently and a striped panchax (Aplocheilus lineatus) a while back doing this, and hoped that this guy would be another case of a naturally occuring (or farm raised) 'rarity' among the area stores. Nothing around here carries killies or uncommon tetras among regular inventory, so I feel good when I can grab something for a buck or two that noone else is likely to have. I don't get the same thrill if I know (or discover) it's a hybrid, but I can still appreciate the uniqueness of it (exception: parrot fish... ugh). I won't diverge into the ethics of intentional hybridization and the affects of the hobby, etc... I'm sure that's been beaten to death many a time, and beyond the scope of my query. In this case I hadn't thought of it as a hybrid until I looked at its traits and thought, "Darn, it looks like a stretched danio!". I'll probably move it out of my rainbow tank and get some danios for it to hang with.

Thank you for your interest.

-- G.