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White cloud mountain minnows

Fisher2007

Member
Joined
19 Feb 2018
Messages
430
Location
Warrington
Wondering what peoples thoughts are on these in a high tech tank? I know they are more of a cooler water fish but the tank will be run at 22 degrees

Also, are they known for jumping?

A LFS has some of the normal colour but long tail variant and the males look fanastic when they display

Thanks
 
I've adopted a small group last summer and never had them before, till now they have been in an open-top tank and to me they don't seem to be jumpers. None of them did. Even tho they are very lively and curious fish constantly on the move all over the place and interacting with everything in their surroundings. For example, they like to hunt shrimps, but that's more out of curiosity and or playfulness, yet not seen them pray on them.

They are nice fish to keep, beautiful colours and interesting behaviour to observe.
 
They will be fine at that temp, have kept them higher in the past. I Have ordered some of the Longfin aswell, Hope that they are the New strain which has a deeper yellow in the males finnage with the red fringing.
 
Kubatai rasboras

I've had over 30 of them but all die within a relatively short period, 3 batches of 10 each in 3 years time. And I have none left at the time. They do not seem to live a long life, at least not in captivity. I know from the wholesaler i ordered them from they exclusivey come as wild caught specimen.

Nice fish, but not for long.. :)

This actually goes for most of the boraras/rasbora sp. available. They are rather short-lived in my experience.

Something to take into consideration regarding the price you pay
 
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I've had over 30 of them but all die within a relatively short period

Oh that doesn't sound too good. I was sort of at ends with them as my tank is going to be mainly green that i was thinking that they would just just of blend in and be unnoticeable rather than complement it. I think the WCMM are a really underrated fish and i have never kept Endlers before so i guess its down to either of those 2 then. Thanks for your input.
 
This actually goes for most of the boraras/rasbora sp. available. They are rather short-lived in my experience

I agree... though I have a nearly 5 year old B brigittae, the others died off after a year or so. Constantly amazes me.
 
I keep wcmm in an unheated tank. This time of year it's about 18c but in the summer it ran about 28c for a few weeks and probably averaged 24c over a 6 month period and they were fine.
They are in a riparian tank that's only half full, so they couldn't jump out, but I've never even seen them try to jump. Saying that I know others who have had them jump out but that's pretty common for most fish species. The biggest issue is changes in lighting so if you can gently ramp up your lighting and then ramp them down, plus have some surface cover, you will have a greater chance of getting away with an open top.
 
Thanks for the advice all. They are on the hit list! Will post some pics in due course
 
There are tank bred M kubotai and various other Boraras sp now available but they are more expensive than the wc option so few shops bring them in
One lfs has ordered the TB kubotai so I’m interested to see what arrives (& price)

M kubotai is oxygen sensitive (& CO2 sensitive), wild fish are accustomed to very clean running water (re SF re collection location), my oldest is ~3yr

From
Kottelat, M. and K.-E. Witte, 1999 - Journal of South Asian Natural History 4(1): 49-56
Two new species of Microrasbora from Thailand and Myanmar, with two new generic names for small southeast Asian cyprinid fishes (Teleostei: Cyprinidae).

M kubotai is less difficult to keep than some of the other species discussed in this paper :)

Observing the “M kubotai” that arrive in shipments, I’d guess there are at least 3 species that ship are that name
 
They'll be fine at that temp.

I kept 20 in an unheated biorb 105 for a couple of years, subsequently heated to 22 and couldn't stop them spawning... It was constant and I had to rescue fry a couple of times a week from the undergravel filter.

I think they're really underrated fish. Beautiful colours which get better as they reach adulthood.
 
Most older books and articles describe WCMM as the poor mans Neon Tetra due to difficulty in importing Neons( at that time and mostly wild specimens not bred in captivity easily). I always feel the comparison is bit unfair. If WCMMs were a very rare and hard to breed fish pretty sure they would create quite a interest as such as newly discovered catfish and tetras. It's a" bread and butter fish " but a great favourite IMO
 
Most older books and articles describe WCMM as the poor mans Neon Tetra due to difficulty in importing Neons( at that time and mostly wild specimens not bred in captivity easily). I always feel the comparison is bit unfair. If WCMMs were a very rare and hard to breed fish pretty sure they would create quite a interest as such as newly discovered catfish and tetras. It's a" bread and butter fish " but a great favourite IMO

I think times have changed. I've seen neons for a little as 75p each, which is less than half of what I see WCMM going for.

They're so much hardier than neons too, can't remember the last time I saw good healthy neons...
 
Worth mentioning Tanichthys micagemmae too! Not kept them myself but one I'd like to give a go in future.
 
I think those are the only long finned fish I actually like.
 
Same here. Those wcmm are not over the top, just a bit longer finned than normal. Very nice.
 
The original WCM came from White Cloud Mountain streams of southern China that are extinct in the wild due to pollution. But there are no shortage of WCM in the hobby as they are bred by million in fish farms, and some have naturalized in non native habitats. They are subtropical species and prefer cooler temp to thrive. If you are afraid they don’t do well in tropical setting, try Brilliant Rasboras which look and behave like WCM. They school tightly in the upper water column as WCM, peaceful, and slightly larger.
 

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