Matt Clarke on the Neon yellow or Kubota's microrasbora, Microdevario kubotai, formerly known as Microrasbora kubotai.
Common name: Kubota's microrasbora, Neon yellow rasbora.
Scientific name: Microdevario kubotai (Kottelat and Witte, 1999)
Origin: Thailand, Khlong Phrae Sai, near Ban Kreo Noi.
Size: Tiny. Usually just a couple of centimetres.
Diet: Daphnia, Cyclops and flakes.
Water: No precise data. They seem adaptable and there are reports of them doing well in both acidic and slightly alkaline conditions, so anything neutral ought to be fine.
Aquarium: Due to its small size, this species is best kept in a small tank of its own, or with other tiny fishes. It's an ideal species for use in a heavily planted nano tank where a shoal can be kept in a very small volume of water.
Identification: Normally yellow-green in colour with a metallic gold lateral stripe and hyaline fins. At the time of the original publication of this article, this species was a member of the Microrasbora genus, which then included: M. erythromicron, M. gatesi, M. rubescens and M. nana.M. nana is most similar in appearance to M. kubotai, but can be separated by the presence of a black mark on the dorsal fin which is absent in kubotai, as well as differences in scale and fin ray counts.
It was subsequently moved to the genus Microdevario and is now classed as a danionine rather than a rasbora. Two others are also present in the Microdevario genus, M. gatesi and M. nana. For more information see New genus created in danionine revision.
Availability: These were spotted for sale at Maidenhead Aquatics @ Oxford. They've been imported sporadically for a number of years, but imports have increased in the past year.
Price: These were on sale for £1.75 each.
This article was first published in the November 2007 issue of Practical Fishkeeping magazine.