# Can anyone identify this fish???



## zombiefish610 (Feb 27, 2009)

I bought 3 of these fish. They were sold to me as penguin tetras. After some investigation I'm certain they are not. They are a schooling fish. Here are some pictures, if anyone knows what they are please let me know. thanks.


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## ScottishGirrl (Mar 9, 2009)

Hey, No They Arent Penguin Tetra's, You Were Right There!!
I think They Are Pencil Tetra's.


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## Byron (Mar 7, 2009)

No, definitely not the popularly-named Penguin tetra. I would suggest they are 
_Rasbora einthovenii_ commony known as the Brilliant Rasbora. Here are a couple of photos.


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## zombiefish610 (Feb 27, 2009)

Byron said:


> No, definitely not the popularly-named Penguin tetra. I would suggest they are
> _Rasbora einthovenii_ commony known as the Brilliant Rasbora. Here are a couple of photos.


I'd say you hit the nail on the head. Thanks a bunch.


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## froglady (Apr 12, 2009)

well the closest I can come to what this fish could be is. either a (blue emperor tetra.) or the one lined african tetra. the stripe goes past the eyes on the emperor.


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## Busgod (Mar 4, 2008)

No, definitely not Emperor tetra! Emperor has a light blue area above the black area and that area is much larger.
Byron got it.


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## froglady (Apr 12, 2009)

I just coudnt find any closer looking, in the fish book, so I dont have any other ideas.


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## Fishin Pole (Feb 17, 2009)

My brilliant rasboras have red in their caudal fin and black line does not go through the eye.......Not sure if they are a brilliant rasbora...........Maybe the fish i have arent brilliants.........I would lean towards some type of pencilfish


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## Byron (Mar 7, 2009)

Fishin Pole said:


> My brilliant rasboras have red in their caudal fin and black line does not go through the eye.......Not sure if they are a brilliant rasbora...........Maybe the fish i have arent brilliants.........I would lean towards some type of pencilfish


Do your rasbora resemble the ones in the two photos attached to my post--these are rasbora according to the sites, it was not my surmise. I cannot see any red in the caudal in these rasbora. Of course, fish of the same species can have considerable variance--if you ever do a Google image search of any species you will see just how variable they can be. Environment affects fish colouring as you know, and different water parameters can cause this.


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## Fishin Pole (Feb 17, 2009)

Byron, no my brilliant rasboras arent the ones pictured...........I understand the difference in diet, habitat can have an impact on the coloring of the same species fish, but the fish pictured is different than my brilliants.....(if that is what i have)..........Mine do not have the coloring on the edge of the scales, like the one pictured, plus miine have more goldish foil above the black line.........None of mine have the black line continue thru there eyes to the lips......I still think the pictured fish is some type of pencilfish


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## Fishin Pole (Feb 17, 2009)

check out the golden pencilfish.............i believe thats what they are..................check out what wikipedia calls the blackline rasboras or brilliant rasboras.........those are the fish i have


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## Byron (Mar 7, 2009)

Fishin Pole said:


> Byron, no my brilliant rasboras arent the ones pictured...........I understand the difference in diet, habitat can have an impact on the coloring of the same species fish, but the fish pictured is different than my brilliants.....(if that is what i have)..........Mine do not have the coloring on the edge of the scales, like the one pictured, plus miine have more goldish foil above the black line.........None of mine have the black line continue thru there eyes to the lips......I still think the pictured fish is some type of pencilfish


 
The two photos attached to my earlier post are from Seriously Fish (I think) and are stated to be brilliant rasbora; a Google search brought up dozens of similar photos, so I have no doubt about those photos. I'm not going to say the fish in zombiefish610's original post are the same--I think they are. But the fish in my post is the brilliant rasbora.

Having seen your latest post, i checked Wikipedia (which by the way is put together by folks like us, some amateurs mostly, and info may or may not be correct, but no matter) but there are no photos of the brilliant rasbora there, just the common harlequin. On the sidebar though it does have the photo below, a blackline rasbora, which sounds like the fish you describe. Rasbora borapetensis is the species.


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## Byron (Mar 7, 2009)

Fishin Pole said:


> check out the golden pencilfish.............i believe thats what they are..................check out what wikipedia calls the blackline rasboras or brilliant rasboras.........those are the fish i have


I already responded to this and the previous post, but noticed I forgot the reference to the golden pencilfish. Not meaning to be at all disrespectful, but I will categorically state that the fish in zombiefish610's photos are not Nannostomus beckfordi, the golden pencilfish. I have maintained shoals of N. beckfordi for many years and spawned them. I am well aware of the many variants of this species, and the name changes it has gone through in the past. Both scientists Jascques Gery (who knew more about characidae than anyone) and Weitzman & Cobb did extensive work with this species and identified the many variants as possible subspecies or local variations, but none of them resemble the fish in zombiefish610's photos. One feature that is always present whatever the variant is the reddish splash in the anal and caudal fins and that is absent in the rasbora and zombiefish610's fish, in addition to the lack of the double line.


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## froglady (Apr 12, 2009)

Im not familar with the rasbora, but looking at the shape of the tail it does look a little slightly sword shaped. using a magnafier thats what it looks like.


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## zombiefish610 (Feb 27, 2009)

The picture that was in Byron's first post is exactly what I have. There is no difference whatsoever. Why the debate?


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