Zebra Dartfish

About

The zebra dartfish (Ptereleotris zebra) is one of those reef fish that looks almost too neat to be real. A slim, elongated body marked with crisp horizontal pink and green stripes on a pale base, running from behind the head all the way to the tail. In the wild it's found across Indo-Pacific reefs, typically hovering in small groups just above sandy or rubble-strewn substrates near the base of the reef, always close to a burrow it shares with a shrimp or digs itself. That burrow is a big part of keeping this fish successfully. It needs a sandbed deep enough to excavate a proper refuge, and it will use it constantly, especially when spooked. And spooked is something this fish gets easily. It's a known jumper, so a tight-fitting lid is not optional. Given some stability in the tank and compatible, non-aggressive tankmates, it settles in well and resumes its characteristic mid-water hovering. It can be kept singly, in a mated pair, or in a small group if the tank is large enough, since it's naturally a shoaling species in the wild. Getting it to feed reliably on prepared foods takes a little patience, which is why it lands in the intermediate category rather than being a beginner pick.