Indian Hatchet Fish

About

Sometimes called the Indian hatchet fish or winged danio, Laubuka laubuca is a slender, active cyprinid native to the Ganges-Brahmaputra river system of South Asia, though its true range has been hotly debated for years. What was once thought to be a single widespread species stretching across the Indian subcontinent and into Southeast Asia has since been split, with several Sri Lankan species separated out and the name Laubuka siamensis revalidated for populations from Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Peninsular Malaysia. In practical terms, many fish sold under this name in the hobby are probably L. siamensis. The two can be told apart by looking closely at the midlateral stripe, which in L. siamensis is bolder and uninterrupted toward the tail, with an oval caudal blotch, while in true L. laubuca the stripe is thinner, broken by irregular vertical markings, and terminates in a rounder spot. In the wild these fish occupy mid-water in streams, ponds, and slow to moderately flowing stretches, forming shoals of up to thirty individuals and feeding primarily on insects. In the aquarium they do best in groups of at least eight to ten, which settles their nerves and produces the kind of coordinated movement that makes schooling fish worth keeping. They get along well with most similarly sized, non-aggressive tankmates and are a reasonable choice for newer fishkeepers.