Japanese Medaka (oryzias latipes) arrived!

I've been trying to keep another small, community, cool water fish besides white clouds for a while. By that I mean a fish that prefer an upper temp in the subtropical (say, less than 72). This is why I've been looking all over the place for the japanese rice fish or medaka. Well I finally got some!

This is latipes dropping a line:


Here is woworae, my other ricefish (thanks Ron!) finally laying eggs!


And here is the school!


(full disclosure: I've been in love with this species since I first saw them in Japan over 10 years ago in an ice cream restaurant. It has been a long road!)

That's not a line MRTom, that's a poOp.


Very nice little fish, I dont think the photos capture this species true beauty. Looks as if the eyes glow iridescent. These are not the same I seen when I was there?

yay you found them

Thanks! And you're right fishnabowl, when you stopped by, you saw woworae, which I got from Ron. Woworae (Daisy's ricefish) is the fish on Ron's winning POTM entry and on the fishbox banner right now!

Latipes is a little bit more gray or cream colored, but they seem to share the shiny iridescent eyes. They're kinda like silver guppies with shiny eyes

Sexy lil buggers. Might be interested in some if your tanks get over run lol

MrTom, Glad the woworae are doing well for you! Raise the fry and let me know when you want to get rid of some of them!

MRTom wrote:Thanks! :)And you're right fishnabowl, when you stopped by, you saw woworae, which I got from Ron. Woworae (Daisy's ricefish) is the fish on Ron's winning POTM entry and on the fishbox banner right now!

Latipes is a little bit more gray or cream colored, but they seem to share the shiny iridescent eyes. They're kinda like silver guppies with shiny eyes

Okay, yeah those fishes eyes are amazing especially when u flipped the lights. I may be interested in raising a school if u get any raised up.

Man, overrunning my tanks with both of these fish is my mission! I'll let you all know if I succeed!

So how are they doing? Any spawning yet Tom? Beautiful fish by the way...update us on these coldwater tanks

Well, the shipment was a bit eventful. They came with a case of fungus, ich and something else that I never got to identify. After a lot of research, they also may not even be the right species (I suspect oryzias celebensis instead of latipes). Oh, and instead of shipping 20 rice fish, they sent 18 and mixed in 2 Norman's lampeyes... What an adventure!

That said, after 2 weeks of heavy salting and medicating, they seem to be coming out of it well with only one loss. I'm not sure how this group will fare tho, based on the fact that I am 90% sure they shipped the wrong species... which from what I read won't do well in our soft acidic water. So, the experiment continues. I am rather fond of celebensis as well and hope they do survive and breed. The search for latipes though is still on... why is a model fish used by science labs all over so hard to find?   

Who did you get them from? Would be good info for the rest of us as a warning of who NOT to buy from.

I still haven't followed up with them to try to rectify the situation. I'll post my experience once I'm through with that!

MRTom wrote:Well, the shipment was a bit eventful. They came with a case of fungus, ich and something else that I never got to identify. After a lot of research, they also may not even be the right species (I suspect oryzias celebensis instead of latipes). Oh, and instead of shipping 20 rice fish, they sent 18 and mixed in 2 Norman's lampeyes... What an adventure!

That said, after 2 weeks of heavy salting and medicating, they seem to be coming out of it well with only one loss. I'm not sure how this group will fare tho, based on the fact that I am 90% sure they shipped the wrong species... which from what I read won't do well in our soft acidic water. So, the experiment continues. I am rather fond of celebensis as well and hope they do survive and breed. The search for latipes though is still on... why is a model fish used by science labs all over so hard to find?   

: | sorry MRTom, that's stinky! You where so exCitted. Hope the rest pull through.

Not the best event I would say...sorry to hear about all that but sounds like you have weathered the worst and maybe things are getting better. Keep us posted and thanks for sharing.