rm
Passport
- Family
- Rasbora
- Grows to
- 2.5 cm (1")
- Temperament
- Peaceful
- CareSuggested
- Intermediate
- SwimsSuggested
- Mid-water
- Keep
- In a group of 8 or more
- Water
- 20–28 °C (68–82 °F)
MalaysiaSingaporeIndonesia
Care requirements
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On record for Dwarf Rasbora: adult size, temperature, ph, hardness, minimum group, diet, care level, swim level, tank length.
Not on record for Dwarf Rasbora: lifespan, minimum tank.
A figure that is not on record is left out rather than guessed. One marked Suggested comes from keeping knowledge rather than a page.
- pH 4–6.5
- Hardness 1–5 dGH
- Diet micropredator
- Tank length 45 cm minimum
Care notes written from general aquarium knowledge, not from the cited sources.
About
Dwarf rasboras are a Boraras, like the chili, and they wear their markings differently: a rounded dark spot on the flank and another at the tail base, set on a body that runs from amber to a deep brick red in a conditioned male.
They're marginally sturdier than a chili rasbora and want the same things — soft acidic blackwater, tiny food, and company of their own kind. Nobody should buy one expecting a general community fish.
Their size is the whole design constraint. They're small enough that a great many standard community species will eat them, and small enough that most prepared foods are useless.
Tank setup
Set your dwarf rasboras up in a blackwater tank: dark substrate, wood, a real layer of dried leaves, soft acidic water tinted like weak tea, and low light. That's their world and their colour depends on it.
Keep a large group. They shoal, they display to each other, and numbers are what draw them out into open water.
Give them a quiet tank. Dwarf shrimp and other miniature blackwater fish are the right company; anything larger will intimidate or eat them.
Add floating plants to break the light and dense planting for cover.
Let the tank mature first. They're poor candidates for a new setup.
Feeding
Dwarf rasboras need very small food and this is the practical difficulty with the whole genus.
Feed baby brine shrimp, microworm, cyclops, small daphnia and powdered dried food. Live and frozen should carry the diet rather than supplement it.
Feed small amounts frequently. Their capacity is minimal and surplus food in a soft, lightly filtered tank causes problems fast.
Avoid: normal flake and pellets, which are simply too large, and avoid competition from faster tank mates.
Filtration and flow
A sponge filter, run gently, is the right answer. They're weak swimmers from still, shallow water.
Guard every intake. There's no such thing as a safe unprotected pipe at this size.
Change water in small amounts and match it carefully. Soft acidic water shifts quickly when you add anything different.
With plants
Dwarf rasboras are entirely safe with plants and need a heavily planted tank to look their best.
Moss and fine-leaved plants matter most. They provide cover, they hold the microscopic life the fish pick at, and they catch eggs.
Choose low-light species, because the dim tannin-stained water they need won't support much else.
Health
They're delicate on arrival and reasonably tough once settled, and early losses usually reflect the journey rather than your tank.
Watch the colour and the position in the tank. Pale fish hugging the bottom or the back are stressed, newly moved, or reacting to a water change that was too large.
At this size problems escalate within a day, so act quickly rather than observing for a week.
Breeding
They spawn continuously in a mature planted tank, releasing a few eggs at a time into moss rather than in a single event.
Adults eat eggs and fry indiscriminately, so dense moss is what determines whether anything survives. In a species tank thick with it, young appear without intervention.
Raising them deliberately means moving conditioned adults to a small tank for a day or two and then removing them. The fry are minute and need infusoria or green water before they can take microworm.
Tank mates
Avoid11
- Convict Cichlid Convict Cichlid grows to 15 cm against Dwarf Rasbora at 2 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Jewel Cichlid Jewel Cichlid grows to 15 cm against Dwarf Rasbora at 2 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Kribensis Kribensis grows to 8 cm against Dwarf Rasbora at 2 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Panda Garra Panda Garra grows to 9 cm against Dwarf Rasbora at 2 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Pictus Catfish Pictus Catfish grows to 12 cm against Dwarf Rasbora at 2 cm, big enough to eat it.
Only with care6
- Chinese Algae Eater Chinese Algae Eater is aggressive and Dwarf Rasbora is peaceful.
- Bala Shark Bala Shark is a risk to Dwarf Rasbora: rasbora and sharks are a pairing to watch.
- Paradise Fish Paradise Fish is a risk to Dwarf Rasbora: large gouramis and rasbora are a pairing to watch.
- Pearl Gourami Pearl Gourami is a risk to Dwarf Rasbora: large gouramis and rasbora are a pairing to watch.
- Silver Dollar Silver Dollar is a risk to Dwarf Rasbora: rasbora and silver dollar are a pairing to watch.
No conflict is recorded with the other 89 species in the database, so nothing to flag. 2 species are not covered at all, so they could not be judged either way.