The neon rice fish was the absolute sensation during its aquaristic discovery in 2010. At that time two neon rice fish were known: the “real” O. woworae from the small island of Muna and an O. cf. woworae from the main island Sulawesi. The most important optical difference between the two was seen in the courtship display. With the “real” O. woworae the males in the courtship display become very dark, almost black, with O. cf. woworae rather somewhat brighter than normal. Additionally the “real” O. woworae has a strong orange-red belly edge in males, which is missing in O. cf. woworae. In 2013 two more neon rice fishes were described from Sulawesi; the O. cf. woworae was separated as an independent species, O. wolasi, from O. woworae. In addition, a much more slender species compared to O. woworae and O. wolasi was described as O. asinua (so far only known from the administrative district Kendari on Sulawesi). This neon rice fish is a bit paler coloured than the other two species and has found no further distribution in the hobby.
We have now received XXL bred ones of the “real” Oryzias woworae from Taiwan. With over 4 cm of length, they are clearly bigger than their wild living cousins, who remain at least 1 cm smaller. Some years ago (2013) the breeders complained that the dark coloration of mating O. woworae males decreased from generation to generation. This problem seems to be overcome, our Taiwan-bred fish get very, very dark at the courtship display…
For our customers: the animals have code 340134 on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply wholesalers.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
