I have 3 small zebra danios which I’ve had for about 4 years - they may actually be even older. Yesterday I noticed a very odd change in the smallest of the three. He’s been hiding a lot for the past few days, and when I checked on him yesterday, I saw that he has 2 long whiskers growing out from either corner of his mouth, like a catfish! Zebra danios do not have whiskers, my other two don’t have them, and I know for sure the little guy never had them before, so this is really strange. What could it be?
I’ve never kept zebra danios (too frenetic for my taste…) but I thought they were cyprinids and had barbels like other members of that family.
Yes, a quick Google brings up this page which says
If I look very closely at that picture I can just make out the whiskers.
Maybe it’s not a problem Or maybe you should find out why your other two don’t have whiskers…
I took another close look at my guys and if they do have whiskers, they’re far too small for me to see. Only my little guy has the big honkin’ pair; also, they’re much larger than the ones in the link photo.
Well, I’m out of ideas, then. Maybe somebody with actual experience with zebra danios will come along.
Of course, it could be that the little fella is finally growing up. I expect he’ll be getting a deeper voice and an adam’s apple to go along with the whiskers one of these days. And who knows? Pretty soon he’ll probably be dating and asking to borrow the car. The years fly by so fast…
Well, an image search for “brachydanio rerio” produced this picture, which seems to fit what you’re describing. If this is in fact the same species as all of the other pictures in the results (whose barbels are either much smaller or not visible, and fin sizes seem to vary a lot), then I would assume that that long, thick whiskers are uncommon, but otherwise normal. I admit that my knowledge is limited to the confines of this thread, so this is far from an expert’s opinion.
D
The fish on the bottom of the link pic looks pretty much exactly like mine. Thanks for the replies. Glad to see he’s not mutating into something else… :eek: